Iraqi Shi'ites Taste Religious Freedom

Thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites enjoyed their first taste of religious freedom on Thursday, starting out on a pilgrimage of hundreds of miles that was banned under ousted president Saddam Hussein. Women in black shawls and bearded men chanted as they passed through lush villages toward the sacred city of Kerbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, on a trek that would have landed them in jail, or worse, just a few weeks ago.

The U.S. military, which invaded Iraq last month to depose Saddam, said on Thursday it would take "appropriate" security measures for the pilgrimage, which culminates in ceremonies in Kerbala on Wednesday.

Shi'ite sources say hundreds of thousands, and possibly more than a million, Shi'ite faithful are expected to take part.

"We are very well aware of the pilgrimage that is coming up and its great importance and we will take appropriate measures to ensure that security is set as well as we can," U.S. Army Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters.

"We also would anticipate that the Iraqi people, knowing how important it is, will govern themselves in a way that is not one of disorder but one of the importance of the pilgrimage itself," he said.

The roots of Shi'ism date back to the deaths in 661 of Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad and first leader of the Shi'ites, and that of his son, Imam Hussein, 19 years later -- both at the hands of Sunni Muslims.

Imam Hussein was killed in a battle in Kerbala, and the pilgrimage -- Arbaiin -- marks the 40th day after his death.

The last time Iraqi Shi'ites marked the event in public was in 1977, when Iraqi troops attacked pilgrims.

"I was there," said Mohammad Baquir al-Mohri, a Shi'ite leader in Kuwait. "The Iraqis attacked mourners with tanks and machineguns, thousands were arrested. Eleven activists were hanged."

Hussein is a symbol of martyrdom for pious Shi'ites and his cause has been exploited in the past for political purposes, the reason Saddam repressed the pilgrimage for the last quarter of a century.

A spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, a Tehran-based Shi'ite Iraqi opposition group, said the group's leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir Hakim had called on Shi'ites from all over to take part in the pilgrimage.

SCIRI boycotted a U.S.-sponsored meeting in the Iraqi town of Ur earlier this week at which political and religious leaders discussed how to create a new Iraq and fill the power vacuum left by Saddam's departure.

"Before we had to walk secretly through the countryside hoping that Saddam's men would not shoot us," said pilgrim Ali Shimani, 36, pointing to dirt paths in the distance.

Shi'ites, who make up about 60 percent of the population and live mainly in the impoverished south, are likely to push for a leading role in a new government after years of persecution and uprisings that were brutally crushed by Saddam's Sunni-dominated administration.

Waving green and black flags, many wearing sandals, they walked from as far away as the southern city of Basra toward Kerbala, a grueling journey that can take up to 10 days in stifling heat.

Young boys beat their chests in unison, flaggelating themselves in public for the first time. Others used loudspeakers to celebrate their new freedom.

Villagers spread blankets for the pilgrims on the roadside and offered rice and lamb and fruit juice.

"This is the peak of our joy. Saddam and his mafia are gone. He will never come back. I spent years in jail and my brother was executed by Saddam," said Naeem.

Saddam's fall has raised questions over whether the United States will be able to hold Iraq together now that its volatile mix of Sunnis, Kurds and Shi'ites are free from his iron grip.

Last week Shi'ite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei was hacked to death shortly after returning from exile, apparently by Shi'ite rivals.

Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, temporarily went into hiding after armed gangs surrounded his house in Najaf earlier this month.