Not even Al Maliki …

Even Iraq's domineering leader wouldn't try to convert the whole country to the Shia faith, an Arabic-language commentator says. Other topics: hunger strikes, and "popular" vs. "populist".

To convert an entire country to the Shia faith would be too eccentric even for Iraq's Al Maliki

The Iraqi cleric Muqtada Al Sadr surprised us all with a recent statement that added to everything we know about Iraq's prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, columnist Abdul Rahman Al Rashed wrote in the London-based daily Asharq Al Awsat. Mr Al Sadr claimed that Mr Al Maliki wants to convert all of Iraq to the Shia faith.

"Had the situation been reversed, and it was Mr Al Maliki who was accusing Mr Al Sadr of planning this, as unlikely as it is, it wouldn't have been too shocking," said the writer.

Mr Al Sadr is a high-ranking Shiite cleric with direct lineage to the Prophet Mohammed, whereas Mr Al Maliki is an ordinary man from an ordinary background. The former is an influential figure in the Iraqi political arena with droves of loyal followers, while the latter acceded to his position only following an alliance with Mr Al Sadr.

"I doubt that Mr Al Sadr's accusation is true, despite the alarming and even heart-wrenching bizarre behaviours that Mr Al Maliki has been exhibiting as he seems ready to go to any extreme to guarantee his stay in power," added the writer.

In recent months, perturbing news from Iraq came to light that portrayed Mr Al Maliki as a dictator. He is accused of terrorising the elections committee, imprisoning his opponents, arbitrarily dismissing ministers and controlling all important positions.

Mr Al Maliki came to office through a power-sharing agreement after he failed to achieve victory in the last elections.

The conflicts he has caused so far are threatening the very unity of the country, especially as he continues to try to impose his instructions on the Kurdish leadership.

In his fervent efforts to please the Iranian regime in the hopes of gaining the supreme leader's support in the next elections, he agreed to finance the Al Assad regime's war on its own people in Syria. And now Mr Al Maliki is threatening his Turkish neighbours.

"Despite all these charges of erratic behaviour by Mr Al Maliki, to convert a state such as Iraq to Shia would be an act of complete and utter insanity," argued the writer.

"No one could convert a Shiite community to the Sunni faith or vice versa. This is a fact that applies not only to Iraq but to any community in the world today. However, what Mr Al Maliki can do is to subvert Iraqi society and create divisions that could lead to strife among its various sects."

All of Mr Al Maliki's actions and conflicts indicate that he is haunted by the idea of remaining in power at any price.

But his only chance of retaining power would be if he were to gain the support of all the Iraqis and to avoid slipping into sectarian divide and political elimination.

Popular leaders aren't the same as populists

The popular leader and the populist one are quite distinct, wrote columnist Hazem Saghiya in the London-based newspaper Al Hayat Al Hayat. While the former is loved by his people, the latter pretends to be loved by his people.

The popular ruler undertakes the hard task of gaining people's love on his terms, that is, through imparting new values unfamiliar to the people.

"Leaders like Nelson Mandela, Charles de Gaulle, Anwar Sadat, and Yitzhak Rabin fall into this category. These leaders initiated new discourses unpopular among their peoples," the writer explained.

Populist leaders, in contrast, would not take such costly risks; in lieu of that, they would rather "join the populace" and invoke their smallest emotions and all repeat the same routine in chorus.

In this line of thought, what the leader says does not matter as much as how he says it: in a loud and angry tone of voice aiming at arousing instincts and dramatising events.

The populist political leader seeks to develop a bond with his people with no mediations of institutions or morals.

"He and his masses are melted down into a self-sufficient unit," the writer said. "The lay people 'cherish' him even if he stands before them and burps or sings or raises his hand or passes like a ghost and vanishes into thin air".

Salute to Palestinians on hunger strikes

Palestinians held in Israeli jails are three weeks into their hunger strike, carrying on with the same determination as on the first day, noted the pan-Arab Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper in its editorial.

"There is no indication so far that more than 2,000 prisoners - who are really prospective martyrs - are backing out from this honourable form of resistance," the paper said. "These prisoners have decided to either achieve dignity or die as martyrs for it."

"As the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is averse to resistance, and the Hamas government is settling for truce, the Palestinian cause is left with hardly any champions. This hunger strike is really what is left.

"What we're looking at here is one of the most intelligent and most civilised forms of resistance in the eyes of all those western nations that support Israel," the paper went on.

"This West, which has demonised martyr operations and pictured the primitive Qassam rockets of the resistance as more potent than Israel's enormous cruise missiles, can't hold anything against this sort of democratic, soft and sophisticated form of martyrdom."

This form of martyrdom kills no one other person than the martyr, but it also kills the international community's wrong idea of "a democratic Israel".

* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk