http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3033306.stmProfile: Ayatollah Ali Sistani
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is the prime marja, or spiritual reference, for Shias everywhere.
He is one of only five living grand ayatollahs and the most senior Shia cleric in Iraq.
The elderly cleric lived in uneasy stalemate with the former Iraqi regime. He spent long periods under house arrest but largely stayed out of politics.
The low-profile approach he had to adopt to survive in Iraq has been criticised by younger, more radical Shia leaders such as the young upstart Moqtada Sadr - son of Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, a cleric murdered by the old regime.
In April, just after the fall of the regime, club-wielding members of the Sadr Group besieged Ayatollah Sistani's house, demanding that he leave the country and that he recognise Moqtada Sadr as a marja.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61200-2003Dec12.html
In Iraq, an Ayatollah We Shouldn't Ignore
A quarter-century ago, the United States misread the power and legitimacy of a Shiite ayatollah -- and ended up "losing" Iran, then one of two pillars of American policy in the Middle East. The impact is felt to this day.
Could Washington be on the verge of making the same mistake in Iraq in a way that could also compromise, even betray, the very democratic process that the Bush administration has begun to demand for the entire region?
The problem stems from the game of chicken the United States is playing with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani over the future of Iraq. The cleric, the most powerful leader in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled, wants elections for a government that will assume control when the American occupation ends on July 1.
But the United States, still smarting from its encounter with Ayatollah Khomeini after Iran's 1979 revolution, has a bad case of ayatollah-itis. Policy-think is shaped by an unspoken fear: Beware Shia-istan.
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