“It is ludicrous – and even outlandish – to talk about any such a cooperation with Muqtada Al-Sadr,” Kubeisi

By Imam El-Leithy, IOL Staff

CAIRO, August 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A popular Iraqi Sunni leader dismissed a press report claiming his grass-roots and financial support to an anti-American Shiite scholar in a rare cooperation across Iraq’s sectarian divide.

“It is ludicrous – and even outlandish – to talk about any of such a cooperation with Muqtada Al-Sadr,” Ahmed Kubeisi told IslamOnline.net of the Washington Post report published last week.

Kubeisi, a prominent scholar from a major clan in western Iraq, decried that Arab newspapers published the report and “were dragged on to these lies which could by no means be believable”.

The report claimed that ties mark one of the first signs of coordination between anti-occupation elements of the Sunni minority, the traditional rulers of the country, and its Shiite majority, seen by U.S. officials as the key to stability in post-invasion Iraq.

Kubeisi also rejected the report’s claim that the extent of his cooperation with Sadr, the 30-year-old son of a revered Shiite ayatollah assassinated in 1999, represents a “convergence of interests between the two figures who were left out of the Iraqi Governing Council” named by the U.S. last month.

“I had refused to join the council, as I could not represent the Iraqi people through it, and left space for those who could”.

He said that his accepting to deal with the occupation forces “does not mean to have been satisfied with any situation to be imposed by them”.

“Anyone asked to take over a post has the right to take or leave it, according to his own way of thinking,” Kubeisi said, noting his opposition extends to the legality of the body’s creation.

But he took aims at the 25-member body for being a forum “exhibiting the viewpoint of the United States”, and cited as ridiculous statements issued by the council thanking the United States for occupation – a situation Kubeisi said the first of its king in the world.

“Furthermore, the council weirdly agreed to mark the day of the U.S. occupation forces a national day for the Iraqis”.

Smear Campaign

Kubeisi said the report is a part of a “smear campaign” to undermine his role and his unified national movement in Iraq.

“I didn’t find a reason for these claims except that I am a representative of the Iraqi side before the occupation, and never accepts to represent occupation before the Iraqi people”.

“This should not anger the Americans and push them into cooking up words” in such a way, he contended.

Kubeisi, a charismatic speaker and respected religious scholar, enjoys support in conservative Sunni regions as a political and spiritual leader. Since the fall of the Sunni-led Baath Party, he has emerged as one of a handful of figures seeking to speak on behalf of the Sunni community.

The Post quoted a senior U.S. official as saying that reports of financial support from Kubeisi to Sadr - widely circulating among Iraqi officials - came from U.S. intelligence in Iraq.

According to one report, Kubeisi provided Sadr with $50 million, though the official cautioned that it was "unevaluated intelligence".

"He's getting a lot of money from Sunnis. I can't put a figure on it, but it's really a lot of money," the official said.

Rabble-rouser

As for Sadr, he is known for his fiery speeches with an inflammatory tone blasting the U.S. military presence in the country.

"He's a populist, a critic and a rabble-rouser and he's gotten awful, awful close to the line," the senior U.S. official said of Sadr.

"If the Shiites end up in an eye-gouging, ear-biting dispute among themselves, that's going to be bad for them, and it will certainly retard the progress that is supposed to be accomplished at a time in Iraq when time is important," he added.

Reluctant to act themselves, U.S. officials have turned to Iraq's most senior Shiite clerics, also known as mujtahids, who have privately dismissed Sadr as a figure with no religious standing but are hesitant to publicly criticize him. Traditionally, the clergy have sought to keep disputes among themselves, projecting an image of unity, said the Post.

Given Sadr's lineage from a long and storied clerical family and his street support, the scholars seem unwilling to pick a fight with a potentially unpredictable and even violent outcome.

"We're watching him and some of the big mujtahids are watching us and we're both hoping the other does something," said the U.S. official.

Yaacoubi, the Sadr spokesman, said U.S. officials had no reason to act against the group and accused occupation forces of trying to provoke them, most recently when a helicopter knocked down a religious banner in Baghdad last week. In sermons and statements, aware of the crackdown it might bring, Sadr's followers have assiduously avoided any call to arms.

"Until now, we can say our office hasn't trespassed any red lines," Yaacoubi said in the group's headquarters in Najaf, which sits along a winding alley near the shrine of Imam Ali, one of Shiite Islam's most revered figures.

Sadr has emerged as a prominent figure in post-invasion Iraq, but he is still ranked by many in his hometown as a young upstart who has not entered the hallowed ground of a scholar like Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the preeminent Shiite thinker in Iraq.