Source: Telegraph
September 24, 2005 Author: Adrian Blomfield
Basra lurched further towards religious extremism yesterday after the leader of one of the province's biggest political parties instructed his supporters to reject a draft constitution in a national referendum next month.
The unexpected announcement by Ayatollah Mohammed Yaqubi, head of the Fadhila party, has shocked British diplomats and raised fears that Basra could become the main focus for violence in the Shia-dominated south.
Mr Yaqubi's declaration came as the most revered Shia figure in Iraq, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, signalled that he would endorse the constitution and indicated the possibility of a damaging split among Iraq's usually cohesive Shia majority.
Mr Yaqubi's apparent mutiny also risks turning Basra into a radical outpost, western diplomats warned.
"There has always been a small possibility that Basra could become something like the Fallujah of the south," a western diplomat in Baghdad said.
"I guess this brings that eventuality one step closer. The hope is that Sistani will persuade Yaqubi to back down."
A source in Basra's governing council, where a Fadhila-led coalition is just the biggest bloc, said Mr Yaqubi believed he had been marginalised by the Shia-dominated ruling coalition.
He added that many Fadhila members also wanted to see Sharia, or Islamic law, as Iraq's sole legal system.
The current draft proposes that Sharia should only be one source of legislation.
The new stance by Mr Yaqubi locks the ayatollah into a surprising alliance with his one-time rival, the fiery young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militiamen took captive two SAS soldiers earlier this week.
Yaqubi and Sadr were rivals to succeed the latter's father, the Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, one of the country's most respected clerics until he was assassinated in 1999.
Sadr's appeal is limited to the slums of Basra but he has a disproportionate influence on the southern capital's police force, thanks to a heavy degree of infiltration by his Mahdi Army, which twice rose up against US forces last year.
The new alliance will be an unwelcome development and suggests that Basra's governor, a member of Fadhila who has withdrawn his co-operation from the British, could prove increasingly intransigent in the future.
