Ayatollah Ali-al Sistani, who halted the three weeks of fighting in Najaf, is the most popular public figure in Iraq, says a poll which shows a deep undercurrent of respect for religious parties ahead of campaigning for elections planned for January.
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But Sadr, a leading figure in agitation for a US pullout from Iraq, was high the league table of public figures, with 57.19 percent of Iraqis viewing him positively before his gunmen fought coalition and Iraqi forces in the holy city.
The confidential poll, for the International Republican Institute, an offshoot of the US Republican Party and chaired by Senator John McCain, is one of the most comprehensive surveys of Iraqi public opinion since the fall of Saddam Hussein 16 months ago.
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The Islamic parties Dawa, SCIRI, and the IIP are viewed most positively by potential electors and 29 per cent - the biggest single group - believes religious figures will make the best candidates in the elections, ahead of university academics (24 per cent), party leaders(16 per cent) and dissidents against the former regime (5.25 per cent). Almost 70 per cent of those polled agree with the proposition that Islam and sharia should be the "sole basis" of all laws, and 70 per cent say they would prefer a "religious" state. Only 23 per cent would opt for a secular one.
So the world is better off without Saddam! How could it not be better when the second richest oil producing nation in the world embraces a "religious(um, it won't be baptist)" state which has its laws solely founded on sharia.
Because, Lord knows, the United States hasn't had any problems with radical, fundamentalist Muslims in the last couple of years.
Happy you gave your husbands, and wives, and kids, and 200 billion taxpayer dollars for that? I know I am.
(sort of a post script: isn't it hilarious that Republicans have to conduct this confidential poll to learn what every half-intelligent person in the world already knew before this stupid war? What silly fuzzy headed liberals were foolishly trying to say while being mocked by the Paul Wolfowitzes and the Richard Perles, and the Douglas Feiths?
Well, at least you can say Republicans are consistent! They consistently don't know dick about people or how the world works.)
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