ABCNEWS.com : Poll: Most Iraqi Shiites Oppose Attacks : "Shiite Arabs in Iraq express relatively little support for attacks against coalition forces such as those that occurred Sunday. And while most do express confidence in religious leaders and call for them to play a role in Iraq today, most do not seek a theocracy, and very few see Iran as a model for Iraq.
A nationwide poll of Iraqis conducted in February for ABCNEWS also found that very few Shiites express support for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia mounted the deadly attacks against the U.S.-led occupation. Nine coalition troops, including eight Americans, and more than 50 Iraqis were killed in the clashes.
As reported previously, anger at the United States peaks among Sunni Arabs in Iraq, not Shiites. According to the poll, Shiites are about 30 points less likely to say the invasion was wrong or to say it humiliated Iraq, and 12 percent of Shiites say attacks on coalition forces are acceptable, compared with 38 percent of Sunni Arabs. (That rises to 71 percent of Sunnis in Anbar province, which includes the city of Fallujah, a hotbed of the resistance.)
Shiite Arabs are somewhat less fragmented politically than Iraqis as a whole; 20 percent express support for the Islamic Al-Dawa Party, the oldest Islamic movement in Iraq, which calls for a fundamentalist state. This level of party loyalty is exceeded only among Kurds for either of the two Kurdish parties, the PUK or PDK.
In terms of al-Sadr, a bare 1 percent of Iraqis name him as the national leader they trust most. On Iran, just 3 percent name it as a model for Iraq in the coming years, and just 4 percent say it should play a role in rebuilding Iraq.
Government
Sixty-nine percent of Shiites say "a government made up mainly of religious leaders" is something "Iraq needs at this time" (southern Shiites, especially, say so); that compares with 44 percent of Sunni Arabs. But more Shiites say Iraq needs a democracy or a single strong leader, and about as many say it needs a government of technocrats. "
A nationwide poll of Iraqis conducted in February for ABCNEWS also found that very few Shiites express support for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia mounted the deadly attacks against the U.S.-led occupation. Nine coalition troops, including eight Americans, and more than 50 Iraqis were killed in the clashes.
As reported previously, anger at the United States peaks among Sunni Arabs in Iraq, not Shiites. According to the poll, Shiites are about 30 points less likely to say the invasion was wrong or to say it humiliated Iraq, and 12 percent of Shiites say attacks on coalition forces are acceptable, compared with 38 percent of Sunni Arabs. (That rises to 71 percent of Sunnis in Anbar province, which includes the city of Fallujah, a hotbed of the resistance.)
Shiite Arabs are somewhat less fragmented politically than Iraqis as a whole; 20 percent express support for the Islamic Al-Dawa Party, the oldest Islamic movement in Iraq, which calls for a fundamentalist state. This level of party loyalty is exceeded only among Kurds for either of the two Kurdish parties, the PUK or PDK.
In terms of al-Sadr, a bare 1 percent of Iraqis name him as the national leader they trust most. On Iran, just 3 percent name it as a model for Iraq in the coming years, and just 4 percent say it should play a role in rebuilding Iraq.
Government
Sixty-nine percent of Shiites say "a government made up mainly of religious leaders" is something "Iraq needs at this time" (southern Shiites, especially, say so); that compares with 44 percent of Sunni Arabs. But more Shiites say Iraq needs a democracy or a single strong leader, and about as many say it needs a government of technocrats. "
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