How did the Sheikh get from his studio in Dubai to the mosque? This is a question that has aroused considerable curiosity among both those who support and those oppose him. His supporters see in him an Iraqi national who has the right to go back to his home, preach at his mosque and lead his people. They praise his message and wish him success among the people of his sect. His anti-American stand is a brave one and must not be underestimated.

As for his opponents, they can’t believe that the man that was warning against the war and its consequences is now the first to benefit from it. One person wondered at the Arab commentators who are denouncing Ahmed Chalabi for coming with the American forces. At least Chalabi was the one that pushed the Americans to battle Saddam and spent 10 years of his life preparing for the downfall of Saddam. Consequently he has the right to go back and share in the new government.

As for Sheikh Kubaisi, he spent his years relaxing in Dubai, and here he is jumping at the first opportunity to reap what others sowed for him; and now he pretends to have been brave in facing the American invaders, although he was never very outspoken in his criticism of the Iraqi regime.

Truly none of us can deny Kubaisi because he was wrong when he said that there would be no victory in this war and when it does is the first to pluck its fruit. I believe that though Kubaisi didn’t falsely accuse anyone when he went to his mosque, he was wrong to include in his sermon insults and personal ridicule in the style of satellite channels that are not appropriate either to the venue or to his call for tolerance. The media should have abandoned this manner, and instead it has infected the mosques. Kubaisi is turning the Friday sermon into a satirical program in which he makes fun of the president of a country or Arab Union and United Nations representatives.

No one wants to see the deposed Iraqi minister of information, Al Sahaf, emerge from Baghdad with the same language and insults and take them into the mosque, and sit in the pulpit using that same base language. The new millennium should have brought with it respect for others, no matter how we may differ from them and no matter what their rank.

What is more dangerous though is the incitement to political sedition. Kubaisi here excelled at leading both Shiites and Sunnis in prayer and preaching in his sermon on issues that unite rather than separate. Saddam’s actions united the Iraqis in hatred for him and his regime because his victims were a mix of Sunnis, Arabs and Kurds — even his family in the town of Tikrit weren’t spared.

We must not be fooled though into thinking that Kubaisi’s appearance on the political scene, as a Sunni standing with the citizens of Baghdad and their spokesman on a par with the Shiite and Kurdish leadership, is a brilliant political move. In truth it is not — just as Bin Laden was sent to liberate Afghanistan from the Soviets, so history will repeat itself. The Iraqis have coexisted more than any other Arab or Islamic society. Most of their conflicts have been limited to political leadership. The solution to the Iraqi mosaic is civil — respecting people as individuals and giving them the right to free choice and not to confine them to Shiite, Sunni, Kurdish, Turkmen or Christian identities.