Posted on 08/03/2003 5:22:10 PM PDT by cc2k
Najaf, Iraq Press, August 3, 2003 – Iraqi Shiite clerics are supposed to be most thankful among Iraqis for help to get rid of their tormentor – the deposed leader Saddam Hussein.
And many thought that in the forefront of those expressing their gratitude will be Muqtada al-Sadr.
In 1999, Saddam Hussein brutally assassinated his father, one of Iraq's most revered Shiite holy men and two of his sons.
The younger Sadr survived because he happened to be away when Saddam's death squads riddled his father and two brothers with bullets.
The senior Sadr's supporters protested the massacre and took to the streets in several areas of Baghdad and cities in southern Iraq only to be brutally crushed by Fedayeen Saddam and Special Security forces.
The assassination turned Muqtada's father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, into something of a legend in many Shiites hearts.
But neither Muqtada nor his father's followers could even whisper a protest as Saddam's henchmen stood guard to suppress dissent.
When the Americans toppled Saddam's statue in central Baghdad and removed his rule, Sadr's followers were first to rejoice.
They said God, through the Americans, avenged the killing of their spiritual leader and compensated them for decades of oppression at the hands of Saddam Hussein.
The junior Sadr was also upbeat. His father's supporters rallied around him and resurrected the movement which once had a large following in Iraq and beyond.
Sameer Ubeid, an Iraqi opposition figure who actively took part in the 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddam Hussein, saw Sadr shortly after the Americans entered Baghdad.
Ubeid returned to Najaf when the city was liberated after 13 years in exile. He, like many other notable Iraqis keen to see a prosperous Iraq after decades of devastation, wondered what changed Sadr into an outspoken anti-American cleric.
Ubeid said Sadr was then behaving differently, and had no intention of turning his popular movement into a political force to destabilize the country.
"We will leave the Americans in peace. We will not allow anyone to harm them because they ended the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein.
"But we are not going to be part of them. I am not going to work in politics but will act in accordance with what al-Hawza (religious school) says and work for the benefit of Iraq," Ubeid reported Sadr as telling him.
But apparently Sadr has changed tact since then, leaving many notable Iraqis like Ubeid to wonder why.
He recently gave a particularly fiery sermon, announcing that he was recruiting a private army and blasting the new US-backed governing council, despite its slight Shiite majority.
Even some of Sadr's followers have turned skeptical of what is widely seen as his militant ideas in comparison to the moderate Shiite clerics who still hold sway among the majority Shiites.
Ubeid believes that the young Sadr is probably surrounded by aides who are bent on "distorting the spirit and heart of the movement his father created."
Many analysts believe that Sadr's change of heart came after a landmark visit he made to Iran nearly two months ago.
But his hard-line policies are said to be chipping away at his popularity which he draws from his father – a martyr in the eyes of most Iraqis.
The crowds rallying behind Sadr still point to some popularity, but Shiite watchers believe that many see his current views as leading to a dead end.
His is still young – 30-years old – and inexperienced when compared with the Grand Ayatollahs, or holy men, leading the Hawza in Najaf.
His attempts to create what he calls the outspoken Hawza to rival traditional Shiite scholars have in fact backfired.
Analysts say they have seen a shift in support from Sadr toward more moderate clerics.
ipfront
Ip-pol
It's interesting that the people who see this guy give his sermons don't want to follow his new directions. They don't seem to understand his recent change of attitude toward the Americans.
He won't live very long with that attitude.
There are a few possibilities...
1) $$$$$
2) Can you say "Death Threat" or perhaps a "Fatwa" like Salman Rushdie has is dangling over the poor Islamazis head...
3) The boy sees himself as the next Khomeni, and seeks to America bash his way into power.
Sorry left-hand A$$WIPE..."Homey don't play 'dat no mo'".
The rules have changed, and your A$$ is irrelevant to the future. Even your own "disciples" are learning that you suck.
Sadr is not anywhere near an Ayatollah - he is right down the line in the Shia hierarchy. But his family is most influential. Somehow, As-Sadr has obtained the right to give the sermons in Karbela, the very holy shrine. He was supposed to alternate with Ayatollah Sistani's preacher, but now he refuses to and takes all the spots.
The one good thing about all this is that the Iranian leaders are sick with worry these days.
quote:You are also seeing the difference between Western news sources and news sources based in Iraq (or at least in Middle eastern countries).
I don't buy the "Sadr welcomed the Americans at first" line. It was in Sadr's name that the moderate mullah Al-Khoei was murdered and Sistani threatened. (Interestingly, Sadr's age was originally listed as 22.) Eventually, Iraq police arrested two men, and later it was revealed their links to Iran, which doesn't seem to jibe with the earlier accounts.
The first three stories you linked to were from western sources. These sources tend to play up any possible anti-American angle to the events in Iraq. They want you to believe that all Iraqis hate us and want to kill us and our supporters within Iraq.
The last story you linked to (the one that didn't jibe with earlier reports) was from an Arabic source. Al-Sharq al-Awsat is an arab language daily newspaper that is widely distributed in the Arab world (sort of like an Arabic language USA Today). Al-Sharq al-Awsat is based in London, but they are definitely more Arabic in their nature and their positions. From the stories I've seen from them, they have been fairly consistent in their support for the U.S. Operation Iraqi Freedom, and their stance against Saddam Husein and his Ba'athist regime.
One of the reasons I posted this story was to point out a possible anti-American bias in most of our news media. Iraqi news sources and Arabic sources with reporters on the ground in Iraq are the ones telling us that Shiites are happy Saddam is gone and welcome the American liberators because they avenged the deaths of the Shiites that Saddam (and his regime) killed. These sources say there are a few Shiites who are supported by Iran and are resisting the coalition and to some extent trying to thwart democratic processes in Iraq. According to the Iraqi and arabic sources, this resistance is a very small minority.
The western press (Reuters, AFP, etc.) wants us to believe that Muqtada al-Sadr represents all Shiites and that everyone in southern Iraq hates the U.S. led coalition and wants to kill our soldiers. I think they are slanting their stories this way as a way to take a stand against President Bush (mostly), and against American interests in the region.
The question is, which sources are telling the truth. For now, I trust the Iraqi and Arabic sources more than the western sources. Western news media is too blinded by hatred of George W. Bush to see the truth.
Considering that the mullahs can barely keep their own theocracy under control Iranian Alert Running Thread , they are really over-extending themselves if they think they can start influencing the internal affairs of Iraq. In Iran, they can kill their opposition with impunity. In Iraq, there's American armed forces and free Iraqis that will take exception to that kind of behavior.
Since they are trying anyways, I repeat the words of GWB - "Bring it on!" as it will only hasten the demise of their brutal regime.
Actually Sadr is being maginalized and his action has caused a split among the followers of his father.You know that, and I know that. But someone who only gets their news from Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, ABC News, the Washington Post and the New York Times would never see that.
To many people this is "news" not because it just happened, but rather because their "news sources" have been ignoring this or intentionally misrepresenting the facts to tell a different (anti-Bush, anti-American, anti-iraqi freedom, pro Saddam) story.
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Not what we expected ten years ago:
Who are you and what have you done with Muqtada al-Sadr? The man impersonating Iraq’s firebrand Shia cleric gave himself away early Wednesday when he called on the United Nations and Organization for Islamic Cooperation to mediate the country’s boiling political crisis. Cue spit take. How does one go from rabid warlord to Iraqi Gandhi in the space of a decade? Muqtada’s dumbfounding metamorphosis lies somewhere between maniacal and Machiavellian.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/muqtada-al-sadr-rabid-warlord-iraqi-gandhi-15910
Recently, a dispute over the management of religious shrines flared up. On June 25, Al-Khaleej quoted Muhammad al-Rubeii, a leader of the Muqtada al-Sadr Peace Brigades, as saying that the Badr Organization, led by Hadi al-Ameri, is implementing foreign agendas (a reference to Iran) to exert military and administrative control over the city of Samarra, home to the shrine of Al-Askari.
The dispute over the management of the shrine between the Shiite and Sunni endowments continues. Because Samarra is a Sunni-majority city, the dispute is worsening the recent row among Shiite groups and the city at large over the shrine’s management.
http://www.iraqoilreport.com/daily-brief/will-shiite-power-struggle-turn-armed-conflict-iraq-19303/
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