THE HORRENDOUS CRIME carried out at the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq, last Friday has had immediate repercussions, most of them–in the Western countries as well as the East–unfortunate. Numerous Westerners theorized that the blast was caused by rivalries among Shias, by the intrigues of Iranian hard-liners or by followers of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Among the most commonly-named suspects was Moqtada Sadr, a young Shia figure who has made a bid for influence over Iraq’s Shias, the group which comprises 65 percent of the country’s population. More generally, Baathist guerrillas were accused.

Strangely enough, Iraqi Shias and Shia leaders in the United States pointed fingers in a different direction: at the Wahhabi sect, which is the official religion of Iraq’s southern neighbor, Saudi Arabia. Wahhabis are known for their genocidal hatred of Shia Muslims.