Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq Al-Sadr

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammed al-Sadr (; born 23 March 1943 – 19 February 1999) was a prominent Iraqi Twelver Shiite cleric and marja'. He called for government reform and the release of detained Shia leaders during the rule of Saddam Hussein. The growth of his popularity, often referred to as the followers of the local Hawza, also put him in competition with other Shi'a leaders, including Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim who was exiled in Iran.

Biography

al-Sadr was born to Mohammed al-Sadr (1906–1986), the grandson of Ismail al-Sadr, the patriarch of the Lebanese–Iraqi al-Sadr family and a first cousin of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and Amina al-Sadr.

Following the Gulf War, Shi'ites in Southern Iraq went into open rebellion. A number of provinces overthrew the Baathist entities and rebelled against Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party. The leadership of the Shi'ite rebellion as well as the Shi'ite doctrine in Iraq was split between Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani and Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sadr. Al-Sadr, based in Baghdad, appealed to the younger, more radical Shi'ites from the more impoverished areas of Southern Iraq. The Shi'ites travelled to Baghdad from these poor areas to join Al-Sadr and his Shi'ite leadership.. In this ghetto, Sadr established a secret network of devoted followers and he became an increasingly prominent figure in the Iraqi political scene.

As a result of the disenfranchisement and repression of the Shi'ites in Iraq and the loyalty of the local populations, Saddam Hussein and his Baathist government could not control the Revolution Township on a neighbourhood level. Their lack of control limited their ability to affect al-Sadr's power base and the devotion of his followers. Revolution Township was renamed Sadr City.

As his power grew, al-Sadr became more and more involved in politics following the Gulf War, and throughout the 1990s, especially in 1993. After he became a more important Marja', he openly defied Saddam. He organized the poor Shi'ites of Sadr City, yet another nickname for the impoverished Shi'ite ghetto in Baghdad, against Saddam and the Baath Party. Sadr gained the support of the Shi'ites by reaching out to tribal villages and offering services to them that they would otherwise not have been afforded by Saddam's regime. Saddam began to crack down on the Shi'ite leaders in the late 1990s in an attempt to regain control of Iraq.

Assassination

Sometime before his death, al-Sadr was warned by Saddam not to incite any more violence. In defiance, al-Sadr wore his death shroud to his final Friday sermon. He was later killed leaving the mosque in the Iraqi city of Najaf along with two of his sons as they drove through the town. Their car was ambushed by men, and both his sons were killed by gunfire while he was severely injured. He died an hour later in the hospital. The Iraqi government denied any involvement, with an Iraqi Intelligence Service report stating that the death was a result of a Hawza dispute among senior clerics. Saddam Hussein also insisted that he had played no role in the assassination. Despite this, Shi'as in Iraq were mistrustful of the Ba'athist government and suspected the Iraqi Baathist government of being involved in, if not directly responsible for, their murders. Anger at, among other things, the government's alleged involvement in Sadr's death helped spark the 1999 Shia uprising in Iraq.

Legacy

Following the fall of Baghdad in 2003, the majority-Shi'a suburb of Revolution City (Saddam City or ''Al-Thawraa'') was officially renamed to Sadr City in memory of him. al-Sadr's son, Muqtada al-Sadr, is currently the leader of the Sadrist movement and bases his legitimacy upon his relationship with his father. He led a guerrilla uprising against Coalition forces and the new Iraqi government as part of the Iraqi Insurgency between 2004 and 2008, under the name of the Mahdi Army (''Jaysh al–Mahdi''), that was established in 2003.

Works

* ''Al-Islam wal-Mithaq al-Alimiyah lil-Huquq al-Insan'' (Islam and the International Covenant on Human Rights)
*''Ma Wara al-Fiqh'' (What is behind Jurisprudence)
* ''Fiqh al-Asha'ir'' (Tribal Jurisprudence)

See also

* Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr
* Kamal alHaydari
* Mohammad Yaqoobi
* Ismail al-Sadr
* Haydar al-Sadr
* Sadr al-Din al-Sadr
*Musa al-Sadr
* List of Shi'a Muslim scholars of Islam

References

"The Sadrist Movement", with additional insight on Muqtada al-Sadr's family background, including his father's books, at the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
*Professor Juan Cole, University of Michigan, History 241: American Wars in the Middle East. Lecture: The Shi'ite Sadr Movement in American Iraq, 18 November 2008.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadr, Muhammad Muhammad Sadiq As-

1943 births
1999 deaths
Assassinated Shiite clerics
Iraqi ayatollahs
Iraqi dissidents
Iraqi Shia clerics
Iraqi Shia Muslims
Musawis