Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum on Baghdad's northern outskirts, was one of the first parts of the capital to fall to US forces and is home of many of the looters who have since pillaged the capital.

But order is slowly returning to the shantytown of two million, under the watchful eyes of Shiite religious leaders.

The shantytown, formerly known as Saddam City and strictly off limits to foreign media, has put up a banner at the entrance: "Sadr City welcomes you."

Clergy once fearful of persecution by Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime have stepped up their presence, issuing a fatwa, or edict, for the faithful to give back what was looted in the free-for-all that followed the regime's collapse last week.

Massive heaps of food products piled outside the Al-Mohsen mosque provide evidence of the clerics' influence. Mosque leader Sattar Jabbar showed other looted merchandise that has been recovered, from refrigerators still in their wrapping to photocopiers to sacks of flour and sugar.

"Sixty percent of non-perishable goods were handed back and people continue to bring looted items," said Sheikh Abdul Rahman Shuili, a cleric at a nearby mosque.

"Our goal is to get back things that had been stolen and to administer the city until a representative Iraqi government comes about," said the sheikh, as he gave instructions to volunteers helping in the effort.

In the absence of any means of mass communication, the clerics mounted a poster campaign across the shantytown with signs reading, "Theft is forbidden by Islam" and "Islam and Sadr do not accept crime."

The namesake of the shantytown, Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, was a leading Shiite dignitary who was murdered in 1999 along with his two sons, setting off riots here. It is widely believed the killing was ordered by Saddam Hussein to punish his wavering support for the regime.

Sheikh Shuili said the community was also doing its own policing.

"We've started armed patrols to maintain order and stop the terrorists," he said, referring to Sunni Arab volunteers who had come to fight US forces on behalf of Saddam's regime.

Shiites make up around 60 percent of Iraq's 25-million population but were virtually unrepresented in the high echelons of Saddam's regime.

As far as the future of Iraq, the cleric wants a quick exit by US forces and, in contrast to Saddam's secular regime, for Islam to be the state religion.

"If they (US troops) stay in Iraq it will be an occupation and we can't accept that," he said.

"We want a democratic state with a parliament elected by the people and we want Islam to be the state religion because we don't believe it is possible to separate religion and politics," he said.

The cleric at the Sayed Shabab Ahl al-Jamaa mosque, Sheikh Mahmud Zudeidi, said the Shiite community would reject "any power that pays allegiance to the United States."

"We want a national government that's representative of all Iraq's ethnic groups and faiths," he said.

SPACE.WIRE