Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Saturday Shi'ite Muslim religious leaders should stay out of politics, an unprecedented public criticism of the powerful clergy. "Thrusting the religious establishment into daily political affairs could distance it from its guiding role and disrupt relations between the political forces, which could create an imbalance," his National Accord Party said in a letter sent to Shi'ite and Kurdish politicians. "Everyone must agree on the role of the religious leadership in the interim period," it said. State-owned al-Sabah newspaper published the letter. Public criticism of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, is almost unheard of in the country. It could deepen a political crisis sparked by the failure so far to form a government after the Jan. 30 elections. The criticism comes as Kurdish and Shi'ite parties, which between them have the two-thirds majority needed to form a government, are struggling to decide on a cabinet and top jobs. Sistani, who lives in the holy city of Najaf, has never met Allawi, a secular Shi'ite. The Iranian-born cleric backed a Shi'ite list that won a majority in parliament. Sistani approved of Allawi when he became interim prime minister in June, Shi'ite politicians say, but now endorses Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a religious Shi'ite, as the bloc's candidate for prime minister.
Despite assurances by the Shi'ite bloc that it supports multiparty democracy, concern has been growing that Iraq could slide toward Islamic rule and become less tolerant. Sistani's aides have said he does not want an Iranian-style Islamic state. Last week, Shi'ite Islamist militants attacked a group of male and female university students having a picnic together in Basra, provoking an outcry from secular parties. Allawi's relations have been uneasy with the Najaf seminary -- where Sistani is based -- and with Islamists in general. Health Minister Alaadin al-Alwan, an ally of Allawi, left Iraq several weeks ago after Islamists threatened to kill him for sacking Islamists in the ministry, officials said. The prime minister's secular stance and opposition to firing en masse former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party helped him win 40 seats in the 275-member parliament.
Both the Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs have been trying to persuade Allawi to join a new government, but he has refused, saying new guidelines are needed on how to treat Baath party members and militias that have sprung up in postwar Iraq. "The Debaathification commission needs to abandon randomness and adopt legal ways to punish the criminals and allow the rest to participate in rebuilding," the letter said. "A national unity programme requires shunning collective punishment and creating a mechanism for those who are not represented in parliament to participate in writing the constitution and the political process," said Allawi, referring to the Sunnis. That minority community, which enjoyed power under Saddam, a Sunni, won only 17 seats in parliament after a widespread boycott of the elections.