How Radical is alSadr?

[MaryH]

Is he one of the really radical clerics - or is he more of a moderate?

Sounds like he and Sistani don't get along very well.

The last I heard the govt had re-opened his newspaper and was making overatures to get him to be part of the new government. A couple of days ago I think I heard where the new government was slamming him and threatening to arrest him. And now everything has just gone completely out of control.

[pocket]

1. well...

his supporters are assassinating people who sell alcohol and western 'pornography', so I don't think he is so moderate.

[aneerkoinos]

2. Not moderate

But likely not wahhabi-like purist radical either. He's a leader of the (mainly) political and social Sadrist movement (the only one that gives hope for the poorest people in Iraq after the communists sold out to the occupiers, so I guess even though he's socially conservative - or medieval? - he's economically on the left). He's not a religious authority (too young and uneducated for that) like Sistani of Khomeini, but first and formost a political leader.

That's what I've gathered fro http://www.juancole.com

[rumguy]

3. He's a fundamentalist

and like fundys anywhere he is scary

[MaryH]

4. How Do We Know?

We just see what they have on TV. And we can't understand a word he says.

Maybe he is really the good guy in disguise. If he represents the poor he might just be OK.

Just a thought.

[sangh0]

5. Let me put it this way

He may be ABB, but he still has to EARN my vote. :-)

[Karenina]

6. That is not YOUR problem.

YOUR problem is how radical is YOUR gub'mint that LIES to bomb a weak nation (50% KIDS) to shit, rounds up innocent civilians and TORTURES THEM, gets caught with rotten egg in it's face for all the reasons it's given for such RAMPANT DESTRUCTION, is STEALING ITS VICTIM and !!!YOU!!! blind and has taken you from being a loved and respected people to one HATED AND REVILED AND PITIED, No dear, Al Sadr is NOT your problem

[bemildred]

7. He's not a radical.

He wants sharia law, which has a rather long history of working
well in dar-al-islam, and he is some sort of Iraqi/Arab nationalist.
He wants self-determination for his constituency. If we leave him
and his people alone, he will leave us alone, what is radical about
that? FWIW there are no islamic clerics that are NOT going to want
some form of sharia law. It's like asking a christian cleric to
repudiate the ten commandments.

[maxsolomon]

8. he's radical enough to run shiitestan

when iraq disintegrates.

is he crazy enough to invade sunnistan? i don't think he is.

[Aidoneus]

9. Sistani..

seems to protect him on occasion, from for example the disgraced collaborator parties like SCIRI. One can act as the other cannot and do well for it, so there is a sort of complimenting between their natures. It is not without the usual trappings of rivalry, being a close #1/#2 in terms of Iraqi Idol results.

The terms "radical" and "moderate" would have to be decently defined before use, and that usually just boils down to a variation on how "Team A" and "Team B" describe each other. That is a useless, but dominant way..

It was actually not the newspaper that set things off before, but the massacre carried out by Spanish occupation forces in Najaf and US forces in Madinat as-Sadr. That is being re-created, as Marines recently made either threatening postures or a stupid blunder, depending on which CYA story to believe..