Name: Moqtada al-Sadr Age: 30, but believed to be younger Nationality: Iraqi Claim to fame: The man trying to rid Iraq of foreign occupation
A brooding man with piercing black eyes, he was virtually unknown before the fall of Saddam Hussein. A year on, Moqtada al-Sadr is the greatest threat facing the US-led occupation forces in Iraq. And the threat is of the violent kind.
This charismatic leader is known for his fiery sermons and representing an activist approach, the type that lead to the 1979 overthrow of Iran’s US-backed Shah.
Moqtada al-Sadr’s brand of nationalistic Islam appeals mainly to young poor Shiites who grew up under a crippling economic embargo and repression by the former Baathist government.
For days now, Sadr has been at the head of violent anti-American protests. His militant group, the Mehdi Army, and followers have battled coalition and Iraqi security forces across the country. Unlike the Shiite religious establishment, Sadr has flatly denounced the US-led occupation and demanded the withdrawal of US troops.
In a recent statement Sadr accuses members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council of being ‘collaborators’ and says ‘they do not represent the Iraqi people’. He has warned that Iraq will become another Vietnam-like conflict for the United States unless it transfers power to ‘honest Iraqis’.
The young cleric’s supporters have also clashed with followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s paramount Shia cleric who became prominent in the run-up to the planned handover of power to Iraqis on 30 June.
Moqtada comes from a prominent family of clerics — his father and his uncle both rose to the rank of Grand Ayatollah. Both met violent ends. Moqtada’s father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr along with his two elder sons was killed in Najaf, in 1999. Saddam Hussein was widely blamed for the assassinations.
Moqtada inherited his movement from his father. In the first weeks following the US-led invasion, Moqtada al-Sadr’s followers patrolled the streets in the poor Shia suburbs of Baghdad, distributing food. The Shia district of Baghdad, Saddam City, has now been renamed Sadr City. Sadr is subject to an arrest warrant in connection with the murder last year of a rival Shiite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a moderate Shia leader who had worked with the British and US governments from exile. Sadr strongly denies any role in the murder.
Moqtada is thought to be aged 30 — a youthful leader in a society, which considers age and experience essential to religious authority. To his supporters, Moqtada Sadr is a figurehead wise beyond his years. To his detractors, he is inexperienced and radical who aims to dominate Iraq’s most revered Shia institutions.
A brooding man with piercing black eyes, he was virtually unknown before the fall of Saddam Hussein. A year on, Moqtada al-Sadr is the greatest threat facing the US-led occupation forces in Iraq. And the threat is of the violent kind.
