[Q]"Under the orders of Moqtada, we will revolt as in 1922," chanted some of the followers, referring to a rebellion against the British forces then controlling Iraq.
The northeast Baghdad neighborhood of some two million people, previously called Saddam City, has been renamed after grand ayatollahs Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr and Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, cousins who were killed by the old regime.
Moqtada is Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr's son. [/Q]
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030816002353722
Moqtada al-Sadr is probably the most influential young Cleric in Bagdahd right now. He does not have much influence outside of Bagdahd right now but inside of Bagdahd he is the recognized leader of the Shi'ite population in Western Bagdahd. He is running a religious court system inside of Bagdhad and has been responsible for rallying thousands against the US on Friday.
What has made me curious about him is that I find VERY little about him in the televised news, and what I have learned about him I have learned by piecing information from various articles about him. I knew his father was assasinated by Ba'thists in 1999 but I was not aware that his Uncle was one of the most influential Religious Scholars as well as a writer about what an Islamic Constitution should look like. He was mudered by Saddam in 1980.
[Q]Aside from his great stature in Iraq, Sadr was in his day arguably the most remarkable thinker of the Arab-Muslim world. An innovative scholar, he authored over 20 books, some of which remain major references in contemporary Islamic literature. For example, his two-volume 800-page book titled Iqtisaduna (Our Economics), published in 1961, remains, together with another 1973 book on interest-free banking, among the most distinguished reference works in the specialized field of Islamic economics.
Upon the success of the revolution in Iran, Sadr wrote a remarkable series of short essays on constitutionalism and the new Islamic Republic. Their main features were adapted by his Iranian colleagues for their Islamic constitution, which was completed in November 1979. Sadr?s legacy is rich enough to support various interpretations: The writer Edward Mortimer referred to him five years ago as the Mandela of Iraq. Sadr?s own supporters considered him Iraq?s Khomeini. In the Muslim world, Sadr is the equivalent of what Karl Marx was for the Socialist movement. Less dogmatic than Marx, however, Sadr, through his writings, informed the Iraqi opposition movement. [/Q]
This man's work must be included in the formation of Iraq's Constitution. According to the author of the article, it seems that he had ideas that may help bring together democracy in Iraq and Islam.
[Q]No doubt Sadr?s many writings, including several constitutional treatises discovered three years ago, will influence the constitutional process about to begin in Iraq. Sadr was not a liberal, and his attachment to Islamic law was real. But the sophisticated quality of his thinking allowed the molding of his thoughts in a way that could be a harbinger of a new type of Islam. This will have especial importance in post-war Iraq, which, regardless of the system of government adopted, must solve the conundrum of how to fuse Islam and democracy.
In this context, two practical avenues come to mind. Sadr?s 1979 constitutional treatises, which loosened up Khomeini?s stricter theory of Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurisconsult), can be revived, and are especially valid in light of the deadlocks the theory has provoked in Iran. More generally, Sadr?s open theoretical approach could yield a form of separation of powers that would be unique in Islamic constitutionalism in its espousal of democracy, as it is insistently proclaimed by all the current members of the Iraqi governing council. [/Q]
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/08_08_03_d.asp
This man, murdered over twenty years ago, may very well be the way to creating some type of democracy in Iraq. There is one very big problem. His nephew.
His nephew has been a thorn in the side of the United States since Iraq was liberated. It started with the assasination of a Shi'ite Cleric.
[Q]On April 10, 2003, the day after Iraq was freed from the rule of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, Sayyed Abdel-Majid al-Khoei, the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qassem al-Khoei, was stabbed to death in the Sahn Sharif ? the mosque of Imam Ali in Najaf and the holiest shrine in Shiite Islam. According to witnesses, his assassins then dragged his corpse for five hundred yards into the street. [/Q]
This Shi'ite Cleric was a MAJOR supporter of the United States invasion. He somehow made his way into Najaf and it turns out he was brought to Najaf by the United States armed forces. Many of the problems we are now facing in Iraq may not have been as intense among the Shi'ite population if this man had lived. Who killed him?
[Q]There are at least half a dozen identifiable factions vying for dominance of Shia areas. The strongest on the ground seems to be the Sadr grouping coalesced round the imam's 22 year old grandson, Muktada al-Sadr. On the 10th his supporters hacked to death Sayyed Abdel Majid al-Khoei, a leading figure from a rival faction who had returned to Najaf from exile in Britain. Sadr loyalists then surrounded the homes of the seniormost Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and two other ayatollahs, and ordered them to quit Iraq within 48 hours. Al-Sistani, condemned for calling upon Shias to remain neutral during the war, was freed by tribesmen who entered Najaf from the countryside.[/Q]
So the Cleric who was very supportive of the United States was assasinated by Muktada's followers. This has been published in numerous areas. He also as the quote above shows, stood up to the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the main religious leader for Iraq. The Grand Ayatollah told the Shi'ite population to not fight for the US or Against Saddam was in danger of being killed, except he was rescued by the tribesmen.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr20/fp1.asp
http://www.lebanonwire.com/0308/03081415DS.asp
Muktada was apparently trying to become the leader of the Shi'ites in Iraq with this move which failed. However his power in Bagdahd in Sadr city is not in doubt. As this MSN reporter who visited the city wrote:
[Q]Late afternoon I spent in Sadr City, named after Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, Shiite Maraji' (or "Supreme Authority") martyred in 1999 by Saddam. The name is only three months old. Until the war it was called Saddam City, and before the 1991 war, it was called al-Thawra (or "the Revolution"). Sadr City is deeply, religiously Shiite and very poor. There are no public services and no active police. U.S. patrols do not dismount here......
At the Hikma Mosque, I met Sheikh Abbas al-Rubai', the editor of the Da'wa Party's newspaper, al-Hausa. The Da'wa is one of the biggest Shiite parties in Iraq today, led by the 22-year-old Moqtadr al-Sadr, the martyr's son. His weekly paper sells 12,000 copies, more than almost every other paper in Baghdad. We sit in the mosque's antechamber. There's electricity here so a slow fans whirrs. Before he joined the party, Abbas was a painter. He studied at the progressive College of Fine Arts in Baghdad.
He tells me about life under Saddam and the war: "It was worse than you can imagine. Women and children were killed for a word, or even a suspicious look at a picture of Saddam ? and then during this war, the Fedayeen came, and with them Sunni Arab volunteers from Syria and Jordan. From the 14th to the 21st of April, they ransacked the city. They even used rocket-propelled grenades. And for no reason. They had already lost."
The Da'wa Party did everything it could to stave off anarchy. Its student groups took up arms and protected the hospitals, saving the al-Kindi hospital from arson after it was looted and preventing the Qadisiya and Chuwadira hospitals from being looted. Those last two hospitals saved the lives of many of the wounded from all around Baghdad. Now, the party is cleaning up the debris?the dirt and the weapons?of the war. Abbas tells me the Sunnis and Shiites are working together; since the war, their doctors have been sharing medical supplies.[/Q]
This young Cleric is a rising hero. Like his Uncle who assasinated 1980 and his father assasinated in 1999, he is a leader among the people of Bagdahd. He has newsprint and an army of people who will fight if he decides too. He is someone the United States must deal with. The question is how. If he did indeed order the murder of the cleric and the Grand Ayatollah in a power struggle for control of Shi'ites in Iraq the US is in a difficult position. Now with the killing of an innocent bystander this week in a battle with US troops in Sadr City, and the rally of 3.000 agains thte US troops on Friday night, it seems more difficult to reach out to this rising leader, who may somehow be the link to democracy.http://slate.msn.com/id/2085234/entry/2085366/
The northeast Baghdad neighborhood of some two million people, previously called Saddam City, has been renamed after grand ayatollahs Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr and Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, cousins who were killed by the old regime.
Moqtada is Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr's son. [/Q]
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030816002353722
Moqtada al-Sadr is probably the most influential young Cleric in Bagdahd right now. He does not have much influence outside of Bagdahd right now but inside of Bagdahd he is the recognized leader of the Shi'ite population in Western Bagdahd. He is running a religious court system inside of Bagdhad and has been responsible for rallying thousands against the US on Friday.
What has made me curious about him is that I find VERY little about him in the televised news, and what I have learned about him I have learned by piecing information from various articles about him. I knew his father was assasinated by Ba'thists in 1999 but I was not aware that his Uncle was one of the most influential Religious Scholars as well as a writer about what an Islamic Constitution should look like. He was mudered by Saddam in 1980.
[Q]Aside from his great stature in Iraq, Sadr was in his day arguably the most remarkable thinker of the Arab-Muslim world. An innovative scholar, he authored over 20 books, some of which remain major references in contemporary Islamic literature. For example, his two-volume 800-page book titled Iqtisaduna (Our Economics), published in 1961, remains, together with another 1973 book on interest-free banking, among the most distinguished reference works in the specialized field of Islamic economics.
Upon the success of the revolution in Iran, Sadr wrote a remarkable series of short essays on constitutionalism and the new Islamic Republic. Their main features were adapted by his Iranian colleagues for their Islamic constitution, which was completed in November 1979. Sadr?s legacy is rich enough to support various interpretations: The writer Edward Mortimer referred to him five years ago as the Mandela of Iraq. Sadr?s own supporters considered him Iraq?s Khomeini. In the Muslim world, Sadr is the equivalent of what Karl Marx was for the Socialist movement. Less dogmatic than Marx, however, Sadr, through his writings, informed the Iraqi opposition movement. [/Q]
This man's work must be included in the formation of Iraq's Constitution. According to the author of the article, it seems that he had ideas that may help bring together democracy in Iraq and Islam.
[Q]No doubt Sadr?s many writings, including several constitutional treatises discovered three years ago, will influence the constitutional process about to begin in Iraq. Sadr was not a liberal, and his attachment to Islamic law was real. But the sophisticated quality of his thinking allowed the molding of his thoughts in a way that could be a harbinger of a new type of Islam. This will have especial importance in post-war Iraq, which, regardless of the system of government adopted, must solve the conundrum of how to fuse Islam and democracy.
In this context, two practical avenues come to mind. Sadr?s 1979 constitutional treatises, which loosened up Khomeini?s stricter theory of Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurisconsult), can be revived, and are especially valid in light of the deadlocks the theory has provoked in Iran. More generally, Sadr?s open theoretical approach could yield a form of separation of powers that would be unique in Islamic constitutionalism in its espousal of democracy, as it is insistently proclaimed by all the current members of the Iraqi governing council. [/Q]
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/08_08_03_d.asp
This man, murdered over twenty years ago, may very well be the way to creating some type of democracy in Iraq. There is one very big problem. His nephew.
His nephew has been a thorn in the side of the United States since Iraq was liberated. It started with the assasination of a Shi'ite Cleric.
[Q]On April 10, 2003, the day after Iraq was freed from the rule of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, Sayyed Abdel-Majid al-Khoei, the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qassem al-Khoei, was stabbed to death in the Sahn Sharif ? the mosque of Imam Ali in Najaf and the holiest shrine in Shiite Islam. According to witnesses, his assassins then dragged his corpse for five hundred yards into the street. [/Q]
This Shi'ite Cleric was a MAJOR supporter of the United States invasion. He somehow made his way into Najaf and it turns out he was brought to Najaf by the United States armed forces. Many of the problems we are now facing in Iraq may not have been as intense among the Shi'ite population if this man had lived. Who killed him?
[Q]There are at least half a dozen identifiable factions vying for dominance of Shia areas. The strongest on the ground seems to be the Sadr grouping coalesced round the imam's 22 year old grandson, Muktada al-Sadr. On the 10th his supporters hacked to death Sayyed Abdel Majid al-Khoei, a leading figure from a rival faction who had returned to Najaf from exile in Britain. Sadr loyalists then surrounded the homes of the seniormost Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and two other ayatollahs, and ordered them to quit Iraq within 48 hours. Al-Sistani, condemned for calling upon Shias to remain neutral during the war, was freed by tribesmen who entered Najaf from the countryside.[/Q]
So the Cleric who was very supportive of the United States was assasinated by Muktada's followers. This has been published in numerous areas. He also as the quote above shows, stood up to the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the main religious leader for Iraq. The Grand Ayatollah told the Shi'ite population to not fight for the US or Against Saddam was in danger of being killed, except he was rescued by the tribesmen.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr20/fp1.asp
http://www.lebanonwire.com/0308/03081415DS.asp
Muktada was apparently trying to become the leader of the Shi'ites in Iraq with this move which failed. However his power in Bagdahd in Sadr city is not in doubt. As this MSN reporter who visited the city wrote:
[Q]Late afternoon I spent in Sadr City, named after Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, Shiite Maraji' (or "Supreme Authority") martyred in 1999 by Saddam. The name is only three months old. Until the war it was called Saddam City, and before the 1991 war, it was called al-Thawra (or "the Revolution"). Sadr City is deeply, religiously Shiite and very poor. There are no public services and no active police. U.S. patrols do not dismount here......
At the Hikma Mosque, I met Sheikh Abbas al-Rubai', the editor of the Da'wa Party's newspaper, al-Hausa. The Da'wa is one of the biggest Shiite parties in Iraq today, led by the 22-year-old Moqtadr al-Sadr, the martyr's son. His weekly paper sells 12,000 copies, more than almost every other paper in Baghdad. We sit in the mosque's antechamber. There's electricity here so a slow fans whirrs. Before he joined the party, Abbas was a painter. He studied at the progressive College of Fine Arts in Baghdad.
He tells me about life under Saddam and the war: "It was worse than you can imagine. Women and children were killed for a word, or even a suspicious look at a picture of Saddam ? and then during this war, the Fedayeen came, and with them Sunni Arab volunteers from Syria and Jordan. From the 14th to the 21st of April, they ransacked the city. They even used rocket-propelled grenades. And for no reason. They had already lost."
The Da'wa Party did everything it could to stave off anarchy. Its student groups took up arms and protected the hospitals, saving the al-Kindi hospital from arson after it was looted and preventing the Qadisiya and Chuwadira hospitals from being looted. Those last two hospitals saved the lives of many of the wounded from all around Baghdad. Now, the party is cleaning up the debris?the dirt and the weapons?of the war. Abbas tells me the Sunnis and Shiites are working together; since the war, their doctors have been sharing medical supplies.[/Q]
This young Cleric is a rising hero. Like his Uncle who assasinated 1980 and his father assasinated in 1999, he is a leader among the people of Bagdahd. He has newsprint and an army of people who will fight if he decides too. He is someone the United States must deal with. The question is how. If he did indeed order the murder of the cleric and the Grand Ayatollah in a power struggle for control of Shi'ites in Iraq the US is in a difficult position. Now with the killing of an innocent bystander this week in a battle with US troops in Sadr City, and the rally of 3.000 agains thte US troops on Friday night, it seems more difficult to reach out to this rising leader, who may somehow be the link to democracy.http://slate.msn.com/id/2085234/entry/2085366/
Last edited: