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Sadr's Disciples Rise Again To Play Pivotal Role in Iraq
Iraqis carry the coffins of Moqtada Sadr followers who were killed last week in clashes with rival Shiites. After the confrontations, supporters of the radical cleric poured into Baghdad and at least six other cities.
(By Akram Saleh -- Getty Images)
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In a prison in Mosul, the two clerics' cells were next to each other. For a few hours in the morning and evening, they paced the courtyard together. Otherwise, they spent their time praying and reading the Koran. Yaqoubi developed a fondness for Agatha Christie and read a translated version of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables." Nouri focused on his state of mind.
"I didn't think about tomorrow," he said at his house in Najaf. "If you think that way, it will wear you out."
Two weeks ago, a Baghdad court unexpectedly dropped the charges against the two. On their return from the capital to Najaf a day later, both said they were struck by the changes during their absence.
"In the past, people were working for the present. There was no sense of the future," Nouri said. "Now there's organization. There's a program, there's discipline and there are policies behind our work."
In all, six of Sadr's senior leaders were arrested last year. Four have been released: Araji, Nouri, Yaqoubi and Mohammed Tabatabai. Of those, Nouri, Yaqoubi and Tabatabai were the most influential. In the years between the assassination of Sadr's father in 1999 and the ascendance of Sadr himself after Hussein's fall, they kept the movement alive, working underground.
"For sure, we've been revitalized," said Araji, as aides whispered questions into his ear.
Since his release, Araji has taken over the social affairs committee, one of the movement's more than half-dozen branches. (Others include tribal affairs, politics, culture, religious education and information, and the Mahdi Army, Sadr's militia.) As he sat at his office, Araji described some of his panel's activities, including distribution of millions of dollars to the poor in southern cities to purchase cattle for farms and supplies for small grocery stores, and the provision of food, medicine and clothes to 30,000 families.
Both Nouri and Araji called the emphasis on social demands the movement's priority. They said it reflected the ministry of Sadr's father, whose grass-roots movement in the 1990s catered to the poorest and most disenfranchised Shiites.
"The fighting prevented what we were thinking from the start," Nouri said.
Araji was blunter: "The Mahdi Army, it's finished."
An Incendiary Rivalry
Abu Muamil Kurdi and Abu Muqtada Dulaim are fighters in the Mahdi Army. In their estimation, it is stronger than ever. When the clash in Najaf erupted Wednesday night, Kurdi, 35, was at Sadr's residence; Dulaim, 30, was at the organization's office near the shrine of Imam Ali.
The three-story brick office served as the headquarters for Sadr's father in the 1990s, and today his followers treat it almost as a shrine. It was closed last year, but authorities in Najaf allowed it to reopen this month. That angered some residents who still blame Sadr and his men for the destruction wrought by last year's battles. About 200 of them gathered Wednesday night. Their numbers grew as the protest headed toward the office. Fistfights soon broke out; some people threw stones.
