Sadr Pursues Image to Match His Power

Hundreds gather for Friday prayers in Sadr City, the Baghdad enclave that is Sadr's base of power. Last week, he let Iraqi troops enter to quiet clashes between militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi forces. (By Andrea Bruce/Post)
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The reputation of the Mahdi Army as a militia of killers was cemented after Sunni insurgents destroyed the golden-domed Samarra mosque in 2006 and Sadrists retaliated by killing and torturing thousands of Sunnis. The cycle of revenge triggered paroxysms of sectarian cleansing that pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

Several of Sadr's top aides said many of the atrocities were committed by Shiites pretending to be Sadrists, but they also acknowledged that Mahdi Army members were involved in the sectarian killings.

Quieting the Militia

By 2007, his aides said, Sadr had decided he needed to take steps to change the direction of the movement, prodded in part by older, more moderate clerics who had studied with his father. After giving a speech at his mosque in Kufa in the spring, Sadr disappeared from public view, Obaidi said.

Over the summer he began discussing a radical idea with his aides: ordering the Mahdi Army to lay down its weapons. Obaidi said he advised Sadr to declare a freeze on violence in exchange for commitments from the government to stop raids and mass arrests of its followers.

But Sadr refused. "He knew that if we rely on the government that they would break their promise, and we would be forced to end the freeze," Obaidi said.

After a battle in late August between Sadrists and government forces in the Shiite holy city of Karbala that left dozens dead, the public image of the Sadrists was further tarnished. Sadr ordered the freeze, despite the objections of close aides such as Shaibani, who thought it would be viewed as a sign of weakness.

Though the precise timing is unclear, it was around this period that Sadr decided to devote himself to religious scholarship.

He has studied for the past year under Shahroudi, the head of the Iranian judiciary, according to Abdul Razzaq al-Nidawi, Abdul Hadi al-Mohammadawi and Hazim al-Araji, three of Sadr's top aides and leaders of the Sadrist movement. Nidawi and Mohammadawi added that Sadr has been studying in Qom, Iran, though Araji, like many other top aides, said he did not want to discuss Sadr's whereabouts for security reasons.

The choice of an Iranian cleric as a teacher is sensitive politically, since Sadr espouses a nationalist philosophy and because of the U.S. military's assertions that Iran is supplying weapons and support to militiamen affiliated with Sadr.

But aides said Sadr chose Shahroudi because he is one of the two most highly regarded disciples of Mohammed Bakr al-Sadr. Shahroudi, a native of Najaf who has run the judicial system since 1999, is seen as a relative moderate in Iran, perhaps best known for speaking out against torture and ordering a sometimes-ignored moratorium on stoning six years ago. Shahroudi's office in Tehran did not respond to a request for comment.

Sadr has said that he is at the third level of clerical study, known as external research, which precedes becoming a mushtahid, a cleric who can issue fatwas, or religious edicts, on his own authority. Achieving this status normally takes many years of study, but several of Sadr's followers, including Nidawi, said they believe that Sadr will be certified as a mushtahid within the next year.

Many clerics in Najaf say Sadr is a theological lightweight. When asked to describe Sadr's religious stature, Ali Basheer al-Najafi, the son of a grand ayatollah, said: "What stature? He's studying abroad. I have nothing to say about him."

Ghayth Shubbar, a cleric who is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's preeminent Shiite cleric, said Sadr's certification from Qom is unlikely to be accepted in Najaf. "He is a student with no distinction. He was not famous for his scholarship," said Shubbar, who added that the real measure of a cleric's stature is how many academics attend his lectures.

How many showed up to Sadr's?

"As many as the fingers on a single hand," Shubbar replied.

Avoiding Pressure

Starting last summer, Sadr decided to communicate officially only through three or four aides, who are switched every few months, Obaidi said, adding that he no longer speaks directly to Sadr. Obaidi learned of an interview Sadr had given al-Jazeera television only after it occurred. "He tries to make filters so he does not face the direct pressure of the people," Obaidi said.

As the government has stepped up its campaign against the Sadrists, pressure has mounted from his followers to end the freeze. Three of his senior aides -- Shaibani, 36, Nidawi, 40, and Araji, 38 -- said in interviews that they supported an end to the freeze.

But Obaidi, 38, and older clerics such as Mohammadawi, 50, the head of the Sadr office in Karbala, favor extending the freeze.

"Mostly the young men are more aggressive and push forward," Mohammadawi said. "The ones who, like me, are pushing more on the peaceful path first have more experience and a relationship with Mohammed Sadiq Sadr. So Sayyid Moqtada relies mostly on the people who are experienced and of an elderly age."

Even Sadr's closest aides say it is impossible to know what path he will choose for the movement. But they said he will not be pressured into a hasty decision.

"He is not the kind of man," Obaidi said, "who plucks the fruit before it is ripe."

Special correspondents Saad Sarhan and Saad al-Izzi contributed to this report.