Mahdi Rising. . .
by Jack Kinsella, 4/4/06
Almost from the beginning of the US administration of Iraq following Saddam's ouster, Moqtada al-Sadr has proved a major thorn in the Coalition administration's side.
Moqtada al-Sadr is the thirty-two year old leader of the self-described "Mahdi Army", the most powerful radical Shia group in Iraq.
He comes from a very prominent family, and is the son of respected Shia cleric Mohamed Sadeq al-Sadr. The elder al-Sadr was executed by Saddam in 1999 for criticizing Saddam's government from his pulpit.
The younger assumed his father's mantle in 2003 at age thirty, a very young age for an Islamic cleric, particularly among the Shia. The Shia revere their seniors, particularly the educated ones.
From the beginning, al-Sadr spoke out against the United States' plans in Iraq.
When Washington finally recognized the true threat that al-Sadr posed to the success of its intervention, he had already fortified his power in the vacuum created by the fall of Saddam's establishment.
American forces detained some of his associates, and, in response, al-Sadr ordered his militia to attack U.S. positions. The Mahdi Army's April 2004 Uprising briefly overwhelmed US forces, forcing the Pentagon to divert attention away from the Sunni and al-Qaeda insurgency to put down al-Sadr's fighters.
In August, al-Sadr launched another revolt. This time, after inflicting a number of US casualties, the al-Mahdi Army took a pounding from the US Marines before al-Sadr called on his militia to stand down.
Today, the al-Mahdi Army is back, and is bigger than ever. He is now estimated to have 15,000 armed followers, three times as many as when he fought U.S. forces in 2004.
And the US military is no longer talking about killing or capturing al-Sadr. (A warrant issued by the Coalition for his arrest in the murder of a rival cleric, although never formally dismissed has 'disappeared')
Instead, the US is taking a 'hand's off' approach, unsure what to do next. al-Sadr has joined the political process, with stunning results. The current prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, effectively owes his job to al-Sadr's support.
al-Sadr's group has 30 seats in the new assembly that was elected last December, but the Sadrist party is allied with a larger Shia coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance. With Sadr's blessing, his followers cast the deciding vote making Jaafari the choice of the UIA for prime minister.
"Despite the fact that Sadr was not himself an elected official, he and his followers were able to play the role of 'kingmaker' within the Shiite coalition," says Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Consequently, this makes Jaafari more dependent than ever on Sadr's support—and that comes at a price.
Fatah al-Sheikh, a Sadr spokesman and editor of the party newspaper, says Jaafari has promised that if Sadr helps him win re-election as prime minister, Jaafari will demand a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces.
"Dr. Jaafari submitted himself as an obedient soldier of Sayyid Moqtada," al-Sheikh said in an interview. "Moqtada in turn showed his respect and support for this man."
The 2003 murder suspect and 2004 warlord is now in control of two Iraqi ministries; health and transportation.
Noted Newsweek, "the Ministry of Transportation "has no relations nor contracts with any American side," said its spokesman, Ahmed al-Mousawi, who added: "This is due to the orders of our Sadrist minister, Salam al-Maliki, who hates the Americans."
"When the MOT took charge of Baghdad International Airport," Newsweek reported, "Alcohol was banned from the duty-free shop, and Mousawi says the MOT is canceling the contract of the British firm that now runs security there."
Moqtada al-Sadr is one of the few Iraqi clerics willing to put his sectarian differences behind him in order to unite the country against the US presence.
After cutting his deal with Jafarri to call for a withdrawal timetable, al-Sadr has reached out to both Sunni and Kurdish leaders in an effort to unite them behind his nationalist banner.
Moqtada al-Sadr is positioning himself as a true Iraqi nationalist, ready to unite his country against foreign occupation and his movement is gaining momentum.
The threat of civil war is now so acute that Condi Rice and her British counterpart, Jack Straw, flew to Baghdad to 'discuss matters' with Jaffari -- which is being interpreted as a plan to oust Jafarri and put in somebody more to the Coalition's liking.
Assessment:
There's something weird going on with this whole Moqtada al-Sadr scenario. First, he's too young to have this kind of credibility among other Islamic clerics. Even Ayatollah Sistani has begun to defer to the younger cleric.
Not only is he too young, he is too awkward for the role. Noted a profile of al-Sadr published in Al-Ahram Weekly,
"The sentences he utters are awkward and incomplete, and somehow lacking in conviction -- hardly what one would expect of a man for whom the spoken word is his stock in trade. The black-turbaned clergymen of Iraq are masters of rhetorical eloquence, yet it would appear that the young Moqtada does not excel in this domain. His turn of phrase is alien to his surroundings, prone to collapse into casual speech and slang. As a public speaker, he fails to rise even to the level of the average literate Iraqi."
Candidates for the position of a Marja' (spiritual leader) among the Iraqi Shia must meet many prerequisites in terms of academic and theological training. Moqtada al-Sadr meets few of them, if any.
But he claims a "clear and distinct" descent from the prophet Mohammed through a lineage that included Imam Jaafar Al-Sadeq, the theologian behind the Twelve Imams Shia School of thought that al-Sadr shares with Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
We've discussed Ahmadinejad's obsession with the coming of the Mahdi who will lead a victorious Islam during a bloody world-wide conquest that will bring on the end of the world.
Islamic tradition says the Mahdi will make his appearance riding on a white horse. Islamic scholars therefore claim the Islamic Mahdi is prefigured by the First Seal Judgment -- the Book of the Revelation's rider on a white horse as described in Revelation 6:3:
"And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer."
Islamic tradition says that the Mahdi will bring about a war that will kill a quarter of mankind.
al-Sadr named his militia "the Mahdi Army" because of his belief that he, like Ahmadinejad, has been called to set off Islam's apocalypse and bring about the return of the 12th Imam.
So we have an apocalyptic visionary in charge of Iran's planned nuclear arsenal and another apocalyptic visionary rising to unexpected prominence next-door in Iraq.
al-Sadr is an anomaly in Shia theology. He is too young, too inexperienced and too unqualified for his job by Shia standards, yet he stands poised to take over both Iraq's political and religious systems in a single stroke.
I am not making any pronouncements on either the identity of the antichrist or his relationship with Islam's Mahdi. What is significant about this, to my mind, is that it is being discussed at all, let alone on the front pages of America's newspapers.
Think about this in context. In THIS generation, amid the earthquakes, famines, wars and pestilences, solar storms, weather anomalies, ethnic unrest and a global war between Islam and Judeo-Christianity, the front pages are filled with predictions of the end of the world.
If it isn't from global warming, it is from runaway asteroids, provided we don't bring about our own global demise via nuclear, chemical or biological warfare.
We have mad Islamic clerics with the potential ability to unleash global destruction publicly announcing their devotion to their soon-expected Messiah, the 12th Imam, as the world gears up for a coming global clash of civilizations between Judeo-Christianity and the Islamic world.
EVERYBODY is looking towards the future with something akin to terror, if not outright horror.
"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." (Luke 21:25-26)
Jesus described the conditions of this generation EXACTLY. He outlined them in detail, and they have been a matter of undisputed record for two thousand years.
But mention any connection between the events taking place right before our eyes and the events the Bible has been predicting for a single generation, somewhere in time, and people will STILL give you a blank stare.
Given all that is taking place, that 'blank-stare' reaction is ITSELF evidence of the signs of the times.
"Knowing this first, that there shall come IN THE LAST DAYS scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." (2nd Peter 3:3-4)
The promise of His coming is all around us. And I can hardly wait.
SOURCE: Omegaletter