| "Nice city ya got here. Be a shame if something happened to it," he screeched urbanely. A brief video of the large crowd can be seen here. The thought occurs: how many are there willingly? |
Moqtada Tateral-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
. Gathering in Baghdad’s central Tahrir square the protestors shouted and waved posters of ‘no to corruption and corrupts,"
Sadr who gave Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi an ultimatum last month to carry out his reform plans or face mass demonstrations, delivered a speech to the protesters in which he blamed the government for the current financial crisis.
"This demonstration is the voice of the displaced people and the oppressed Sunnis," he said over loud speakers. "We disown any corrupt party or personality,"
The holy man said that the current government was not a true representative of his party or people.
In his warning message earlier this month Sadr, whose party has 34 seats in parliament, said that the former government of
Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
was responsible for the fall of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
and Abadi’s cabinet must hold them to account.
"Abadi must carry out grassroots reform," Sadr said in front of the protesters. "Raise your voice and shout so the corrupt get scared of you," he encouraged the people.
Riyadh Ghali Miftin, a Sadrist MP told Rudaw that the protests were to bring the country back on the right track and the right direction.
According to Rudaw news hounds in Baghdad Sadr instructed his followers and protesters not to wave or sing flags of his party or family name and keep the protests nonpartisan.
| According to An Nahar |
Tateral-Sadr's supporters gathered in central Baghdad Friday for a rally during which the Iraqi holy man demanded that the government carry out serious reforms.
The Shiite holy man, who has repeatedly announced he was quitting politics or threatened to do so over the years, controls a large militia group called Saraya al-Salam.