Jaafar al-Sadr

Jaafar Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr (born about 1970[1]) is an Iraqi politician with the Shiite Islamist Islamic Dawa Party.

Early life

Al-Sadr is the only son of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shia cleric who was imprisoned, tortured and then executed by the government of Saddam Hussein in 1980 after he published a defence of the Iranian Revolution.[2] Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr is said to have been the ideological father of the Islamic Dawa Party.

Jaafar al-Sadr is the brother-in-law of Muqtada al-Sadr, who married his sister.[3] He also has family ties to Mohammad Khatami, the former reformists President of Iran.[4]

Al-Sadr studied in Baghdad and then Najaf, where he studied under his relative Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr.[4] He moved to Qom, in Iran, in 1999 where he studied under Ayatollah Kazem al-Haeri;[5] In 1998 he was arrested and his office closed down.[6] He was put under house arrest and jailed for six months (sources differ on this).[4] After Iran he moved to Beirut where he obtained a degree in Sociology and Anthropology.[1][7]

Political life

He returned to Iraq in 2009, six years after the invasion of Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein.[4] Jaafar al-Sadr was elected in 2010 as a member of the Council of Representatives within Baghdad Province for the State of Law Coalition of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He said he refused to join the Islamic Dawa Party founded by his father because he disagreed with the Islamist ideology but liked Maliki's platform of non-sectarianism and the rule of law. He said that years of studying Islam had convinced him that religion and politics don't mix and that he disagreed with his brother-in-law Muqtader al-Sadr on the use of violence to achieve political goals.[1]

He received 28,779 personal votes in the election, the second largest number of votes of anyone on this list after the Prime Minister.[8][5] Following the election, we was touted as a potential prime minister. Whilst negotiations were on-going on the formation of a new government, the Sadrists conducted a "referendum" among Sadrist supporters on who should become the Prime Minister; Jaafar came second, receiving support from 23% of the 1.2 million people who voted.[9][10][11][12]

He resigned from parliament in February 2011 in protest at the deterioration in services and the system of "patronage and cronyism".[13][7]

Al-Sadr was again cited as a potential Prime Minister following the 2018 election, where the list headed by his brother-in-law, Muqtada al-Sadr, was the surprise winner with 54 seats.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sly, Liz (2010-05-03). "An unlikely Iraqi leader emerges". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  2. ↑ Augustus R. Norton (19 January 2009). Hezbollah: A Short History. Princeton University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-691-14107-7. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Cockburn, Patrick (21 October 2008). Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq. Simon and Schuster. p. 112. ISBN 9781439141199.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Kaysi, Marina Ottaway, Danial. "Who Will Be the Next Prime Minister of Iraq?". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  5. 1 2 "Talisman Gate بـاب الطلــسم: Sadrist Referendum Results". talismangate.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  6. ↑ Mamouri, Ali (2018-05-22). "Can Iraq's Sadr swing nonsectarian government?". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  7. 1 2 "MP in Iraq PM's bloc resigns over "cronyism"". Now Media. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  8. ↑ "Jaafar al-Sadr : A confluence prime minister for Iraq". The Daily Star Newspaper - Lebanon. 2010-08-19. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  9. ↑ Muir, Jim (2 April 2010), "How Sadrist vote could anoint new Iraq PM", BBC News, retrieved 5 May 2010
  10. ↑ "Ex-Iraqi PM Jaafari wins Sadrist referendum", Press TV, 8 April 2010, retrieved 26 May 2010
  11. ↑ Muir, Jim (8 April 2010), "Iraqi water still muddy after Sadr vote", BBC News, retrieved 5 May 2010
  12. ↑ Ahmed, Hamid (8 April 2010), "Sadr followers spurn front-runners in Iraq", boston.com, retrieved 26 May 2010
  13. ↑ "Jaafar Al Sadr submits resignation From House Of Representatives". Bab News (via Dinar Vets Message Board). Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  14. ↑ Abadi Likely to Remain Iraq’s Prime Minister: Source, Tasnim News Agency, accessed 2018-05-28
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