But Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, is a stickler for democratic form.
The important Shia leader al-Sistani said today that he opposes the change to the de-baathification law.
But it has the blessing of Iraq's most powerful cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
ECONOMIST: Iraq takes another step down a long, hard road | The
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has played a vital role in this, but every bomb makes his job harder.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, had played a notable part in creating the Alliance.
Najaf is the seat of the Shiite clerical establishment and home of its foremost religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Mr Sadr's followers subsequently laid siege to the house of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a senior cleric regarded as a moderate.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, has issued a fatwa compelling the faithful to cast their ballots.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is the leading Shiite religious figure in Iraq.
Just before the attack on Fallujah, his followers quietly announced they had joined a pan-Shia electoral alliance sponsored by Iraq's foremost cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, has restrained the hands of the most militant of the armed Shia groups, such as Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
The same could perhaps happen again, although the absence of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shia cleric, who is in London seeking medical care, will make it harder.
But they will have to convince, among others, the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who has thus far insisted on full democratic participation.
This appeared to be aimed at Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who had called for protests on Wednesday though he also urged restraint and said mosques should not be targeted.
Most of the main Shia parties now endorse the draft, as does the most influential Shia religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, though a radical preacher, Muqtada al-Sadr, has offered no clear guidance.
Ayatollah Najati - who represents Iraq's renowned Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani - and his family had not obtained their Bahraini passports "through the appropriate legal means", Bahrain's interior ministry said in a statement.
Mr Chalabi, who has close relations with the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as well as Muqtada al-Sadr, a militant cleric, helped broker the Shia alliance that dominated last January's election and helped draft the new constitution.
Ali al-Sistani, a Najaf-based ayatollah who is probably the most widely revered scholar among the world's Shias today, has stated that in order to be legitimate such a ruler should win acceptance from a majority of believers.
Jalal Talabani, one of the Kurds' two main leaders, is expected later this week to see Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the voice of Shia Iraq, in the hope of sealing a deal or, at any rate, agreeing to put off a final arrangement for Kirkuk until later.
Iran would feel free to begin unfettered meddling in southern Iraq with the aim of helping young radicals like Moqtada al-Sadr overwhelm moderate clerics like the Grand Ayatollah Sistani.
In recent months Sistani has been critical of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
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