Sadr Finally Returns To The Political Scene By Telling His Followers To Protest In The Streets

(Bas News)

One of the big questions in Iraqi politics was when was Muqtada al-Sadr going to return to the scene. He did so at the end of June telling his followers to protest against the burning of a Quran in Sweden. In early July they were back attacking their rivals.

 

On June 29th protesters broke into the Swedish embassy in Baghdad over the burning of the Koran by an Iraqi living in Sweden. This was after Sadr called for action. The demonstrations continued for the next week and spread to several cities in the south. The Shiite religious parties often use foreign events such as this to rile up their followers and turn them into the streets to show their influence.

 

In July the Sadrists returned this time going after their opponents. July 11 hundreds marched on the presidential palace in Basra demanding that Asaib Ahl Al-Haq vacate the complex. Then on July 15th they stormed 20 Dawa and State of Law offices in 10 provinces. The cause was an alleged slight by Dawa against Sadr’s father who was a prominent ayatollah. The real reason is Asaib Ahl Al-Haq and Nouri al-Maliki the leader of State of Law are long time rivals of Sadr.

 

Sadr has largely been silent since he lost his chance to form the Iraqi government in October 2022. He badly misplayed his hand when he told his parliamentarians to resign allowing his rivals in the Coordination Framework to take control of the process of picking the next Prime Minister. He's probably been brooding and calculating what to do since then. The protests in June and July were meant to let the political class know that he is still around and that he has thousands of followers that can quickly take to the streets. They were meant to show that Sadr is still a powerful force that others must reckon with in the provincial elections which are scheduled in the coming months.

 

SOURCES

 

Al Aalem, “Al-Sadr’s demonstrations in support of the Quran .. Will it open the door for a return to the political scene?” 7/1/23

 

Agence France Presse, “Iraqi protesters briefly breach Swedish embassy in Baghdad over burning of Quran,” 6/29/23

 

Al Mada, “Supporters of the Sadrist movement close eighteen headquarters of the Dawa Party in 10 provinces and al-Sadr considers it a revolutionary movement,” 7/16/23

 

Nabil, Steven, “Breaking: Another Dawa party office in Diyala province was stormed by the Sadrists,” Twitter, 7/15/23

- “Breaking: Sadrists are storming Al-Maliki led Dawa party offices in several Iraqi cities,” Twitter, 7/15/23

 

NINA, “A demonstration in Babylon to denounce the burning of the Noble Qur’an,” 7/4/23

- “In pictures, the streets of Nasiriyah are crowded with demonstrators protesting the burning of the Holy Quran,” 7/4/23

 

Reuters, “Thousands of al-Sadr supporters protest in Baghdad over Quran burning,” 6/30/23

 

Tammuz Intel, “Hundreds of protesters near the presidential palace compound, central Basrah. Demanding to kick out AAH from the compound,” Twitter, 7/11/23