After months of lying low, the anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has re-emerged with a shrewd two-tiered strategy that reaches out to Iraqis on the street and distances him from the increasingly unpopular government. Al-Sadr and his political allies have largely disengaged from government, thus contributing to a political paralysis. His outsider status has enhanced al-Sadr's appeal to Iraqis, who consider politics less and less relevant to their daily lives. | The power brokers in post-Saddam Iraq: NOURI AL-MALIKI: the Iraqi Prime Minister, right, is a stalwart of the Dawa Party, the Shi'ite political group that for years led an armed underground resistance to the leadership of Saddam Hussein. JALAL TALABANI: the Iraqi President is the first non-Arab to head an Arab state, albeit in a largely ceremonial role. He has vowed to work with all ethnic and religious factions to rebuild Iraq. MUQTADA AL-SADR: the radical Shi'ite cleric has become an increasingly influential figure in post-Saddam Iraq. His mixture of Iraqi nationalism and Shi'ite radicalism has made him a figurehead for many of Iraq's poor Shi'ite Muslims. GRAND AYATOLLAH ALI SISTANI: the most senior Shi'ite cleric in Iraq. Seen as a moderating influence, he facilitated the end of fighting in Najaf between al-Sadr's Mehdi Army and US forces in 2004. TARIQ AL-HASHIMI: general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party and vice president of Iraq. The Sunni leader has called for Shi'ite militia fighters to be removed from the Iraqi security forces. |
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The mainstream political parties in Iraq realise that al-Sadr is growing more influential, but appear to be confused over how to deal with him. They see him as unpredictable and manipulative, but too politically and militarily important to ignore. "He's powerful," said Jaber Habeeb, an independent Shi'ite member of parliament and political science professor at Baghdad University. "This is a fact you have to accept, even if you don't like it."
Almost from the day American troops entered Iraq, the mercurial al-Sadr has confounded American and Iraqi politicians alike. He quickly rallied impoverished Shi'ites in peaceful displays of Shi'ite strength, as had his father, a prominent cleric. When the Sunni Arab insurgency gained momentum, he raised a Shi'ite insurgency in direct opposition to the American-backed Iraqi government that had excluded him.
His basic tenets are widely shared. Like most Iraqis, he opposes the American military presence and wants a timetable for departure - if only to attain some certainty that the Americans will leave eventually. He wants the country to stay unified and opposes the efforts of those Shi'ites who have had close ties to Iran to create a semi-autonomous Shi'ite region in southern Iraq.
After his Mahdi militia was defeated in a battle against American forces in Najaf in 2004, al-Sadr established himself as a political player, using the votes of loyal parliament members to give Nouri Kamal al-Maliki the margin needed to win the post of prime minister.
Now that the leadership is in poor repute, al-Sadr has shifted once again. His six ministers in the Cabinet and 30 lawmakers in parliament have been boycotting sessions. They returned last week, but it is not clear if they will stay for long.