Iran’s spiritual power play
Iran’s religious leaders have been moving to expand their influence over the Shiite Muslim establishment in neighboring Iraq in a gamble aimed at gaining sway over Iraq’s largest religious group. The Iranian campaign is most apparent here in the holy city of Najaf, home to Iraq’s clerical hierarchy and a gateway to the wider Shiite […]Erin Cunningham and Mustafa Salim write for The Washington Post:
Iran’s religious leaders have been moving to expand their influence over the Shiite Muslim establishment in neighboring Iraq in a gamble aimed at gaining sway over Iraq’s largest religious group.
The Iranian campaign is most apparent here in the holy city of Najaf, home to Iraq’s clerical hierarchy and a gateway to the wider Shiite population, which represents about two-thirds of all Iraqis. In Najaf’s dusty warrens, Iran has bankrolled schools and charities, built elaborate mosques and nurtured links with religious scholars in a bid to undermine the local clergy, who have long been fiercely independent.
