New Iraqi factions struggle for a say in politics

So he has decided to support the Sunni State Council, a fledgling group that aims to restore the political clout that Sunnis lost after President Saddam Hussein's fall and -- many members hope -- that aims to push for an Islamic state.

Ahmed Mohammad al-Dakheel, also a Sunni, is seeking a force to combat "the powers of darkness," his term for Iraqis who want religion to rule politics, be they the Sunni clerics who dominate his hometown of Ramadi west of Baghdad or the newly powerful Shi'ite Muslims in the south. So he joined the Coordinating Committee of Democratic Forces, another new group, this one seeking to build a secular, liberal party for Iraqis of all ethnic and religious stripes.

The two men -- and the movements that attracted them -- have different approaches. But they reflect Iraqis' search for true political representation, and political parties' quest for legitimacy, as the country confronts major decisions about the nature of the new Iraqi state.

Six months before a transitional Iraqi government is scheduled to take over from the US-led occupation, ordinary Iraqis still lack levers to influence a wide range of important issues: Will Kurds in the north have an autonomous state? How to protect minority and individual rights? Will Islam form the basis for the legal system or simply remain the foremost religion?

The new groups are tapping into the lingering sense of disenfranchisement.

Members of the new Sunni council, for example, were quick to turn a recent setback into a recruiting opportunity. At Friday prayers, a day after US troops detained a council leader, they told worshipers that his arrest had been designed to stop Sunnis from organizing. Council members did not mention the weapons and explosives that US troops said had been seized from the leader's mosque.

Sunnis must unite to demand "more respect," Sheik Abdulsattar al-Janabi said outside the Ibn Taymiya mosque. "They are left out of what is going on."

With similar concerns but different goals, Thair al Ithary, a professor of Arabic literature, traveled 75 miles to Baghdad from the southeastern city of Kut to attend a meeting of the secular democrats Tuesday.

"They used to accuse me of having a big mouth," he told the group, referring to the era in which he protested about Hussein's regime. But now that it is gone, he said, "I feel like I don't have the power to do anything."

The 24-member Iraqi Governing Council will make the key initial decisions about how to set up the state. But it has little legitimacy among ordinary Iraqis because the council was appointed by the United States and is dominated by former exiles. And in a country with no history of elections or polls, it is unclear how many people any faction really represents. The only Governing Council members who have flexed muscles while claiming to speak for specific constituencies are from Shi'ite and Kurdish organizations, previously oppressed groups whose support is essential to US efforts.

Shi'ites, who make up 60 percent of the population, persuaded the United States to consider their demands for quicker direct elections. And the council's biggest obstacle to meeting a Feb. 28 deadline to draft an interim constitution is the Kurdish parties' insistence on special status for Kurdistan, a dispute that provoked Kurd-Arab violence that killed seven people recently in northern Iraq.

Now, religious Sunnis and secular democrats are trying to get in on the act. The most significant new group is the Sunni State Council, or Shura. The council was launched recently at the former Mother of All Battles Mosque.

"We want to unite all Sunni voices," said Sheik Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, the mosque's imam. Mohsen Abdul Hameed, who represents the Iraqi Islamic Party on the Governing Council, said the group's goal is "to defend Sunni rights without taking the rights of others."

The Sunni council wants to negotiate on behalf of Sunnis with US authorities and the Shi'ite-dominated Governing Council and eventually organize Sunnis to vote as a bloc, members said.

But their most urgent task is to choose a single leader -- "a prince," in Samarrai's words. They feel at a disadvantage, they said, because the more hierarchical Shi'ites already have strong spokesmen, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and a Governing Council member, Abdul Aziz Hakim.

Fakri al-Qaisi, the Sunni group's spokesman, said Sunnis need to stand up to the United States, contending that they bore the brunt of the invasion. "Sunnis are the original Iraqi people," he said. "Only their mosques were destroyed, their houses, their religious men." He said the council had not yet chosen a platform, but all members interviewed said they favored a state in which the Koran would form Iraq's legal foundation.

The council was formed through a type of caucus. Scores of Sunni clerics, tribal leaders, and professionals selected 25 representatives, who yesterday chose four leaders, including Adel Noori Mohammad of the Kurdistan Islamic Union.

The other leaders represent several Sunni strains: the politicized Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood, the mystical Sufis, and the conservative Salafi movement.

A leading Salafi, Sheik Mahdi al Sumaidi, was the imam detained Thursday. (US officials said they were not familiar with the Shura council and unsure whether members other than Sumaidi were suspected of involvement in the anti-US insurgency.)

Dulaimi, the date farmer who was praying at the mosque Friday, said he will eagerly turn to the council for guidance. Although Hussein's regime repressed all Islamists, he explained, Sunnis enjoyed some protection. "No one is on our side now," he said. "So we want to represent ourselves."

Ismael Zaher, editor of Al Sabah, a daily newspaper supported by the United States, founded the Coordinating Committee of Democratic Forces, made up of Sunnis and Shi'ites. Instead of sheiks in turbans, its members are mainly technocrats in drab gray suits. Instead of a purple-domed mosque, their meeting place is a dingy office lit by kerosene lamps. And if political organizing is new to the Sunnis, it is even more daunting to this group, which wants to promote individual rights and secular liberalism in a country with little tradition of either.

At a recent meeting, Dakheel, the Sunni from the Islamist heartland of Ramadi, and Habib Shakir, a Shi'ite from Kut, agreed fervently that neither Muslim group should impose religious law on the country.

Shakir said the group for disabled veterans that he heads had been marching in a parade when local government officials ordered them to carry photographs of the Shi'ite martyr Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr. "We refused, and they beat us up," he said.

Ithary, the professor, said Iraqis must "practice democracy on the ground" by launching women's groups, sports clubs, and debating societies.

Zaher said the act of meeting was the first important step. He urged the visitors to go back home, learn people's concerns, and then report back.

"Maybe in 10 years, every Iraqi household will know what democracy is," he said. "But we have to start working now."

A Globe correspondent, Samir al-Jabouri, contributed to this report. Anne Barnard can be reached at abarnard@globe.com.