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Doubts over 'young
pretender'
By Valentinas Mite
PRAGUE - Muqtada al-Sadr, a charismatic cleric,
has emerged as one of Iraq's most talked-about Shi'ite
leaders.
Al-Sadr - who is believed to be 30
years old - lives in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf and
comes from a powerful clerical dynasty. He is the son of
grand ayatollah Mohammad al-Sadr, who was killed in 1999
by agents presumed to be working for Saddam Hussein,
thus becoming one of the major symbols of Shi'ite
resistance to the former regime.
Hassan
Abdulrazak is a research fellow at the University of
Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in
Britain. He said, "Contrary to the Dawa Party, which is
deep-rooted in Iraqi society, or the Supreme Council
[for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI], for
example, or al-Howza itself, represented by [Grand
Ayatollah Ali
al-] Sistani, this guy came as a
surprise to the Iraqi scene."
Al-Sadr is one of
the most vocal critics of the US occupation of Iraq. He
insists that US troops - who toppled Saddam's regime in
April - should leave the country immediately and that
Iraqis be given an opportunity to create an Islamic
state if they choose.
Analysts say al-Sadr is
clearly taking advantage of his father's reputation, but
question his overall level of support. There is also a
feeling among them that al-Sadr is becoming more and
more radical in his anti-American views.
Al-Sadr
has called for the creation of a militia to fight
immorality and "alien ideology" in Iraq. He says the
militia will not take up arms against occupying US
troops, saying its aim is to maintain peace and
security. He says the militia will try to force US
troops out of the country using peaceful means.
It is unknown how large al-Sadr's militia is in
reality. Al-Sadr's spokesman, Sheikh Aws al-Khafaji,
said on the weekend that some 10,000 volunteers have
already come forward. Reports say that more than 1,000
volunteers have joined the militia in the populous slum
area of Baghdad once known as Saddam City, now renamed
al-Sadr City.
A representative of Iraq's interim
governing council was reluctant to comment on the
activities of al-Sadr, saying that critical remarks
about him could split Iraq's Shi'ite community. Mouwafak
al-Rubaie, a Shi'ite member of the council, said, "It is
so important and sensitive [of an] issue that we should
not liberally pass judgments and pass decisions or pass
comments on this issue. It's very sensitive. It's very
important. It's a strategic issue."
Saddam City
is where the young cleric first became active and found
support. People there say they have reason to trust
al-Sadr. His supporters have restored law and order in
the impoverished district. Volunteers are building
mosques, hospitals are functioning and services are
being provided. Al-Sadr's supporters are operating
courts and publishing a weekly newspaper, and repeatedly
rally thousands to urge that US troops leave the
country.
Al-Sadr makes no effort to hide his
contempt for the 25-member Governing Council, whose
members - including a representative from the SCIRI, the
best-organized Shi'ite party - were appointed by the
United States. During Friday prayers, he constantly
brands the council as a tool of the US and says it
should be dissolved. He says he wasn't invited to join
the council and has no wish to do so because the US
controls the body. He calls instead for a ruling body
elected by Iraqis.
However, analysts say al-Sadr
is unlikely to become a serious challenge to the
Governing Council. Abdulrazak of the University of
Exeter says al-Sadr is a populist who has no political
agenda and no organization of his own. He says the
cleric is too young to become a spiritual leader. "From
the Shi'ite point of view, a person needs to spend long
years of study to be a leader," Abdulrazak said.
"Al-Sadr isn't even near this point."
Abdulrazak
continued, "I heard him talking. I don't think this guy
has real intelligence, for example, or a deep political
agenda or thinking. He speaks like a very simple person,
and I don't think that he can [attract] all Shi'ite
people."
Al-Sadr's movement recognizes Ayatollah
Kazim al-Husseini al-Haeri, an Iraqi cleric based in
Iran, as its religious leader, not al-Sistani, who
advocates that clerics remain out of politics.
Last week, a few dozen US troops in al-Najaf
were involved in a tense standoff after some 10,000 of
al-Sadr's followers gathered to challenge what they
thought was a US attempt to detain him. The incident was
defused after the US told the crowd that no such effort
had been made.
But Abdulrazak said such noisy
demonstrations do not necessarily indicate that al-Sadr
enjoys broad support. "Many Shi'ites support al-Sadr,
but the support is much less than for traditional
Shi'ite political organizations," said Abdulrazak. He
said the Islamic Dawa Party and SCIRI have established
histories and have their own charismatic leaders, such
as Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, the head of SCIRI.
Abdulrazak said that, at best, some 15 percent
of Iraq's Shi'ite community may be sympathetic to
al-Sadr's rhetoric. He said some of al-Sadr's support
can be understood as a sort of protest against a
situation in which Iraqis have been so far denied the
chance to choose their own leaders. In Abdulrazak's
opinion, "Al-Sadr exploits this situation and uses it
against the Americans."
Muhammad Abdel Jabar is
a Shi'ite and the organizer of a new political party in
Iraq called For Reconstruction and Democracy. He says
al-Sadr's popularity is directly related to the US
failure to maintain law and order in the country after
the invasion.
Iraqis face electricity shortages
and a lack security. Safe drinking water is in short
supply. Many Iraqis blame the US-led Coalition
Provisional Authority for everything that is wrong in
the country. If life begins to improve in Iraq, Jabar
predicts, support for al-Sadr will fall.
Jabar
says al-Sadr's supporters are poor and young. He points
out that there is little support for al-Sadr among the
middle class or within the Shi'ite religious
establishment. Al-Najaf's more senior clerics have kept
quiet about al-Sadr's initiatives, either out of respect
for his father or because they want to avoid a conflict
with the younger generation.
The Coalition
Provisional Authority has so far paid scant attention to
al-Sadr, saying that his followers do not represent the
country's Shi'ite majority. Associated Press recently
quoted the coalition commander in al-Najaf,
Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Conlin, as saying that
al-Sadr is young and immature and "is not important" in
al-Najaf.
(Copyright 2002, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
with the permission of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20036.)
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