His Bio

Muqtada Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr was born on 12 Aug., 1973 in his grandfather house in al-Amarah neighborhood in Najaf. He was raised in the Sadr family. After he completed middle school, he joined the Industrial High School and didn’t complete his studies there, so he went under pressure from his father, Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, to receive his lessons from, Ishaq al-Fayyad. He is a Shiite cleric and the leader of the Sadrist movement, which is considered the largest Shiite popular movement in Iraq, and the leader of Mahdi Army, al- yoom al- Maoud ( the Promised Day) Brigade and Saraya al- Salam militias.

before 2003

After the assassination of his father and brothers, Muqtada al-Sadr held  his father’s responsibilities, as he supervised the seminary schools, opened his father’s office, also established secret groups that targeted leaders and members of the Baath Party , the security services and offices of Baath Party in Basra within what is known as Al-Sadr uprising, where the gunmen took control of the city, killed the governor of Basra, and dozens of members and leaders of the Baath Party in the city. The most prominent media appearance of his followers during that era was in 2002 when they demonstrated in front of the Iraqi Ministry of media, demanding the release of detainees from Sadr’s supporters.

after 2003

The murder of al-Khoei was the first step for Muqtada al-Sadr in the long path of religious and political violence in Iraq, after which a court issued an arrest warrant and investigation against Muqtada .  Paul Bremer mentioned, that the Iraqi police actually worked to implement the arrest warrant for Muqtada, and asked the International alliance to assist in the arrest,  also he said that his team checked the arrest warrant and met the accused, it was proven to him that Muqtada al-Sadr was personally involved in the murder of Abdul Majeed al-Khoei, but the arrest didn’t happen.  

 Muqtada created the Mahdi Army, which worked on the sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites during the years 2006-2008.  Al-Sadda area in Baghdad was a terrifying land in which hundreds of corpses belonging to Sunni citizens were being kidnapped and killed by the Mahdi Army, as well as the rest of Baghdad, none of which was safe for the citizens of the capital (Shia and Sunni) alike.

After he froze the Mahdi Army, turning it into a militia under another name, he chose for this militia the name “Saraya al-Salam” and imposed its full control over the city of Samarra under the ground of protecting the Shiite shrines there from ISIS. However, this militia is involved in kidnappings, thefts, killing ,demographic change, and the acquisition of neighborhoods in the city. They had a major role in suppressing the October revolution, which began in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities in 2019.  al-Saraya militia committed murder and kidnapping crimes against demonstrators and activists. In Feb. 2020, after a series of violent acts carried out by the “blue hats” group affiliated with Saraya al-Salam militia in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Muqtada ordered this group to purify Sadrine Square in Najaf from demonstrators and sit-ins, whom the Sadrist movement called “infiltrators” . the stats of the massacre was at least 7 dead, and more than 140 unarmed wounded youths. 

Although his bloc won first place in the 2018 elections, this didn’t  prevent al-Sadr from maintaining the same position in the 2021 poll, as the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr won 73 seats out of 329, becoming the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament. for the next four years.

The most important crimes committed by Muqtada al-Sadr militias:

1. The bombing of more than 200 mosques in Baghdad for the Sunnis and hanging the muezzin of the Fattah Pasha mosque in Baghdad in the minaret.
2. Acquisition of thousands of acres of agricultural land in Diyala and Babil, making it the property of his militia .
3. Transforming the Medical City Hospital in Baghdad into a big trap to kill the opponents. The militia under the leadership of the governor al-Zamili, was killing civilians and selling the corpses to their families.
4. Stealing billions of Iraqi people’s money through a large number of affiliated ministers and representatives.
5. Opening camps outside Baghdad under the supervision of leaders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to train Arab terrorists .
6. Publishing fatwas of extremism and terrorism , calling for revolutions and chaos in a number of Arab countries, in coordination and agreement with the Iranian regime.

Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers are still above the law, they kill, burn, kidnap and attack anyone who disagrees with them, or criticize the policies of the Sadrist movement and its leader, the holy killer who pushes millions of his followers to the streets with a tweet on Twitter, brings them home with another tweet, wins them in the parliamentary elections for the second round.