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| | Shiites, Shia, Shi'a |
 | | Shi'ites believe that shortly before his death the Prophet Muhammad publicly nominated his cousin and son-in-law, 'Ali, to be his successor. | | | After the assassination of the fourth caliph, Ali, in 661, the Shiites (partisans of Ali) were those Muslims claiming that it had been Ali's right to succeed Muhammad directly and that the previous caliphs had therefore been usurpers. | | | Shiites pay the tax called zakat (originally levied by Muhammad to help the poor and later levied by Muslim states) to their religious leaders rather than to state authorities, as they did before achieving political power (for instance, in Iran in the 15th century). |
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http://mb-soft.com/believe/txo/shiites.htm
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| | Shiites on Encyclopedia.com |
| | Shiite Islam originated as a political movement supporting Ali (cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam) as the rightful leader of the Islamic state. | | | The religious authority of the Shiite clerics is derived from their role as deputies of the absent 12th Imam; they are as such the recipients of the khums religious tax, a source of substantial economic autonomy. | | | The central belief of Twelve-Imam Shiites is the occultation (or disappearance from view) of the 12th Imam. |
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http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/S/Shiites.asp
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| | Shiite |
| | The Shiite Muslims are one of the divisions that exist within the religion of Islam. | | | The Shiite prefer to use the Hadith as narrated by Ali and Fatima and their associates. | | | The term “Shiite” or “Shia” means partisans of Ali. |
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http://www.openflock.org/shiite-muslim.html
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| | Shiite Groups and Factions |
| | Iraqi Shiite religious belief is known as "Twelver" Shiism; which holds that "the Prophet Muhammad's successors or vicars were his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, and the eleven lineal descendants of Ali and the Prophet's daughter, Fatima. | | | Shiite Muslims, who make up less than 15 percent of the world's 1 billion Muslims, formed their own sect shortly after the death of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, in 632. | | | However, while the secular Shiites are still in a majority numerically, it is the religious Shiite parties and militias that have stepped in to fill the power vacuum, especially in the sacred cities. |
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http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=527
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| | The Shiite earthquake |
| | Shiites honor the prophet's son-in-law and cousin, Ali, as the rightful successor of Mohammed, and invest the descendants of the prophet with special honor. | | | The Iraqi Shiites do have a clerical hierarchy, at the pinnacle of which is the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the chief source of religious authority. | | | East Baghdad and the south are Shiite Arab territory. |
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http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/salon50.html
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| | Shi'a Islam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| | For Shiites, this commemorates Imam Husayn bin Ali's martyrdom. | | | English has traditionally used Shiite or Shi'ite) is the second largest Islamic denomination. | | | Most Sunni scholars, preachers, and judges (collectively known as the ulema) traditionally believe that the door of ijtihad, or private judgment, closed some four hundred years after the death of Muhammad. |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiite
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| | US Resistance to Direct Vote Galvanizes Iraq's Shiite Clerics |
| | Shiite religious parties, with the backing of the most senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, say they favor direct elections for a transitional government rather than the American-backed proposal to use provincial caucuses for selecting delegates to a national assembly. | | | Iraq's Shiite population encompasses a vast religious spectrum — some are secular, some religiously observant and some in-between. | | | That pride has swelled in the months since Hussein's overthrow, as even the most secular Shiites expressed admiration for the survival of members of the Shiite religious parties, many freshly returned from exile, and for senior clergy who had remained in Iraq despite the repression of Hussein's rule. |
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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1203-10.htm
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| | IEDs - Iraq Election Discussions |
| | The Shiites are determined to use Islam as a legal cornerstone, something the staunchly secular Kurds reject. | | | Clerical rulers in Shi’ite Muslim Iran and Afghanistan under the Sunni Muslim Taliban have attempted to enforce strict Islamic codes and punishments with varying degrees of rigor. | | | Negotiators are busily shuttling between Baghdad, the Kurdish capital of Irbil and the southern Shiite holy city of Najaf, but concessions have been few and disputes fierce, said Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians involved in the talks. |
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http://iraqelect.com
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| | USATODAY.com - Secular Shiite on the inside track to top job |
| | The support of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiites, was critical to the formation of the alliance and the selection of candidates. | | | BAGHDAD — A moderate Shiite Muslim who lived for years in exile in London and Iran has emerged as the leading contender for the position of prime minister in Iraq's new government. | | | Candidates for those jobs would have to be approved by two-thirds of the National Assembly. |
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-02-15-aljaafari-pm_x.htm
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| | OpinionJournal - Extra |
| | Yet the Shiite clerical establishment in the shrine city of Najaf knows well that the Sadriyyin are not really the children of 1920, but of 1979. | | | All of the Shiite members, including secular pro-American Shiites like Ahmad Chalabi, would refuse to deal with the CPA. | | | To forestall this nightmare scenario, we need to have a good understanding of what Sadr is trying to wreak among the Shiite faithful. |
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http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra?id=110004935
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| | Iraqi Shiite split widens csmonitor.com |
| | One of the principal differences between Shiite and Sunni Islam, which split in the 7th century in a dispute over who should lead the religion, is the importance of the clergy to the Shiite. | | | While Sunnis have a very loose and nonhierarchical organization, Shiites believe strongly that religious scholars are needed to help interpret the will of God in the modern context with religious rulings, or fatwa. | | | Until now, Sadr has benefited from the belief of many of his followers that the differences between him and Sistani are simply ones of style, not of substance. |
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1015/p01s01-woiq.html
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| | Islamist Politics in Iraq after Saddam Hussein: Special Reports: Publications: U.S. Institute of Peace |
| | To be "Shiite" outside of a religious context is difficult since it is primarily religion that makes an individual Shiite. | | | The dilemma of secular Shia is the reality that religion itself is what mainly distinguishes the Shiite community from other communities. | | | The Dawa (Call to Islam) Party is probably the oldest Shiite Islamist movement in Iraq, going back, according to Amatzia Baram, to 1957, when it was founded by Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and others (communication with the author). |
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http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr108.html
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| | The American Enterprise: Don't Fear the Shiites |
| | Sistani and those who follow him are gradually but firmly leading the Shiite faithful toward a sensible and peaceful democratic understanding of Muslim mores. | | | It is true that Shiite teachers have traditionally resisted mixing politics and religion. | | | But Sistani, Hakim, and the clerics of Najaf, as mainstays of Islamic tradition and the most esteemed voices in their community, are perfectly positioned to carry out this transformation. |
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http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18469/article_detail.asp
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| | Iraq: Shiite Showdowns Needlenose |
| | And throngs of worshipers in this spiritual capital of Shiite Islam, where large religious demonstrations were proscribed under President Saddam Hussein, stroll hand-in-hand under strands of colored lights to pray at the Imam Ali shrine, one of their sect's most sacred sites. | | | Mookie hasn't been shy about sniping at the Shiite religious hierarchy (and there was that small dust-up last summer about occupying the Imam Ali shrine), but he's never challenged them in an open contest of strength. | | | Tensions already had been running high in the procession in Baghdad's heavily Shiite Kazimiyah district because of a mortar attack two hours earlier against the shrine where the marchers were heading. |
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http://www.needlenose.com/taxonomy/page/or/45
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| | Middle East Report Online: Shiite Religious Parties Fill Vacuum in Southern Iraq, by Juan Cole |
| | Al-Fartusi had been sent by the Najaf establishment to Baghdad to preach the Friday prayer sermon at the al-Hikma mosque to a congregation of 50,000. | | | But they were dead wrong to discount the power of the religious forces, and seem ignorant of the centrality of the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala. | | | According to these mainstream teachings, it is forbidden to follow the rulings of a deceased jurisprudent, and it is recognized that Shiites may follow any learned, upright jurisprudent they choose. |
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http://www.merip.org/mero/mero042203.html
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| | 'Triangle of death' south of Baghdad - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com |
| | The plan was to settle members of his own religious community along main routes from Baghdad to the Shiite heartland of the south. | | | The triangle, formed by the cities of Youssifiyah to the northwest, Latifiyah to the south and Mahmoudiya to the east, holds the fastest routes from Baghdad southward to the Shiite shrines in Najaf and Karbala. | | | That has raised prospects of a backlash among Shiites who have decided that they must defend themselves if the government and the multinational force cannot. |
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http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6530940
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| | Informed Comment : 05/01/2004 - 05/31/2004 |
| | There were big demonstrations Friday throughout the Shiite world, including Lebanon, Bahrain, Iran and Pakistan, against continued US fighting in Karbala, a key holy city for Shiite Muslims. | | | (Iran is a largely Shiite country of some 70 million, and many Shiites go on pilgrimage to those shrines and treasure them as sacred). | | | Meanwhile, the antiwar.com blogger asks why the Khaleej Times is reporting that 200 young followers of Muqtada al-Sadr demonstrated outside the home of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Wednesday, if Sistani is the preeminent Shiite religious authority. |
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http://www.juancole.com/2004_05_01_juancole_archive.html
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| | Informed Comment |
| | Guerrillas in a Shiite village near Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad, detonated a huge truck bomb on Saturday, killing at least 26 innocent bystanders. | | | He emphasized that the Virtue Party [a puritanical Shiite fundamentalist party especially popular in the southern port city of Basra that follows the teachings of Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr] is dedicated to upholding Iraq's national unity. | | | He said there would be no change in the top officers, which include secretary-general Nadim al-Jabiri; his deputy is Muhammad Abd Nasir al-Sa`idi, a member of the Baghdad provincial council; Ammar Tu'mah, member of parliament; and of course Shaikh Muhammad Yaqubi is the group's spiritual guide. |
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http://www.juancole.com
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| | DEBKAfile - Negotiations Begin with Radical Shiite Leader |
| | C. A spark could inflame the millions of Shiite pilgrims and send them on a jihadist rampage against US and coalition bases across southern Iraq. | | | While retaining its grip on Najef, Diwaniyeh and al Kut, its commanders struck deals in Nasseriyeh with the Italians and Basra with British forces to hand over town centers. | | | Massed Shiite pilgrims - a mighty war weapon |
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http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=823
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| | 300 Shiite Militiamen Killed in Iraqi South (washingtonpost.com) |
| | During a second day of clashes, Iraqi Shiite militiamen patrol the streets of the holy city of Najaf, where clerics claim the U.S. has damaged Shiite shrines. | | | I don't want to hear people say this is wrong, I want them to come here and fight," Hazim Araaji, a local sheik, thundered in a sermon in the central mosque in Kadhimiya, a large Shiite district in Baghdad. | | | Spurred by impassioned calls to arms at Friday prayer services in Baghdad and other cities, masked militia members loyal to the firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, armed with rifles and rocket launchers, roamed freely through Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, and Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum in the capital. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44653-2004Aug6.html
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| | ABCNEWS.com : Iraq: Poll Shows Shiite-Sunni Differences |
| | This suggests that many of them are Shiites who declined to specify their doctrine — sensible given their years of repression under Saddam. | | | Another question about political structures asked for a preference among three choices: democracy, a single strong leader for life, or an Islamic state. | | | Iraqi Shiites display a portrait of prominent Shiite clerics during a prayer-rally in Baghdad. |
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http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/WorldNewsTonight/iraq_poll_040317.html
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| | USATODAY.com - Shiites name pick for premier |
| | But others may have concerns about the strongly Islamic platform positions of his Islamic Dawa Party, one of the oldest and most religiously conservative of the Iraqi Shiite factions that formed the alliance. | | | The alliance's 140 assembly members, a slim majority of the 275-seat body, will probably look to Iraqi Kurds, who gained a quarter of the assembly seats, to form a coalition. | | | The Islamic Dawa Party is a mostly Shiite religious group formed in 1958 to oppose what it saw as an increasingly secular and communist tilt of Iraq's government. |
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-02-22-al-jaafari_x.htm
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| | Shiite Islamists to shape new Iraq csmonitor.com |
| | His secular leaning leaves him with more in common with the Kurds than the religious Shiites, but the two groups together still have fewer seats than the UIA. | | | "The new government has to be a lot tougher, fight force with more force,'' says Uday Allawi, a young policeman and Shiite in Baghdad. | | | Nagem Mohammed, a Shiite woman who works in a bookshop in central Baghdad, also wants a tough line. |
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0214/p01s03-woiq.html
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| | DEBKAfile - Shiite Radicals Join with Sunni Insurgents in Ramadi |
| | The Sadrist revolt looks therefore like having taken hold in three major regions of Iraq: The Sunni Triangle, Baghdad and the South. | | | This show of solidarity makes the Sunni Triangle of central Iraq, including Baghdad, a doubly hazardous and unruly region | | | He also represents no more than a splinter faction of the Shiite community. |
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http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=822
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| | Shiite uprising erupts against US occupation of Iraq |
| | During Saturday’s march in Baghdad, Mehdi militiamen chanted: “Say the word Moqtada and we will resume the 1920 Revolution”—invoking the Shiite rebellion against the British in 1920 that claimed the lives of 2,000 occupation troops and 8,450 Iraqis. | | | Thank God the reply has been so violent. | | | In Kufa, near the holy Shiite city of Najaf and Sadr’s place of residence, militiamen have reportedly taken control of the main government buildings and police station. |
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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/iraq-a05.shtml
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| | Account of Broad Shiite Revolt Contradicts White House Stand |
| | Account of Broad Shiite Revolt Contradicts White House Stand | | | According to some experts on Iraq's Shiites, the uprising has spread to many Shiites who are not followers of Mr. | | | Masked Shiite Muslims marched in Baghdad on Wednesday to protest the American presence in Iraq. |
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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0408-01.htm
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| | In Mideast, Shiites May Be Unlikely U.S. Allies (washingtonpost.com) |
| | Shiite Muslim activists seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans captive for 444 days. | | | A quarter-century after its first traumatic confrontation with the Shiite world, when the U.S. Embassy was seized in Iran, the United States is moving on several fronts to support, recognize or hold out the prospect of engagement with Islam's increasingly powerful minority. | | | Shiites are 10 percent to 15 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38296-2005Mar15.html
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| | Adherents.com: Shiite Islam |
| | NOTE: This list is not based on the proportion of Muslims which are Shiite, but on the proportion of Shiites in the total population. |
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http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_shiite.html
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| | HoustonChronicle.com - Iraq's Shiite leaders grilled by U.S. on nature of Iran ties |
| | The nature of the Shiite coalition's ties to Iran has become a crucial issue now that the cleric-backed alliance has emerged as the leading faction in the new Iraqi parliament and at a time when the United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over Iran's nuclear program. | | | Iraq's Shiite leaders grilled by U.S. on nature of Iran ties | | | It was endorsed by the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, and includes supporters of a young Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, with ties to the Iranian clergy, and prominent politician Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite who once was Washington's favorite to replace Saddam. |
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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3038354
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| | Drudge Report: Disney CEO Eisner Calls Steve Jobs "Shiite Muslim" The Mac Observer |
| | Esiner allegedly referring to the Pixar and Apple CEO as being a "Shiite Muslim." This was, according to second hand comments from the Drudge Report attributed to an outgoing Disney board member, a reference to Mr. | | | Jobs having extreme views, as opposed to him actually being a Shiite Muslim. | | | In hour-long interview with LA TIMES on Monday departing DISNEY board members Disney and Gold -- Gold claims 'Eisner called him and others -- including Pixar Chairman Steve Jobs -- 'Shiite Muslims.' Gold took that to mean that Eisner believed his critics were extreme in their views. |
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http://www.macobserver.com/article/2003/12/02.8.shtml
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