The Association of Muslim Scholars is affiliated with several of the Sunni Arabs now endeavoring to engage in the political process in Iraq. In fact, the secretary general of the AMS, Harith Al’Dhari, once had his home raided by United States’ forces seeking to arrest him.

Mr. Al’Dhari is also a major player in Adnan Dulaimi’s party the Iraqi Accordance Front, also known as the Iraqi Accord Front, or the Iraqi Consensus Front. Their party has endeavored to participate in teh political process. Although they are opposed to the occupation and the presence of the United States’ forces in Iraq, they are certainly a far more moderate force than Al Qaeda or much of the militant resistance still proving quite troublesome to the United States.

The inability of the United States to distinguish effectively between different elements in Iraq’s resistance or to make nuanced decisions about who to raid and who not to raid is a continuing problem for them. Furthermore, the apparent inability to recognize the longterm effects of raiding the wrong places at the wrong times, or engaging in assaults on sites of religious, cultural, and traditional importance, will only further fuel the flames of anti-American sentiment in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.

Juan Cole, a well-written expert on Middle Eastern Studies and a prolific analyst of the situation in Iraq, has claimed Adnan Dulaimi is a hardline fundamentalist, and believes Sunnis are actually Iraq’s majority. This may be true, but he and Mr. Al’Dhari are now some of the biggest players in the Sunni wing of Iraq’s little political experiment. While I was in Iraq it was often insinuated and hinted to me that, behind closed doors, there was a new element to the resistance building.

This element was anti-occupation and nationalist. There were many hints of discussions between members of Iraq’s Sunni notables, such as Mr. Dulaimi and the Muslim Scholar’s Association, and people such as Muqtada Al’Sadr. The talk suggested that these individuals were recognizing that they had more in common with each other than with pro-Western or pro-Iranian influences engaged in a power-struggle inside Iraq.

This issue has begun to receive some play, particular at Just World News, and Juan Cole’s Informed Comment.

I feel like the complex issues of Iraqi politics and the multiple levels of deception, power plays, and turnabouts going on between Iraq’s various political elements is nearly impossible to navigate. For those who have not actually been working in Iraq and speaking to folks on the street and hearing the rumors circulating Baghdad, I feel this is nearly impossible. Even spending weeks in Baghdad, I still find it difficult to explain the dynamics of Iraqi viewpoints and political opinion.

Here are some links to stories about the raid on the AMS. One more thing to keep in mind about the (relatively) moderate nature of the AMS is that resistance elements have repeatedly condemned their stance towards the elections and political process as being collaboration with the Occupation elements and "infidels."

Reuters Story 1/8/06 2PM GMT

Al Jazeera 1/8/06 13:20 GMT

BBC News 1/8/06 15:21 GMT

Alleged photos of the raids aftermath can be seen here

And the cross graffiti here

These photos come via uruknet.info where they have posted "Iraqi Resistance reports" for Sunday, January 8th 2006. These reports, from resistance elements, are of course not immediately verifiable, and should be taken with at least as much salt as initial reports from the Pentagon. They have a detailed account of the raid located there as well.

The Arab Monitor has this to say about the raid, and describes a subsequent raids in west Baghdad against villages of the Zowba tribe tribe, to which Al’Dhari belongs.