Muqtada al-Sadr

Muqtada al-Sadr is a young Iraqi Shi'a cleric, the son of the famous Shi'a cleric Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. The elder al-Sadr, a well-respected figure throughout the Shi'a world, was killed by the Saddam Hussein government in 1999.

Muqtada al-Sadr has gained popularity in Iraq following the toppling of the Hussein government by the 2003 invasion of Iraq, mostly owing to his status as his father's son. He is vocally opposed to the American occupation and has stated that he has more legitimacy than the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. In September of 2003, he declared a shadow government in opposition to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) that is currently governing Iraq. It is common belief that al-Sadr wishes to create an Islamic theocracy in Iraq, although al-Sadr himself has stated that he wishes to create an "Islamic democracy". Though he has always opposed the American occupation, and has harsh words for anyone he considers as supporting it, at times he has hinted that if the Governing Council is given more authority and expanded to include "other parties", he might be mollified.

Al-Sadr commands strong support (especially in the Sadr City ghetto in Baghdad, named after his father), and has raised a militia dubbed the "Imam Mahdi Army", which has several times engaged in violent conflicts with occupation forces. He is rumored to be responsible for the assassination of Imam Abdul Majid al-Khoei and several other prominent attacks, including the car-bombing assassination of rival Shi'a leader Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.

The CPA has on several occassions threatened to arrest al-Sadr, but so far has not attempted to do so, possibly due to the threat of civil unrest as a result.