Edward Wong (Extracted from "Religious Groups Take Early Lead in Iraqi Ballots", New York Times, 20 December 2005

"Early voting results announced by Iraqi electoral officials on Monday, with nearly two-thirds of the ballots counted, indicated that religious groups, particularly the main Shiite coalition, had taken a commanding lead. The secular coalition led by Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister, had won only meager support in crucial provinces where it had expected to do well, including Baghdad."

[Ed The traditions of Shia Muslims come from centuries of agriculture -- in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Tigris/Euphrates valleys of Iraq. As with all long-standing agricultural societies, the Shias have a hierarchical authoritarian culture (both secular and religious). This is why in Iraq they have obeyed the edicts of of Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani and have remained remarkably patient over the last three years despite the thousands of deaths they have suffered from at the hands of Sunni terrorists. On the other hand, the Sunni tradition, like the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, belongs to the original bedouin tradition of wandering pastoralists, with authority much more vested in their own local tribal chieftains and, religiously, in their local imams. This is why there are so many different Sunni factions in Iraq, a great many of them manipulated by extremist imams. The news that the Shias seeem to have consolidated their electoral power after the election can mean only that the civil war in Iraq will go up another notch as the results emerge.]