Hujjat al-Islam Muqtada al-Sadr مقتدى الصدر
Born	(1973-08-12) August 12, 1973 (age 38) Baghdad, Iraq
Residence	Najaf, Iraq
Nationality	Iraqi
Political movement	Sadr Movement

Sayyid Muqtadā al-Ṣadr (Arabic: سيد مقتدى الصدر) (born August 12, 1973)^[1] is an Iraqi Islamic political leader.

Along with Ali al-Sistani and Ammar al-Hakim of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Sadr is one of the most influential religious and political figures in the country not holding any official title in the Iraqi government.^[2]

Titles[link]

He is often referred to as Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr. The title Sayyid (approx. "Mr." or "Sir") is generally used among the Shi‘a to denote persons descending directly from the Prophet Muhammad, through his daughter Fatimah's marriage with Ali. Thus a great deal of respect is paid by the Shi'as to the Sayyids throughout Shi'a society. The al-Sadr family has a clear and distinct lineage that can be traced directly to Muhammad.^[3] The lineage is traced through Imam Jafar al-Sadiq and his son Imam Musa al-Kadhim, the sixth and seventh Shi‘a Imams respectively.

Muqtada al-Sadr's formal religious standing is comparatively low, at a mid-ranking Shia religious rank perhaps reflecting his young age, and he does not claim the title of mujtahid (the equivalent of a senior religious scholar) or the authority to issue fatwas (religious edicts). In his youth, he was more pre-occupied with videogames than Islamic studies which earned him the nickname "Mullah Atari." (citation: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2008/04/200861517227277282.html)

However, in early 2008, al-Sadr was reported to be studying to be an ayatollah, which would greatly improve his religious standing.^[4]

Family[link]

Muqtada al-Sadr is the fourth son of a famous Iraqi Shi‘a cleric, the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. He is also the son-in-law of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir As-Sadr.

Muqtada al-Sadr is of Iraqi and Lebanese ancestry. His great-grandfather is Ismail as-Sadr. Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, Muqtada al-Sadr's father, was a respected figure throughout the Shi'a Islamic world. He was murdered, along with two of his sons, allegedly by the government of Saddam Hussein. Muqtada's father-in-law was executed by the Iraqi authorities in 1980. Muqtada is a cousin of the disappeared Musa al-Sadr, the Iranian-Lebanese founder of the popular Amal Movement.^[5]

Positions[link]

Muqtada al-Sadr gained popularity in Iraq following the toppling of the Saddam government by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Al-Sadr has on occasion stated that he wishes to create an "Islamic democracy."

Al-Sadr commands strong support (especially in the Sadr City district in Baghdad, formerly named Saddam City but renamed after the elder al-Sadr). After the fall of the Saddam government in 2003, Muqtada al-Sadr organized thousands of his supporters into a political movement, which includes a military wing known as the Jaysh al-Mahdi or Mahdi Army).^[6] The name refers to the Mahdi, a long-since disappeared Imam who is believed by Shi'a Muslims to be due to reappear when the end of time approaches. This group has periodically engaged in violent conflict with US and other Coalition forces, while the larger Sadrist movement has formed its own religious courts, and organized social services, law enforcement and prisons in areas under its control.^{[citation needed]}

His strongest support comes from the class of dispossessed Shi‘a, like in the Sadr City area of Baghdad. Many Iraqi supporters see in him a symbol of resistance to foreign occupation.^[7]

Occupation of Iraq[link]

2003[link]

Shortly after the US-led coalition ousted Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath regime, al-Sadr voiced opposition to the Coalition Provisional Authority. He subsequently stated that he had more legitimacy than the Coalition-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.^{[citation needed]} He granted his first major Western television interview to Bob Simon of 60 Minutes^[8], in which al-Sadr famously said "Saddam was the little serpent, but America is the big serpent."

2004[link]

In his 2004 sermons and public interviews al-Sadr repeatedly demanded an immediate withdrawal of all US led coalition forces, all foreign troops under United Nations control, and the establishment of a new central Iraqi government, not connected to the Ba'ath party or the Allawi government.

In late March 2004, Coalition authorities (759th MP Battalion) in Iraq shut down Sadr's newspaper al-Hawza on charges of inciting violence. Sadr's followers held demonstrations protesting the closure of the newspaper. On April 4, fighting broke out in Najaf, Sadr City and Basra. Sadr's Mahdi Army took over several points and attacked coalition soldiers, killing dozens of foreign soldiers, and taking many casualties of their own in the process.^{[citation needed]} At the same time, Sunni rebels in the cities of Baghdad, Samarra, Ramadi, and, most notably, Fallujah, staged uprisings as well, causing the most serious challenge to coalition control of Iraq up to that time.

During the first siege of Fallujah in late March and April 2004, Muqtada's Sadrists sent aid convoys to the besieged Sunnis there.^[9]

Paul Bremer, then the US administrator in Iraq, declared on April 5, 2004 that al-Sadr was an outlaw and that uprisings by his followers would not be tolerated.^[10]

2005[link]

It is generally frowned upon in Iraq for clerics to actively participate in secular politics, and like the other leading religious figures Muqtada al-Sadr did not run in the 2005 Iraqi elections. It is believed he implicitly backed the National Independent Cadres and Elites party which was closely linked with the Mahdi Army. Many of his supporters, however, backed the far more popular United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) of al-Sistani.

On August 26, 2005, an estimated one-hundred thousand Iraqis marched in support of al-Sadr and his ideals.^[11]

2006[link]

On March 25, 2006 Muqtada al-Sadr was in his home and escaped a mortar attack. This attack was disputed, as the ordnance landed more than 50 meters from his home.

Sadr’s considerable leverage was apparent early in the week of 16 October 2006, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the release of one of Sadr’s senior aides. The aide had been arrested a day earlier by American troops on suspicion of participating in kidnappings and killings.^[12]

2007[link]

On February 13, several sources in the US government claimed that Muqtada al-Sadr had left Iraq and fled to Iran in anticipation of the coming security crackdown.^[13] US military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell reinforced this account on February 14,^[14] but a member of Iraq's parliament and an aide to al-Sadr have denied the claims.^[13][15]

On March 30, it was reported that Sadr, through clerics speaking on his behalf, "delivered a searing speech ... condemning the American presence in Iraq ... [and] call[ing] for an anti-occupation mass protest on April 9...."^[16] This call to protest was significant in that, since the beginning of the American troop surge (which began on February 14, 2007), Sadr had ordered his "militia to lie low during the new Baghdad security plan so as not to provoke a direct confrontation with the Americans."^[16]

Muqtada al-Sadr urged the Iraqi army and police to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate on pushing American forces out of the country, according to a statement issued Sunday, 8 April 2007.

The statement, stamped with al-Sadr's official seal, was distributed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Sunday 8 April 2007 — a day before a large demonstration there, called for by al-Sadr, to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

"You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your arch-enemy," the statement said.

On April 17, 2007, several ministers loyal to al-Sadr left the Iraqi government. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated that the withdrawal of these ministers had not weakened his government and that he would name technocrats to replace them soon.^[17]

On 25 April 2007, al-Sadr condemned the construction of Azamiyah wall around a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, by calling for demonstrations against the plan as a sign of "the evil will" of American "occupiers"

On 25 May 2007, al-Sadr delivered a sermon to an estimated 6,000 followers in Kufa. Sadr reiterated his condemnation of the United States' occupation of Iraq and demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces, al-Sadr's speech also contained calls for unity between Sunni and Shi'a.^[18] In June 2007, al-Sadr vowed to go ahead with a planned march to the devastated Askariyya shrine in central Iraq, al-Sadr said the march was aimed at bringing Shi'is and Sunnis closer together and breaking down the barriers imposed by the Americans and Sunni religious extremists.

In a statement issued August 29, 2007, Muqtada al-Sadr announced that an order to stand down for six months had been distributed to his loyalists following the deaths of more than 50 Shia Muslim pilgrims during fighting in Karbala the day before. The statement issued by Sadr's office in Najaf said: "I direct the Mahdi army to suspend all its activities for six months until it is restructured in a way that helps honour the principles for which it is formed." The intention behind the ceasefire was thought in part to be to allow al-Sadr reassert control over the movement, which is thought to have splintered. "We call on all Sadrists to observe self-restraint, to help security forces control the situation and arrest the perpetrators and sedition mongers, and urge them to end all forms of armament in the sacred city," said the statement, referring to the August 28 clashes in Karbala. Asked if the unexpected order meant no attacks on American troops, as well as a ban on Shia infighting, a senior al-Sadr aide said: "All kinds of armed actions are to be frozen, without exception." ^[19]

2008[link]

In March 2008 during the Battle of Basra, the Sadr Movement launched a nationwide civil disobedience campaign across Iraq to protest raids and detentions against the Mahdi Army.^[20]

In August 2008, al-Sadr ordered most of his militiamen to disarm but said he will maintain elite fighting units to resist the Americans if a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops is not established. ... "Weapons are to be exclusively in the hands of one group, the resistance group," while another group called Momahidoun is to focus on social, religious and community work, Sadrist cleric Mudhafar al-Moussawi said.^[21]

2009[link]

In response to Israeli attacks on Gaza, al-Sadr called for reprisals against US troops in Iraq: "I call upon the honest Iraqi resistance to carry out revenge operations against the great accomplice of the Zionist enemy."

On May 1, 2009 al-Sadr paid a surprise visit to Ankara where, in his first public appearance for two years, he met with Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for talks which focused on the "political process"^[22] and requested Turkey play a greater role in establishing stability in the Middle East. Spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi confirmed the nature of the talks that had been requested by al-Sadr and stated, "Turkey is a good, old friend. Trusting that, we had no hesitation in traveling here."^[23] After the meeting al-Sadr visited supporters in Istanbul, where al-Obeidi says they may open a representative office.

2010[link]

In a press conference on 6 March 2010 ahead of the Iraqi parliamentary election, 2010, Muqtada al-Sadr called on all Iraqis to participate in the election and support those who seek to expel US troops out of the country. Al-Sadr warned that any interference by the United States will be unacceptable. Al-Sadr, who has thousands of staunch followers across Iraq has consistently opposed the presence of foreign forces and repeatedly called for an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq.^[24][25]

2011[link]

On January 5, 2011, Muqtada al-Sadr returned to the Iraqi city of Najaf, in order to take a more proactive and visible role in the new Iraqi government.^[26] Three days later, thousands of Iraqis turned out in Najaf to hear his first speech since his return, in which he called the US, Israel, and the UK "common enemies" against Iraq. His speech was greeted by the crowd chanting "Yes, yes for Muqtada! Yes, yes for the leader!", whilst waving Iraqi flags and al-Sadr's pictures. Subsequently, he returned to Iran to continue his studies.^[27]

By late 2011, it appeared that the US would largely withdraw from Iraq, a demand that helped make Sadr a popular leader almost immediately following the invasion. Sadr also controlled the largest bloc of parliament, and had reached a sort of détente with prime minister Nouri al Maliki, who needed Sadrist support to retain his post.^[28]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Muqtada al-Sadr

• How Moqtada al-Sadr Won in Basra

Patrick Cockburn ( /ˈkoʊbɜrn/ KOH-burn; born 5 March 1950) is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, presently, The Independent. Among the most experienced commentators on Iraq, he has written four books on the country's recent history. He won the Martha Gellhorn Prize in 2005, the James Cameron Prize in 2006 and the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2009.

Biography[link]

Cockburn was born in Ireland and grew up in County Cork, Ireland. His parents were the well-known socialist author and journalist Claud Cockburn and his third wife Patricia Byron, née Arbuthnot (who also wrote an autobiography, Figure of Eight). He was educated at Glenalmond College, Perthshire, and Trinity College, Oxford.

Cockburn married Janet ("Jan") Montefiore, daughter of Rt. Rev. Hugh Montefiore, and has two children, Henry Claud and Alexander. He has two brothers, Alexander Cockburn and Andrew Cockburn who are also journalists, and a half-sister, mystery writer Sarah Caudwell. Journalists Laura Flanders and Stephanie Flanders are his half-nieces, daughters of his half-brother in law Michael Flanders, and actress Olivia Wilde, is his niece, daughter of his sister in law Leslie Cockburn.

Writing[link]

Cockburn has written three books on Iraq. One, Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, was written with his brother Andrew Cockburn prior to the war in Iraq. The same book was later re-published in Britain with the title Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession. Two more were written by Patrick alone after the U.S. invasion, following his award-winning reporting from Iraq. The first, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (2006) mixes first hand accounts with reporting, Cockburn's book is critical of the invasion as well as the Salafi fundamentalists who comprise much of the resistance. The Occupation was nominated for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction. The second, Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq was published in 2008. Muqtada is a journalistic account of the recent history of the religiously and politically prominent Sadr family, the rise of Muqtada, and the development of the Sadrist movement since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Cockburn's memoir is The Broken Boy (2005), a memoir of his childhood in 1950s Ireland, as well as an investigation of the way polio was handled – Cockburn himself caught and survived polio at the time.^[1] He has also published a collection of essays on the Soviet Union, titled Getting Russia Wrong: The End of Kremlinology (1989). He also writes for CounterPunch and the London Review of Books.

Awards[link]

• 2011 Costa Book Awards (Biography), shortlist, Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia, A Father and Son’s Story (with Henry Cockburn)
• 2010 International Media Awards Peace Through Media Award.^[2]
• 2009 Orwell Prize, coverage of Iraq and his son's schizophrenia.^[3]
• 2006 James Cameron Prize
• 2005 Martha Gellhorn Prize

Books[link]

• (1989), Getting Russia Wrong: The End of Kremlinology, Verso Books, ISBN 978-0-86091-977-3
• (with Andrew Cockburn, 1999), Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, HarperCollins. (British title: Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession, 2002.)
• (2005), The Broken Boy, Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0-224-07108-6
• (2006), The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq, Verso Books, ISBN 978-1-84467-164-9
• (2008), Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq, Scribner, ISBN 978-1-4165-5147-8. (British title: Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq, Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-23974-0; Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Shia Insurgency in Iraq, Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-23976-4)
• (2011), Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia, A Father and Son’s Story

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Iraq's Looming Peril: A Plague of Snakes" (June 16, 2009)
• "US Troops Leaving the Cities: A Whole New Ballgame in Iraq " (June 15, 2009)
• "US Frees Top Shia Fighter in Deal to Free British Hostages Prisoner Swap in Iraq " (June 12–14, 2009)
• "Exodus of Iraq's Ancient Minorities" (March 2007)
• Kurdistan: Birth of a Nation? (22 June 2006)
• The Occupation (November/December 2005)
• Iraqis are Naming Their New Babies "Saddam" (31 October 2003)
• US Troops Bulldoze Crops (15 October 2003)
• The Iraq Wreck (16 September 2003)
• Patrick Cockburn on Missing Billions in Iraq and Soaring Cancer Rates in Fallujah – video interview by Democracy Now!