KUFA, Iraq — From the far reaches of Iraq, they trekked to Friday Prayer in cars, taxis and rickety vans festooned with portraits of a populist cleric whose self-imposed exile ended this week. Many were fervent, some simply curious. And by morning, they had made their way to the hallowed ground of Kufa Mosque, where sun lit the gold domes like a quarter moon.
There, under a cloudless sky and before the prayers began, they waited. “He’ll come, he’ll come,” one promised his young friends. Another grasped for words to describe his anticipation. “A hunger,” he offered.
Thousands of worshipers authored a grand drama of faith and longing on the smallest of stages this day, its telling seeming to capture nearly eight years of politics in Iraq — all those hopes, frustrations and tragedies — that the United States never quite grasped when it invaded and perhaps still does not as it leaves this year.
The worshipers here venerated Moktada al-Sadr, home again after more than three years in Iran and at the head of a movement whose seats in Parliament helped empower the prime minister. But Mr. Sadr is merely a man, and their narrative intimated far more.
more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/world/middleeast/08sadr.html
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