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BAGHDAD: Ali al-Sistani has been the father figure for years of Iraq's long-oppressed Shias, but he now faces the biggest challenge to his authority from a young radical who has taken up arms against the Americans.
Moqtada al-Sadr's followers, often poor, are fighting US troops and forces of the American-backed Iraqi government in the holy city of Najaf and other southern towns.
A younger generation of nationalist clerics emboldened by the uprising, as well as many ordinary Shias, have criticized 73-year-old Sistani for refusing to condemn the US-led offensive against Sadr in Najaf, a centre of Shia learning.
Adding to the tension is a history of family rivalry. Sistani, the Iranian-born ayatollah who heads Iraq's Shia establishment and whose authority will not easily be eroded, faced the last main challenge to his influence a decade ago from his current rival's father, Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
Saddam Hussein's agents killed him and two of his brothers four years ago, and critics say Sistani, in Najaf, failed to speak out - even though no one dared criticize Saddam.
"We were astonished that a figure like him stayed quiet, even if Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr was a rival of his," said businessman Abu Ghaith al-Aibi, who runs retail warehouses in Baghdad's Sadr City slum - named in honour of Sadr's father and another leading family cleric killed in 1980.
"Sistani is making the same mistake. He should have condemned the US offensive on Najaf for the sake of the people of the city. This does not mean I am blindly behind Moqtada - the timing of his uprising is questionable. It could end up entrenching the occupation."
Sistani left Najaf for heart treatment in London just as the United States started attacking the city. Moqtada, like his father, has mobilized poor Shia masses and challenged the rich establishment.
DISPOSSESSION: Both Sadrs are the product of an ideological school different from Sistani, which believes in a political system dominated by the clergy, in the style of the leader of Iran's revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Sistani said he does not want to see clerics as government ministers and supports the government of Iyad Allawi, a former operative of the secular Baath party. While the government, the Shia aristocracy and merchant class generally back Sistani, Sadr has called for Allawi's resignation and played up the theme of dispossession which dominates Shia history.
Saddam, from the minority Sunni sect, oppressed the Shias. "I am being targeted for demanding Iraqi rights and the restoration of services. This government is a US colonial set-up.
There can be no democracy under occupation," Sadr said on Sunday as US forces surrounded him and his followers at Najaf's revered Imam Ali shrine. Sistani has said he felt sorrow at the events in Najaf, but has not condemned the US offensive.
"He has been worrying and is deeply concerned about what is happening in Iraq in the last few days. He intends to return to Iraq as soon as possible," said his spokesman in London.
WHITE LION: Sistani took over as the most powerful figure in Najaf when Ayatollah Mohammad Abu Qassim al-Khoei died in 1992.
A US-appointed Iraqi judge issued an arrest warrant last year against Sadr for involvement in the killing one of Khoei's sons. Sadr denies the charges.
Even if the Najaf fighting is solved and Sadr survives, no one is suggesting Sistani would become irrelevant.
But the elder cleric is losing support, especially among students at some Najaf seminaries, who have attacked him for "flirting with the occupation" and failing to call for even peaceful demonstrations.
Their heroes are revolutionaries such as Sadr's uncle Mohammad Baqer al-Sadr, one of Shia Islam's foremost thinkers whom Saddam executed along with his sister in 1980.
He is remembered as the "White Lion" who refused to praise Saddam to save his life. Sadr City is named after him too. Although Sistani lacks the outward zeal of clerics such as Mohammad Baqer, he is no pushover. The reclusive cleric opposed US plans to have an Iraqi's constitution drawn up by an unelected council and insisted on Iraq remaining united.
"Sistani is a humanist whose morality is beyond reproach, but he still represents the classical trend in Shia'ism, which has been against revolutionaries such as Sadr, his father and his uncle," said independent Shia scholar Ali al-Ubudi.
"He will not be unseated easily or any time soon. Remember that Martin Luther and the Reformation came after the established church thrived for hundreds of years."
He said political forces such as the influential Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq also back Sistani, but added: "Attempts to dismiss the Sadrs have failed. Moqtada is now seen as the man who saved the reputation of Shias. We can no longer be seen as pliant masses who welcomed the US occupation." -Reuters
