Muqtada al-SadrChapter 17 of Balloon Wars: An ISR Operator's Account Of The Wars In Iraq & Afghanistan
Chapter 40 – Muqtada al-Sadr
Origin of the Mahdi Army, Muqtada’s family and lineage, Twelvers, Arab prejudice
Muqtada al-Sadr from Dec 25, 2007 Stars And Stripes
The Mahdi Army, the people who were making things difficult for all of us on FOB Loyalty in the summer of 2007, began as several hundred seminary students from Sadr City in east Baghdad. Their work after the American invasion in 2003 and Saddam’s fall was dispensing aid, social services and various kinds of community service such as directing traffic. Due to the lawlessness that occurred following the fall of Hussein they provided security and in April of 2004 they became an armed militia under the leadership of Muqtada al-Sadr, a middle ranking Shi’ah cleric from a prominent Iraqi ruling class family. Sayyid Mohammad Al-Sadr, Muqtada’s grandfather, was Iraqi Prime Minister in 1948, and Muqtada’s father, also named Mohammad, achieved the rank of ayatollah and was assassinated by agents working for Saddam Hussein in 1999. Because of attacks in Najaf, Kufa, Kut and Sadr City following the forced closure in 2004 of Muqtada’s mouthpiece, the newspaper Al Hawza, the Iraqi government announced that JAM (Jaysh al-Mahdi) membership was a criminal act.
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OTHER SELECTED CHAPTERS
Chapters 1 & 2 – PTDS & the ISR Network
Chapter 12 – Battle in Al Atiba’a
Chapter 33 – Urged to Jump
Chapter 40 – Mortar Attack
Chapter 78 – UTAMS Repair
Chapter 79 – IRAM – A Deadly New Weapon
Chapter 82 – Bagram and Waza Khwa
Chapter 86 – Captain Ellis
Chapter 87 – 9th Inflation and The Karez
Chapter 116 – Just Living
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Muqtada’s quickly acquired prestige fed an ego that led to an extraordinary and important choice in naming his militia. By calling it the “Mahdi” Army he invoked the name of the Twelfth Imam who the “twelver” Shiites believe to be the redeemer and the end times figure who will be aided by Christ in establishing the final Islamic caliphate that will precede judgement day. Muqtada hasn’t claimed to be the Mahdi, something that relatively few have done since the eleventh Imam, Hasan ibn Ali, died in 874 AD. According to the Hadith, at Hasan’s funeral his five year old son, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī, announced he was the Twelfth Imam and immediately went into “occultation”, or hiding, until his second coming.
Shoppers In Najaf & Muqtada Poster (Feb 21, 2008 Stars and Stripes)
The Twelver Shi’ah sect, of which the Iranian nation and leadership as well as Muqtada are a part, believe that the Mahdi is among us today in some form and is able to influence events in any way he wishes in order to prepare for his reemergence. Ayatollah Khamenei in Iran, their current “Supreme Leader”, is waiting for the Mahdi’s direction or appearance. To be a member of the Mahdi’s “Army” is the greatest honor a Muslim could hope for and a guarantee of heavenly reward.
To have formed an effective military force of 60,000 in the name of the Twelfth Imam to defeat the infidels in the city that was once the capital of Abbassid caliphates is a historical accomplishment and at least a figurative godsend for an ambitious cleric but it’s just one of Muqtada al-Sadr’s many political accomplishments.
Followers Of Muqtada al-Sadr (Feb 22, 2008 Stars and Stripes)
People in the Middle East and Arabs particularly typologize humans according to a fairly long list of characteristics. Race is one item on the list but for most that feature of a person’s make up is less important than nation, occupation, residence or faith. Arabs and Shi’a Muslims regard lineage as the most important means of prejudging others. Muqtada’s full name, like the other males in his line includes the honorific title of Sayyid because he is a descendant of the prophet. For a Muslim, there is no better lineage so Muqtada has that very important characteristic in his favor.
Crowd in Kufa (2/23/08 Stars and Stripes)
The members of his army seek eternal life but for Muqtadaal-Sadr his “soldiers” are pawns for the attainment of wealth and power on Earth. Every caliph of every Islamic dynasty has sought to control the shrines and the concessions the pilgrims pass on their way to them. Travel to the shrines is a fundamental practice of the Shi’a and control of the concessions to, from and at the shrines is big business. Charitable giving is a tenet of the Muslim faith and the clerics who control Iraq’s shrines and mosques receive and dispense, or retain, millions of dinars and dollars donated each year. It’s no more than a racket. The attacks by Muqtada’s men in Najaf and elsewhere were to physically capture the shrines to derive all the benefits of controlling such important sites, especially receipt of the Zakah (obligatory) and sadaqa (optional) charitable donations given by the faithful.
Stars and Stripes newspaper is widely distributed and free to all at the FOBs and camps in the war zones and it includes considerable information on Middle Eastern religious and political leaders, much of it by Arab journalists. The articles about al Sadr in Stars and Stripes were studied by all of us who wanted to know why things were happening as they were. Since they were unpredictable, if not irrational, Muqtada’s edicts, commands, cease fire announcements and retractions were more important news to us than anything announced by General Petreus or President Bush.
This program is about my job in the war zones and how the events of September 11, 2001 affected my family. It isn’t the television version of the memoir. The resources to produce that are beyond me, but the video and stills in this more modest production compliment the book.
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Book Chapter and photos © Robert A. Crimmins, Felton, Delaware, USA
(photos on this page are by others)
