Iraq–Al-Sadr: The most powerful man of the opposition in Iraq.

 

 

 

 

Female followers of al-Sadr.What bright future for females under al-Sadr’s ruling!

 

 

Al-Sadr followers rally in Iraq

against US troops

Al-Sadr followers rally in Iraq

Followers of radical Shiit cleric Muqtada al-Sadr

At least tens of thousands waved Iraqi flags and shouted “No, no, America!” as the tight columns of the unarmed but ominous-looking members of the Mahdi Army, as al-Sadr’s militia is known, marched through one of Baghdad’s poorest neighborhoods.

Organizers said at least 700,000 militiamen and al-Sadr supporters had taken to the streets while the U.S. military estimated the crowd at about 70,000.

Mahdi Army is taken its name from Mahdi who preached that Jesus the son of Mary well return and kill the Anti-Christ The deceiving Messiah and establish Islamic Ruling all over the world and wait for Judgment day to come. Al- Sadr is the leader and claimed he had 700,000 people marching along side with him. Does everybody believe that?  That is their religion and I believe that everybody has the right to believe in what he wishes. Nobody should have a problem with that.

Muqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi Islamic political leader, along with some others from the Islamic council, al- Sadr as a young seminary student, his nickname was Mulla Atari, because he preferred video games to studying the Quran. Now, Muqtada al-Sadr is a radical cleric revered by millions of poor Shiites as a modern-day Robin Hood.  He also may be the most powerful man in Iraq. He is one of the most influential religious and political figures in the country not holding any official title in the Iraqi government He is often referred to as Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr. The title Sayyid (approx. Mr, Sir,) is generally used among the Shi‘a to denote persons descending directly from the Prophet Muhammad, According to the information that I have he is believed to be the bloodline from which Islamic lMuhammad  leadership must come. Thus a great deal of respect is paid by the Shi’as to the Sayyids throughout Shi’a society.

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  any title of equivalent of a senior religious scholar. However, in early 2008, al-Sadr was reported to be studying to be an ayatollah, which would greatly improve his religious standing.

Muqtada al-Sadr gained popularity among younger Iraqis following the toppling of the Saddam government by the 2003 invasion of Iraq, mostly owing to his status as his son, as he has no formal religious standing to interpret the Qu’ran and relies for religious advice on an Iraqi cleric exiled in Iran, Ayatollah Kazem at Haeti. Al-Sadr has on occasion stated that he wishes to create an “Islamic Democracy.”throuout the world.

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

His father

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 well-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 popularAmal Movement

Al-Sadr commands strong support (especially in the Sadr City district in Baghdad, formerly named Saddam City is the poorest section of the Baghdad of 2,500.000 people, 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 Army The name refers to the Mahdi, a long-since disappeared Inam 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 his control.

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.

Naomi Klein writing in the Nation, has called al-Sadr and his supporters “the single greatest threat to U.S. military and economic control of Iraq.” I second that thought from what I can gather.

He should thank American for getting rid of Saddam Hussein, because Hussein would have killed him and al-Sadr’ whole family. But I suppose hate is a lot stronger than the love for God or Country.

Year 203 Shortly after the US-led coalition ousted Saddam Hussein and his Ba’ath regime, al-Sadr voiced opposition to the USA and the coalition. He subsequently stated that he had more legitimacy than the Coalition-appointed Iraqi Governing council..

On April 2003 his followers, organized as the Sadr Bureau, began providing services throughout Sadr City. The services ranged from health care to food and clean water. He obviously got paid good money. Later in 2003, residents of Sadr City meeting in neighborhood caucuses elected neighborhood councils, and ultimately a district council to represent the Sadr City District. The Sadr Bureau, aided by the Mahdi Army, attempted to remove the new District Council by force of arms and occupied the District Council Hall for several weeks. Finally, Coalition forces removed them from the premises, and the elected District Council resumed their duties. Despite this action by the Coalition unbothered and ignored by the US and Iraqi forces, he insisted on returning but he his forces failed. Members of the elected District Council have been continually threatened, and some have been attacked and some killed for their alleged co-operation with the Americans.

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 they suffered  many casualties of their own  At the same time, Sunni rebels in the cities of Baghdad, under the command of  Samara,Ramadi  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.

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

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

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 calling for an anti-occupation mass protest on April 9…. 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.

Muqtada al-Sadr urged the Iraqi army and police to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerilla fighters to concentrate on pushing American forces out of the country, according to a statement iOn January 5th 2011, Muqtada al-Sadr returned to the Iraqi city of Nahaf, in order to take a more proactive and visible role in the new Iraqi government. Three days later, thousands of Iraqis turned out in Najaf to hear his first speech since his return, in which he called the USA, 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!”, while waving Iraqi flags and al-Sadr’s pictures. Subsequently, he returned to Iran to continue his studies.

 

Muqtada  al_Sadr in Iran    Muqtada returns from Iran

The biggest mistake Bush and his body Dick Chaney made, was that they went in to Iraq too soon.  for their patriotic reasons… some personal. One of George Bush’s personal reasons included the phrase, “Saddam Hussein must go, he threatened to kill my Daddy”

They should have allowed Saddam to stay in limited power and kill most of his opponents, more than 50% of the population of Iraq and then go into Iran to take care of them too. Calling “spade to spade”, Saddam Hussein was the best beneficial friend America had.  Bush’s father knew that, It is a true fact that Saddam Hussein tended to support secular groups rather than Islamists,  such as Al-Qaeda according to the expert’s reports. But Clinton following Bush’s administration, he was not smart enough to follow and  understand what the first Bush had in mind, he started insignificant play ground tactics, “No Flying Zone and sanctions that were imposed by the security council after the Gulf War and some other stupidity. Clinton enforced these rulings with bombs. He was the first one, being pressed by the Israelis, to announce that Saddam must go.

Bill Clinton the cowboy  The lover and….. the

Besides, Saddam Hussein had never threatened America. He threatened Israel, thus Israel was another tool that prompted Bush and Cheney to go into Iraq.

One may say that we got rid of Saddam Hussein, but hear this! the world has inherited al_Sadr. Why is al-Sadr making so many trips to Iran? They are cooking something and it ain’t pizza. Iran and Iraq were enemies for the longest time. Their number enemy is USA, but that’s not all; they are cooking the take over of all the neighboring Arab Nations.

I believe that the best thing for us to do is to pull out of Iraq, with no “Ifs or Buts” about it Let us be smart for once . Let them kill each other.

The following paragraph came in Yahoo News today June 2, 2011.

BAGHDAD – A series of bombings ripped through the capital of Iraq’s western Anbar province Thursday night, killing nine people, Iraqi officials said.

The blasts in what was the heartland of the al-Qaeda-led insurgency are a reminder of the danger still facing Iraq, as it prepares for the departure of the remaining U.S. troops by the end of this year. A police officer and hospital official said at least 25 people were also injured in the explosions.                      The bomb explosions appeared coordinated to maximize deaths. A police official said two roadside bombs went off near the market, and then a parked car bomb exploded when police arrived on the scene. Then another parked car bomb exploded near the hospital where the injured were taken, the official said

Insurgents often stagger their blasts in order to kill or wound rescuers and security officials who arrive on the scene to help those injured in the first explosion.

Once American troops are out things will change.                                                                    I copied this article from Yahoo News to tell the world how bad the situation is and will continue to be worse in Iraq

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Brief history of relations between  Saddam Hussein and Americans

In the 1980s, following the Iranian revolution and the subsequent hostage crisis in Tehran , the United States saw Saddam as a useful regional counterweight to the Ayatollah Khomeini. When Iraq launched a long, brutal war against Iran in 1980, the Reagan administration provided Saddam’s regime with arms, funds, and support. It was during that war that Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass destruction, including mustard gas and the nerve agent Sarin.

Did the Americans know that? If they didn’t know it they were kind of stupid. according to information, UK and France were aware of Saddam’s activities.

U.S.-Iraq  relations ruptured in August 1990, when Iraq invaded the oil-rich neighbor of Kuwait . That prompted the UN to impose economic sanctions and eventually authorize war. 19% of the American people spoke against the war. That 19%  later on turned out to be people of knowledge believing the war should have not taken place. In the winter of 1991, a U.S.-led coalition drove Iraq out of Kuwait but stopped short of ousting Saddam. That was when the phrase came out “Don’t ask and don’t tell” but it had nothing to do with homosexuality then. One of the reasons that we went to war against Saddam Hussein is that we were afraid that he might use WMD. That was a very legitimate reason. He used WMD  on the Iranians He used nerve gas against Iraqi Kurds in the north of the country and in the south his forces using nerve gas in March 1988 killed thousands in the the town  of Halabja. Must you be afraid of man like that? We, in fact George W Bush threatened that he would send Afghanistan beck to primitive age. All the nations heard that threat.  Now let us look at the other side of the coin. Some of us  will not like what is on the other side of the coin. Why is it that most of the world seeing us the way we saw Saddam Hussein? That is the other side of the coin and it’s the “because”. Most of us remember or most of us have heard  of the two atomic  bombs dropped on Japan. That of course happened over sixty years ago.  That is the truth, but how about twenty years ago ? Twenty years ago, we held hands with Saddam Hussein while his troops poisoned thousands of people. There is another “Don’t ask and don’t tell. But we got rid of him. While we were fighting in Vietnam we poisoned the trees. We did so much damage on those trees throwing poisoned gases, even the dogs now cannot find a tree to relieve themselves and they cross over to Cambodia to find a tree.  I wrote a story and a song about a two- gun slinger, “Who will be the one to come and gun him down. Who  will be the one to run him out of town” If the hat fits wear it.

I believe that the best thing for us to do is to pull out of Iraq, with no “If or Buts” about it. The clergymen and the other Muslim heroes will take care of each other and we American people should sit back and sing the song from 007 the James Bond movie “LIVE AND LET DIE”