The standoff with Al-Sadr and his thugs erupted suddenly following relatively trivial incidents of the suspension of a newspaper ( Al-Hawzza)
belonging to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr and the arrest of one of
his assistants on murder charges, the sudden confrontation and escalation eas
certainly not a spontaneous and uncontrolled reaction to the above mentioned
incidents, it was a violent deliberate attempt from the thugs of Al-Sadr to
overtake the Iraqi authority, in essence a coup d`etat, especially as we are
approaching the 30th June deadline for handing over sovereignty of Iraq to
Iraqi people, something which could mark the first serious step towards a
balanced and stable democratic state in Iraq. The approaching date is causing
alarm bells to ring in neighboring countries with interest in foiling such a
state namely Khomeinist regime of Iran and dictatorial regime of Syria and with
it the feverish attempts to put obstacles in its path.
The widespread nature of the disturbances and the way those thugs were armed and took control of city
halls and police stations in certain districts of Baghdad and in other southern Shia cities and towns points towards a premeditated and planned action, the mere
distribution of tens of thousands of elegantly printed posters of Al-Sadr and
other clergy looked very much like the organized parades of Hamas and Hizbullah,
so the statement by Al-Sadr that his movement constitutes the striking arm of
Hamas and Hizbullah in Iraq, was in no way a tongue slip or a coincidence, the
Al-Sadr and his followers does not shy away from showing their hatred for
coalition, for Iraqi Governing Council and all Iraqi working to build a new
stable democratic Iraq, they show their extreme hatred for Iraqi Kurds who are
relentlessly committed towards democracy and federalism in Iraq and who are
adamant on their cooperation with coalition, they show their contempt for the
interim Iraqi constitution and for other religious and political forces. The al-Sadr
and his thugs represent all what the coalition and peaceful Iraqi people does
not want for Iraq.
There are serious implications for these disturbances on the future plans of a
unified democratic and federal Iraq, any wavering in dealing with this mutiny
could eventually lead to civil war in Iraq and certainly to disintegration of
the country. The reasons why should the coalition work in collaboration with
Iraqi secular parties like Kurdish parties as well as moderate religious Shia
and Sunni groups to defeat this movement of Al-Sadr are too obvious to be
mistaken, following I will outline some of those reasons:
1.As the events of the last days showed, that the Iranian regime was behind
supporting Al-Sadr with money and Arms as well as ideologically to build and
iranian style movement in Iraq after that the main religious Shia groups like
Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq and A-Daawa party decided to
choose the way of dialogue and cooperation and not confrontation with the
coalition to regain Iraqi sovereignty and build a new democratic Iraq. The Al-Sadr
has visited Iran last June with some of his top assistants and met top
conservative leaders in Iran like Khamenei, Rafsanjani as well as intelligence
officials in Iran to collaborate and establish an unholy alliance with Iran and
through it with the most radical and terrorist elements in the Middle East like
Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hizbullah.
2.Al-Sadr does not hide his plans to build an Islamic Republic in Iraq and that
Islam must be the sole source of legislation in Iraq and that Sharia law must be
applied to all Iraqis regardless of their sect, religion or ethnicity, he does
not tolerate any opposition and anyone who oppose him is considered an infidel
who deserve to die, and for this reason he hates Kurdish demands for democracy
and federalism, he hates the top religious shia cleric in Iraq Ayatuallah
Sistani because he refused to issue an religious edict (Fatwa) to fight the
coalition and instead promoted the path of political dialogue and elections to
build the new Iraq.
3. Al-Sadr movement was established during the reign of Sadsdam Hussein and its
astonishing that the regime of Saddam Hussein tolerated Al-Sadr and even allowed
him to preach in Sunni mosques, many of his security agents were pretending to
be followers of Muqtada Al-Sadr, after the collapse of the regime on 9th April
2003, many Fidayeen Saddam elements and security agents joined the ranks of Al-Sadr
movement and his Jaish-Almahdi militias, and even there are signs that he
collaborates with radical Sunni elements in Al-Ramadi and Al-Falluja and sending
some of his fighters to Al-Falluja to fight the coalition forces there.
4.Al-Sadr is trying to stir ethnic unrest in the Kurdistani city of Kirkuk by
establishing headquartes as well as brigades for Jaish-Almahdi, collaborating
with remnants of Saddam Hussein agents to attack coalition forces and Kurdish
parties allied to the coalition like KDP and PUK as well as instigating Shia
Turkmen against Kurds in Kirkuk.
5. Al-Sadr and his thugs have been waging a campaign of terror and intimidation
against Christians, women, university dozens and students, bombing movie
theaters, putting explosive devices in Alcohol selling shops, kidnapping women
and children and asking their families for ransom, murdering moderate religious
leaders like Mr.Al-Khoie and others, putting themselves as vigilantes murdering
people with impunity, terrorizing women and forcing them to wear Islamic dress
and trying to prevent women and girls from attending mixed schools and classes.
All the Iraqi political forces which contributed to the liberation of Iraq must
continue their cooperation with coalition forces in defeating the menace of Al-Sadr
and his thugs, otherwise the ultimate victors in Iraq will be the evil
backwarded elements of Iranian and Syrian regimes and Iraq will turn god forbid
into a terrorist safe haven and Iraq could easily slide into chaos and civil war
which will ultimately lead the country to disintegration and the whole region to
instability. The stakes are too high to lose this battle, its about the future
of Iraq and Middle East.
