Menghini, Pietro (2024) A History of the Sadrist Movement of Iraq (1991 – 2003): Navigating Tolerated Opposition and Open Rebellion. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

On the evening of February 19, 1999, in Najaf, the popular religious leader Muḥammad Muḥammad Ṣādiq al-Ṣadr, along with his two sons, Muṣṭafà and Muʾmal, were assassinated by the Iraqi Ba’athist regime. This act followed a brief but tense confrontation between Saddam Hussein’s regime and Ṣadr, who had garnered increasing support from the Iraqi Shi’a community. Saddam Hussein had persistently urged Ṣadr and his followers to acknowledge his rule during Friday prayer gatherings, ultimately leading to the arrest of some of Ṣadr’s representatives who refused to comply. In retaliation, Ṣadr threatened large-scale demonstrations if the detainees were not released. Such overt threats were intolerable to the regime, resulting in Ṣadr’s assassination in Najaf. This incident and the martyrdom of al-Ṣadr became the foundational myth of the Sadrist Movement, one of the most significant and active post-2003 Iraqi political movements, led by one of Ṣadr’s surviving sons, Muqtadà. Despite Ṣadr’s opposition to Saddam being central to the Sadrist Movement’s legitimacy claims, detailed information about the Ṣadr-Saddam confrontation and what led to it remains scarce. Given that the Sadrist legacy from the 1990s continues to be a pivotal element in the movement’s post-2003 legitimizing narrative, a thorough reconstruction of this period is crucial for understanding the movement’s deep-rooted connection to Iraqi society and how the lack of such acknowledgment led to misjudgments about the Sadrists by academic, analysts and, not least, the United States military in the post-2003 era. This research proposes to rectify this deficit by continuing a comprehensive investigation and reconstruction of the origins and formation of the Sadrist Movement during the 1990s and its confrontation with Saddam’s government. The research will employ a multifaceted approach, combining historical analysis, archival research, and interviews with key figures and experts in the field. The study’s narrative will commence in 1991 with the Intifāḍah Šaʿbāniyyah and conclude in 2003, just before the US-led invasion of Iraq. The study will first reconstruct the environment of Islamist opposition in Iraq at the end of the 1980s, following nearly a decade of war with Iran, a two-decades-long repression by the Ba’ath Party, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, UN sanctions, and the 1991 Intifāḍah. Additionally, Hussein tried to capitalize on the global rise of Islamist movements: his “Faith Campaign” influenced the political and social climate in Iraq during the 1990s by introducing religious rhetoric and symbology into the Ba’ath Party discourse. The sectarian repression of the 1991 Intifāḍah further accentuated the demand for sect-centered leadership from the Shi’a community. In addition, the 1992 death of Marğaʿ al-Aʿlà, Abū al-Qāsem al-Ḫūʾī triggered a power struggle among Shi’a clerical hierarchies in Najaf. All this set the stage for Ṣadr’s rise. The research will delve into how Ṣadr began to attract followers between 1993 and 1996, utilizing his Marğaʿ’s network of representatives (wukalāʾ or mumaṯilīn) to disseminate his ideas and establish a widespread, though informal, organization across southern and central Iraq. During this formative period, Ṣadr’s representatives organized prayer and religious study groups in various locations, building the movement’s structure, spreading the leader’s name, and forming a following. These early activities, often overlooked by research on Sadrism, were instrumental in laying the groundwork for Sadrism as an Islamist movement that could address contemporary issues in Iraqi society and politics through a religious framework. Small prayer gatherings and Qur’an study groups served as crucial mobilization tools within an authoritarian context. The research will then explore the peak and decline of the Sadrist Movement during the 1990s, from the initiation of public Friday prayer gatherings in April 1997 and the movement’s rapid expansion to February 1999 and the assassination of its charismatic leader. Although this period is relatively better known compared to the movement’s early development, it remains inadequately explored. This study will map Friday prayers, analyze Ṣadr’s and his representatives’ sermons, and examine the regime’s responses. The revolts following Ṣadr’s assassination, the Ṣadr Intifāḍah, and the subsequent anti-Ba’athist campaigns are also underexplored. Additionally, the study will assess the movement’s evolution after Ṣadr’s death and the internal power struggle that ensued. Investigating these aspects is essential to understanding the origins of the contemporary Sadrist Movement, its claims to legitimacy within the Iraqi political arena, and its profound relationship with Iraqi society. Analyzing Sadrism’s development under Saddam Hussein’s regime also offers insights into the formation of opposition movements within authoritarian contexts. Ṣadr skillfully struck a balance in his interactions with the Ba’ath regime, avoiding direct confrontation while utilizing the regime’s interests to carve out a space for his movement. Concurrently, the regime saw Ṣadr as a potential tool to control and legitimize its position within the disaffected Shi’a community. Ṣadr’s anti-imperialism and religious rhetoric complemented Saddam Hussein’s claims against the US and Israel and aided in the regime’s Faith Campaign, while Ṣadr leveraged the limited freedoms granted to advance his goals within the Shi’a community. This research contributes to the discourse on opposition within authoritarian regimes, particularly focusing on “tolerated” anti-systemic opposition, which remains underexamined in the literature on Iraqi opposition. It provides a deeper understanding of how regimes tolerate opposition to manipulate various factions within the Iraqi context. The research is based on diverse oral and written sources. Extended research visits to Stanford University have already enabled the collection of information from the Ba’ath Party Archive at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives. Additionally, research trips to Iraq in the Winter and Spring of 2024 facilitated interviews with Ṣadr’s representatives and Sadrist activists from the 1990s, examination of internal Movement documents, retrieval of the movement’s publications (such as al-Hūdà journal), and acquisition of rare Sadrist memoirs. While the archival sources offered valuable, albeit regime-centric, information, the interviews and documents collected in Iraq provide crucial internal perspectives on the origins of Sadrism.

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