Sadr, Muqtada al- << SAH dur, mook TAH duh ehl >> (1974?-…), is an Iraqi Shī`ite Muslim cleric (clergyman) known for his radical views. His name is also spelled Moqtada. Al-Sadr strongly disagrees with many of his country’s Shī`ite leaders. During the Iraq War (2003-2011), he led his militia, the Mahdi army, in uprisings against the United States-led occupation of Iraq.
Al-Sadr comes from a prominent Iraqi Shī`ite Muslim family, and he is known as a sayyid (descendant of the Prophet Muhammad). His uncle, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, was killed in 1980 by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime. In 1999, two of Muqtada’s brothers and his father, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, were also killed. Saddam City, a Shī`ah neighborhood of Baghdad, was renamed Sadr City in Muqtada’s father’s honor.
The Iraq War began in March 2003 when U.S.-led forces launched a military campaign that led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. After Hussein was removed from power, al-Sadr became an outspoken critic of the occupation of Iraq. In mid-2003, he created the Mahdi army. In March 2004, coalition authorities banned a radical newspaper that al-Sadr had established. The authorities claimed that he used the paper to stir anti-U.S. sentiments and to incite violence. In mid-2004, al-Sadr led the Mahdi army in uprisings in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, and in the cities of Najaf, Al Amarah, and Al Kufah. Iraq’s most influential Shī`ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, helped arrange truces between al-Sadr and the coalition forces.
