Meet Iraq's future president.

[SoCalDem]

سيد مقتدى ...



Hojatoleslam Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr


Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr or Moktada al Sadr (سيد مقتدى الصدر Muqtadā aṣ-Ṣadr)

(born August 12, 1973) is an Iraqi theologian, political leader and militia commander.

Along with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, Sadr is one of the most influential religious and political figures in the country not holding any official title in the Iraqi government.

Muqtada al-Sadr is the fourth son of a famous Iraqi Shi‘a cleric, the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. He is also the son-in-law of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir As-Sadr.

Muqtada al-Sadr is of Lebanese ancestry. His great-grandfather is Ismail as-Sadr. Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, Muqtada al-Sadr's father, was a well-respected figure throughout the Shi'a Islamic world.

He was murdered, along with two of his sons, allegedly by the government of Saddam Hussein. Some do believe it was an inside job ordered in February 1999 from Najaf, the stronghold of the al-Sadr clan. Muqtada's father-in-law was executed by the Iraqi authorities in 1980. Muqtada is a cousin of the absented Imam Moussa as-Sadr, the Iranian-Lebanese founder of the popular Amal Movement

snip....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqtada_al-Sadr

........................................................

Anyone who thinks that al Maliki or anyone even remotely LIKE him, will end up running the show, is dreaming..


al Sadr's army has been on vacation, since the surge started. Why would he want to waste his resources and men during a beefing-up of American military?

Middle easterners measure time by the thousands' of years, they are patient, and they never forget an affront.

They are keeping score, and patiently going through the motions, because they know sooner or later we WILL leave, and once we are downsized or gone, al Sadr will step up and claim Iraq for his own...

The people will support him, and the ones who don't will be "dealt with"..

We are currently tidying up the Green Zone for his eventual occupation, and he knows it.. If you planned to steal a classic car, it would be smart to wait until it's completely restored, before you steal it :)

[roody]

1. I hope he gets the dental work he needs.

[napi21]

2. I've guessed Al Sadr would be the ruler of Iraq for quite a while now.

He's the one who appears to have the power and forces to do so. Maliki is a wuss and everyone knows it. I sure hope Shrub is happy that he's turned Iraq into a theological country in the ME! I'm not saying Saddam was a great guy....he wasn't! But Iraq was at least a sectarian state...one of the only ones in the ME. Good going Shrub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AlCzervik]

3. woohoo! How many years until we re-liberate them again?

or do we just stick to not giving a shit? Hey, how are you, listen i know we ruined your country and destroyed what was left of your infrastructure and killed a whole bunch of your citizens and stuff but we were afraid you'd be a theocracy so in order for that to happen you understand why we did what we did, right, huh, no hard feelings and hey, you will end up have that theocracy but it was done by us so it's cool right? Kthanxbai.

[SoCalDem]

5. The child of our enemy, is the enemy of our child

One generatiom oughta do it :(

[Recursion]

4. Saad is a "sun letter" but US press always writes "al-Sadr"

The transliteration is "as-Sadr". US press obeys the transliteration rule for every other name I've seen. BBC writes "as-Sadr". I've just always wondered why this name is different.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Picture of Muqtada doing his best Cheney...

[SoCalDem]

7. or Putin

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Damn that is scary.

I still say he looks more like Cheney...

[AlCzervik]

9. Putin is just a scary mofo and he does whatever he damn well pleases.

i don't scare easy but that dude makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

[kskiska]

10. Or…