When Saddam Hussein fell, they quickly took control of a Baghdad suburb that is home to about two million Shiite Muslims. Now the young clerics of the al-Sadr group publish a weekly paper, operate courts and run a welfare system, and they repeatedly rally thousands of supporters for Baghdad street protests as a show of strength.
They are disciplined and hungry for power. But their ambitions are running up against the US-led occupation force as well as other Shiite factions, which have been angered by the al-Sadr clerics' claim to be the only clerics with the right to lead Friday prayers for Shiites everywhere in Iraq.
The group's leader, Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, is not yet 30, and his followers are mostly in their 20s or 30s. They are striving tirelessly to replace more traditional factions as the voice of Iraq's Shiite majority, portraying themselves as the ones doing the most to redress decades of suppression by Sunni Muslims.
PHOTO: REUTERS
After swiftly taking control of the Baghdad suburb that is home to Iraq's single largest concentration of Shiites, al-Sadr clerics opened a smoothly run campaign to repair power plants and telephone exchanges and to provide security.
What resembled an informal relief agency back in April has given way to a government-like operation run by men confident enough to turn down an invitation to join a US-backed city council and to organize elections for managers of the district's neighborhoods. The group also is preparing to open their own television channel.
US officials and others argue that the influence of al-Sadr clerics is largely confined to "al-Sadr city," the poor and overcrowded Baghdad district once known as Saddam City. Some people feel Sheik al-Sadr's standing stems not from his own accomplishments but from being the son of Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a leading cleric killed by Saddam's agents in 1999.
Al-Sadr claims tens of thousands of volunteers have come forward to join a religious army he wants to create to drive US forces out of Najaf, Iraq's holiest Shiite city, and to beat back what he calls the corrupt influences brought by the Americans.
Officials of Iraq's US-led administration believe al-Sadr and his followers are not welcome in Najaf, a view that was underlined when al-Sadr criticized the people of Najaf on Saturday for not showing proper backing for protests against US occupation of the holy city.
"Muqtada al-Sadr is not important in this city," Marine Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Conlin, the coalition commander in Najaf, told reporters this past week. "He is a young and immature man who is living off his father's name. He has little support here."
Al-Sadr has sharply criticized the Governing Council set up by the US this month to run Iraq. He brands the 25-member body of representatives from various religious and ethnic factions a tool of America that must be opposed and calls for the establishment of a rival "popular council."
But he has little to say when asked about his vision of Iraq's political future.
"I am not a Western person who plans so far ahead. I take a first step and wait for what happens next," he said when asked how he plans to form a rival council.
Although recent street protests by al-Sadr followers have irked the US-led coalition, it has so far not taken any punitive measures, primarily because of the group's repeated assertions that it will employ only peaceful means to seek an end to the occupation.
Al-Sadr and his lieutenants also have repeatedly sought to dispel suspicions that they are seeking to establish an Iranian-style clerical government in Iraq.
Such assurances do little to ease fears among more moderate Iraqis who are concerned by the militant tone of some mosque imams from the al-Sadr group on issues like a strict dress code for women and Islam's prohibition on liquor.
Responding to those worries, the group has one of its leading clerics, Mohammed al-Fartoussi, traveling across Iraq to meet with mosque imams to ensure that their Friday sermons don't include threats against liquor stores or women not conforming to the dress code.
"We had some imams saying women will be beaten in the streets if some of their hair is showing and liquor stores burned down," al-Fartoussi said. "This is not what we are about. A gentle advice to such women or a tap on the shoulder should suffice."
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was