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Iraq
Muqtada Al-Sadr Announces HeÂ’s Retiring
2008-03-07
H/T HotAir
The leader of the Shi'ite Sadrists in Iraq, Muqtada Al-Sadr, has announced in a letter to his followers that he is stepping down from his position, distancing himself from people, and focusing on his studies.

He explained that he was doing so because he had failed in carrying out his father's will to liberate Iraq from the occupation and turning its people into believing Muslims.

He wrote that the continuation of the occupation, the many who were distancing themselves from the true path, and their turning to politics and affairs of this world had motivated him to sequester himself from human society, in order to carry out his obligation to Allah and not to add sin to the crime.

Al-Sadr called on his men to obey the committee for managing the affairs of the Sadrist movement and all Sadrist institutes, and its representatives that bear the name of the Office of Al-Sayed Al-Shahid – which is named after his father, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadeq Al-Sadr, murdered in 1999 by the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Source: Elaph.com, March 6, 2008
Posted by:Sherry

#22   I'm curious as to how a comatose cleric can compose a letter.

Wasn't that always his state of mind? Kooky Mooky and Adam Pearlman. The "Special" department of Hell must have sent up the short bus.
Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967   2008-03-07 21:27  

#21  My guess he has achieved Weekend at Moqtada's status.
Posted by: ed   2008-03-07 21:26  

#20  HMMMM, IMO only Sadr's personal faith-obligations may indeed be one part of his rationale for this, but I believe the more correct reason is the CONCLUSIVE OUTCOME OF "OBAMA VERSUS CLINTON" + NEED FOR RADICAL ISLAM TO HAVE TIME TO REGROUP/REBUILD + TIME FOR IRAN, ETC. TO DEV THE "ISLAMIST BOMB".

Despite recent violence, IMO the focii of Radical Islam is gener OUTSIDE OF IRAQ-ME, AT LEAST FOR THE DURATION OF "OBAMA VERSUS CLINTON" IN THE USA. In the absence of a major or sigificant ISLAMIST-ONLY battlefield victory agz the US-Allies, i.e. USA ANDOR ISRAEL, ANY HOPE FOR SAVING THEIR GLOBAL JIHAD-OWG AGENDA IS VIA AMER HIROSHIMA OPTIONS, GREAT POWER CONFLICT, + MUTUAL DESTRUCTION, any of which bears exclusive significant risk for the Islamist agenda vv collusory NON-ISLAMIST/MUSLIM "Great /Regional Power" partners agz the USA-Allies. IMO, RADICAL ISLAM NEEDS TO PROTECT THEIR OPTION FOR INDUCING THE USA IN MULTI-FRONT REGIONAL CONFLICTS WID HIGH POTENTIAL FOR GREAT POWER CONFRONTATION.

Also, DIVINE/QURANIC PREMISES FOR ISLAMIST JIHADISM > many in Radical Islam, includ in top Leadership, will prob not wish to link themselves, Islamism, Islam, or Allah, etc. in any failure or defeat of their jihad.

The determinative outcome of "OBAMA VERSUS CLINTON" + "ISLAMIST/IRANIAN BOMB" will tell us iff Sadr's "retirement" is indeed permanent.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-03-07 19:56  

#19  Hi, my name is Al...but you can call be Betty! Hah hah, just kidding. But seriously, my name is Al and I'm really into Capricorns..
Posted by: swksvolFF   2008-03-07 18:20  

#18  Maybe next time we see him hes 50 lbs lighter and hes shilling for Slimfast, replacing Tony Orlando as the next "I was a frickin slob but look at me now" celebrity endorsement.
Posted by: Capsu 78   2008-03-07 18:13  

#17  Allah told me go to rehab,
I said No, No, No...
Posted by: Acmed Winehouse   2008-03-07 18:08  

#16  I think it's more complicated than that,
I suspect a "foul Zionist plot".
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-03-07 16:32  

#15  Â“Â…and focusing on his studies.”

Sounds to me like he’s going on the predicted “Ayatollah Fast-track”. Either that or he's pursuing other career opportunities that will allow him more time to spend with his family.
Posted by: DepotGuy   2008-03-07 16:27  

#14  Darrell, Jummy and Kofi have volunteered to help negotiate the Israeli surrender to Hamas already!
Jerusalem Post 3/5
Nothing like watching a senile anti-Zionist and a world class thief trying to impress the Nobel committee...Sadr's 'retirment' is being upstaged.
Posted by: Muggsy Gling   2008-03-07 16:08  

#13  Seems like a simple enough way to transfer command of the group to the Iranians. I suppose Mookie's ceasefire is null and void now.
Posted by: crosspatch   2008-03-07 16:03  

#12  Also reveals that he's shy.
Posted by: mojo   2008-03-07 15:45  

#11  Night-Of-The-Living-Dead's Al Gore producing junk science movies and a comatose Mooky writing a retirement letter. I tell you, the world's a better place since loser politicians went into entertainment and loser entertainers went into politics. What next? Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan throwing an kazoo concert for world peace?
Posted by: Darrell   2008-03-07 15:18  

#10  He explained that he was doing so because he had failed in carrying out his father's will to liberate Iraq from the occupation and turning its people into believing Muslims.

IF I made a public statement, carried in all the newspapers, that some Middle Eastern country "X" wasn't really Moslem and they were all just faking it there would be more hue and cry than you've ever seen, fatwas pulled out of all the various mullah's nether regions calling for my death...

Moqtada al Sadr just said that about Iraq because mothers aren't being forthright enough about throwing their infants onto US bayonnets. And noone's even pretending to be insulted.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, the mutawa are using blurry understandings of islamic law to perpetuate a fundamentally unislamic caste system... remember that woman whose marriage was anulled by her brother after her father's death, who was then imprisoned? Well, Guess How In Accord With Islam that really is.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman   2008-03-07 15:09  

#9  See, we told you the surge isn't working!
Posted by: Nancy and Harry   2008-03-07 14:04  

#8  Well, this puts a knife in the left's predictions of Mooky firing up the murder festival.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2008-03-07 13:52  

#7  My bet? After his followers prostrate themselves and beg and plead with him to return to them...well...okay. Then he goes to the Iranians ans sez, "see how powerful I am. My people won't let me leave" and ups the price. But don't think we've seen the last of him.
Unless of course he just some kind of manic depressive schizophrenic amnd ends up hanging himself with a bedsheet. Some of his statement makes it sound like too much Allah has eaten his brain...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-03-07 13:52  

#6  Key domino that we needed to fall.

Would that other Islamic clerics concentrate on God instead of mammon.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-03-07 13:46  

#5  I'm with Doc. Just when was this letter written? Too scared to announce his death so he's off to meditate in a cave is the explanation for why he's never heard from again. Except on paper, of course.
Posted by: ThinempWhimble   2008-03-07 13:45  

#4  Pretty much open season on the remainders now...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2008-03-07 13:32  

#3  I'm curious as to how a comatose cleric can compose a letter.
Posted by: doc   2008-03-07 13:08  

#2  Monthly checks from Iran started bouncing.
Posted by: RWV   2008-03-07 13:03  

#1  I think the laser dot on his forehead finally convinced him to go away.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-03-07 12:50  

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