Muqtada Sadr

Hojatoleslam Muqtada al-Sadr (born 12 August 1973) is the son of Iraqi Shia cleric Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr and the leader of the al-Mahdi Army.

Muqtada Sadr in 2019

Quotes

• I would like to address the peoples of the world, especially the Arab peoples and the US people. Their silence over the violations against the oppressed Iraqi people who suffered greatly cannot be accepted by any fair-minded and zealous person. Therefore, all must take these violations seriously and express themselves even through peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins and protests. I urge those people to distance themselves from their rulers who support the West and the occupation forces.
  • Source: BBC News

• Saddam is a war criminal and there are no two people who can argue over this.
  • Source: Asia Times

• I seek the spread of freedom and democracy in the way that satisfies God. [Americans] have planned and paved the ways for a long time, but it is God who is the real planner -- and the proof of this is the fall of the American twin towers[...]a miracle from God.
  • Iraqi cleric calls 9/11 'miracle from God', CNN, March 27, 2004.

• I renew my call for the occupier (the United States) to leave our land. The departure of the occupier will mean stability for Iraq, victory for Islam and peace and defeat for terrorism and infidels.
  • Radical Cleric Blames U.S. for Iraq Woes 30 March 2007

About Muqtada Sadr

• He is somebody who has fought against the occupying forces," says Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, the leading Sunni clerical body. "All other Shi'ite leaders are seen [by Iraq's Sunnis] as collaborators because they cooperate with the Americans.
  • The Wild Card," Time Magazine, March 6, 2006

• Others contend that Sadr, working on a longer time scale than the Americans, is just lying low until the United States draws down its troops and declares its combat role concluded in Iraq. Then, this analysis continues, Sadr can launch the civil war he wants. "The reason I am distrustful of Sadr is that we know that in private conversations, he has said, 'There are two million who must die,'" said an Army officer who served in a key position in Iraq. This wasn't hearsay, he said, indicating that it came from an intercept of communications.
  • Source: The Gamble by Thomas Ricks, page 320, ISBN 978-1-59420-197-4.

External links

• Profile of Muqtada al-Sadr at Council on Foreign Relations
• Al-Sadr Calls for Attacks on U.S. Troops April 2007
• Sadr ministers pull out of Iraqi government April 2007
• FACTBOX: Five facts about Iraq's Moqtada al-Sadr April 2007