NAJAF, Iraq -- In theory, the United States and its occupying forces are in charge of Iraq until it emerges from the shadow of its repressive past. But in practice in the holy city of Najaf -- and countless other communities across Iraq -- the Shi'ite religious leadership of al Hawza al Ilmiya is running the show.
Electric lights gleam in Najaf, spiritual base of the Hawza, when much of Baghdad is still dark, largely because Hawza clerics called staff back to work weeks ago. Firefighters, paid for by the Hawza, keep their trucks ready. Traffic cops, summoned by the religious leaders, keep the steady flow of donkey carts and rickety automobiles under control.
Part Islamic religious school, part grass-roots organization, the Hawza has moved into the power vacuum left by the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, becoming a shadow government among Iraq's Shi'ites that the United States will have to...