WASHINGTON: Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shias, should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for helping smoothe was road toward democracy in the country, influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in Sunday’s editions of the newspaper.

Friedman noted that US President George W. Bush’s name will likely be bandied about a contender for the prestigious prize, as the democracy takes hold there following legislative elections earlier this year.

But, Friedman said, “if some kind of democracy takes root there, it will also be due in large measure to the instincts and directives of the dominant Iraqi Shia communal leader, Ayatollah Sistani.”

“It was Mr Sistani who insisted that there had to be a direct national election in Iraq, rejecting the original goofy US proposal for regional caucuses. It was Mr Sistani who insisted that the elections not be postponed in the face of the insurgency.

Friedman continued: “It was Mr Sistani who ordered Shias not to retaliate for the Baathist and jihadist attempts to drag them into a civil war by attacking mosques and massacreing Shia civilians.” Mr Sistani brings to Arab politics a legitimate, pragmatic interpretation of Islam, one that says Islam should inform politics and the constitution, but clerics should not rule, he wrote.—AFP