• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

For the Mahdi Army, it’s the ‘glory of jihad’

Apr 8, 2004 9:37 am By Robert Spencer

07sadr3.jpeg
“We will die for you, O Sadr”

“To the press, Husseini vowed to step up the jihad ‘to the last drop of blood,’ even though ‘we are a peaceful group.'” Mmm-hmm. From the Jerusalem Post:

Palestinian fedayeen fighters have joined the ranks of the rebel Mahdi Army militia in recent days, militia leaders here told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.

The coalition forces accuse firebrand Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army of stirring up a rebellion in a swath of predominately Shi’ite cities in the center and south of the country that led to more than 100 Iraqi and 20 coalition forces’ deaths.

Some 25 Palestinian fighters volunteered as suicide bombers against American troops, Sa’id Amr al-Husseini, one of Sadr’s leading lieutenants said Wednesday at the headquarters of the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, Baghdad’s largest Shi’ite neighborhood.

“Yesterday the Palestinians came to these headquarters and expressed their desire to be martyrs, ready for sacrifice at the order of the Hawza,” Husseini said.

The Hawza is Iraq’s leading Shi’ite clerical order, believed to wield immense power among Shi’ites.

The Mahdi Army’s claim could not be independently confirmed, though Sunni leaders are increasingly willing to share in the “glory of jihad with the Shi’ites,” said Abd Satar Jabani, imam of Baghdad’s largest Wahhabi mosque on Tuesday.

In the complex tangle of Iraqi politics, Saddam Hussein’s abuse of the Shi’ite majority and his championing of the Palestinians made natural enemies of the two groups.

But Husseini, using the catchword of “united jihad,” said the war against the American occupiers has brought Iraqis, Sunni and Shi’ite, “together for martyrdom.”

Sheikhs, tribal leaders, even businessmen have crowded into his cramped office since the start of the Shi’ite insurrection to offer, money, guns, and food to the outlawed militia, he said.

At the militia’s stronghold in Sadr City, black clad militiamen strut in and out, antique knives tucked into their trousers, pistols stuffed into belt loops.

Husseini blamed the the bloodshed on the coalition forces. But internal pressure for a cease-fire among Shi’ites is mounting, even as clashes resumed Wednesday night.

Shi’ite clerics, tribal sheikhs, and even Governing Council members are sending countless missives to Sadr in an effort to broker a cease-fire that would end the bloodshed.

Sadr, holed up in Najaf, has balked. He will not fight, he said in a statement Wednesday. His fate will be “either assassination and martyrdom or arrest.” Sadr’s brinkmanship and the coalition’s determination to rid Iraq of the Mahdi Army s semi-organized confederations of outlaw fighters has disrupted what had been cordial US-Shi’ite relations.

In Sadr City, US tanks parked outside the main police headquarters, engines running. When I visited Iraq just after the war last April, dozens of children would hang out beside G.I.s, leaning on their shoulders, prattling jovially in a language the soldiers never understood.

Instead of jokes, the youths, once affectionately dubbed “seagulls” by troops for their habit of flocking around soldiers, now yell catcalls. Now tank turrets swing back and forth at those approaching the troops, who rarely step out from their steel protection. Soldiers refused to talk. “Get out of here, it’s too dangerous,” screamed one from a tank.

“We’ve reached a moment of truth,” a US official told The Washington Post. “We have to get [Fallujah and the new Shi’ite uprising] right or there are serious questions about whether this political transition can go forward.”

While fighting raged in Fallujah and Ramadi, there were signs the Shi’ite uprising might be close to burning itself out. A new poster crowned the Mahdi Army fort here — a portrait of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

It was a gesture aimed both at paying lip service to moderate Shi’ite leaders and recruiting of a broader segment of Shi’ite for Sadr’s swelling army.

After four straight days of bloody battles in which an estimated 150 Shi’ites and about a dozen coalition troops lost their lives, Husseini’s office hummed with activity. He handed out $100 bills to followers out of a bulky black plastic bag. Simultaneously, he dealt with a delegation of three Shi’ite tribal leaders urging calm.

Scanning a fax, he begrudgingly acquiesced to their demands: that the Mahdi Army cease fire and allow police to return to their stations. In exchange, US tanks, guns pointed at Husseini’s office 400 meters away, would leave, and no harm would come to Sadr.

Sadr is wanted by the coalition forces both for links to the murder of another Shi’ite cleric last April and for fomenting the current uprising.

To the press, Husseini vowed to step up the jihad “to the last drop of blood,” even though “we are a peaceful group.”

“The quiet you see now, during the day, is misleading. The Americans come at night, with tanks, and that is when the fighting takes place,” he said. He made no mention of concessions, no reference to compromise.

Not that they have much choice. Coalition forces here have essentially given up negotiating with Sadr, essentially declaring war. For his part Sadr refused to back down, too proud to lose face among his people. But sources in the Governing Council said late Wednesday that they are working on a plan to end the Shi’ite impasse.

Shiekh Abdel Karim al-Mahameidi, a Governing Council member from the marshlands in the south, said his group would send a delegation to Sadr’s base in Najaf on Thursday to stop the bloodshed.

Just steps away from the Mahdi Army fort Wednesday afternoon, two old men leaned against a bullet-pocked wall. They were watching youths at the little compound’s gates chant: “We will die for you, O Sadr.”

“Really,” said Kaddum Abdullah, who said he was 50, but looked 80. “We are tired from Saddam. The US came here to free us, so that is what we want them to do; enough of this fighting.”

A boy distributing posters of a scowling Sadr walked up and offered the men one. A reporter gladly took one and stuffed it into his bag. The old men politely declined. “No thank you,” said the second man, “we see enough of him already.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • janicevanguilder on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • Boycott Turkey on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
  • Yogi on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe
  • Hoi Polloi on Why so many Muslims can’t wait for Biden to get inaugurated
  • Hoi Polloi on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.