Sadrist Movement

The Sadrist Movement (Arabic: التيار الصدري‎‎ al-Tayyār al-Sadri) is an Iraqi Islamic national movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr. The movement draws wide support from across Iraqi society and especially from the Shi'a poor in the country. The most important person in setting the goals and the philosophy of the movement was Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. A prominent preceding influence had also been Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr. The movement is religious and populist. Its goal is a society ordered by a combination of religious laws and tribal customs. The Islamic Virtue Party is a smaller, rival branch of the Sadrist movement.

2009 Governorate Elections

During the Iraqi governorate elections, 2009 Sadrists ran under the name Independent Free Movement.

Results

The list received 9.8% of the vote and 43 out of 440 seats, coming third overall to the State of Law Coalition and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.^[2][3][4]

2010 Parliamentary Election

During the Iraqi parliamentary election, 2010 Sadrists were part of the National Iraqi Alliance.

In a press conference on 6 March 2010 ahead of the Iraqi parliamentary election, 2010, Muqtada al-Sadr called on all Iraqis to participate in the election and support those who seek to expel U.S. troops out of the country. Al-Sadr warned that any interference by the United States will be unacceptable. Al-Sadr, who has thousands of staunch followers across Iraq has consistently opposed the presence of foreign forces and repeatedly called for an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq.^[5][6]

Results

Involvement in the Syrian Civil War

In October 2012, various Iraqi religious sects join the conflict in Syria on both sides. Shiites from Iraq, in Babil Province and Diyala Province, have traveled to Damascus from Tehran, or from the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraq, claiming to protect Sayyida Zeinab, an important Shiite shrine in Damascus.^[7] According to Abu Mohamed, with the Sadrist Trend, said he recently received an invitation from the Sadrists' leadership to discuss the shrine in Damascus.^[7] A senior Sadrist official and former member of Parliament, speaking said that convoys of buses from Najaf, under the cover story of pilgrims, were carrying weapons and fighters to Damascus.^[7] Some of the pilgrims were members of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.^[7] Some Shiites "describe the Syrian conflict as the beginning of the fulfillment of a Shiite prophecy that presages the end of time by predicting that an army, headed by a devil-like figure named Sufyani, will rise in Syria and then conquer Iraq's Shiites."^[7] According to Hassan al-Rubaie, a Shiite cleric from Diyala Province, "The destruction of the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab in Syria will mean the start of sectarian civil war in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia." ^[7]

References