US policy makers might need to deeply think of these good point by Amy proctor. I don't know who the writer is and of what back ground, but we might need to get out of the steriotype US main media style of thinking of bad and good , real life is a complex mix.
Shall we expect another "Sahwa "awakening ?. This time , might be by the US policy makers ! Sunii insurgents are not the only milestone, Sader and his poor gangs need to be accomodated to.
QUOTE
Amy Proctor said... DANG IT! And just when CNN was starting to report on Iraq again! It's over so soon!
FYI, I want to post this bit of information from my husband, MSG Proctor, who is a subject matter expert in the Army on Religious Leader Engagements in the war (i.e., how to deal with imams, sheiks and clerics to win the war).
Moqtada al Sadr is one of the most misunderstood figures in the Iraq war.
Far from being a terrorist or even a jihadist, Sadr is a very serious Hojat al Islam (advanced student of Islam) with a most sincere approach to his religious faith. Sadr's Uncle was assassinated by Saddam in 1981 and Sadr's father, the Ayatollah Sadiq al Sadr was one of the most courageous clerics in Iraq who stood up to Saddam and was executed in 1999. Two of Moqtada's brothers were also murdered by Saddam's brutal and often godless regime.
Sadr is being completely consistent with Shia Islam is his uncompromising declaration that the Americans must leave Iraq. Sadr's Mahdi Army has defended Sadr city from Sunni insurgents and terrorists as well as provided substantial social support to impoverished Shiites.
Newsweek's sensationalist cover story is fatally flawed entertainment - not journalism. Without covering the background of the brutal and bloody oppression of Iraq's Shia by the Baath Party Saddamist machine and the catastrophic failure of America to protect Iraaq's majority Shia after the first Gulf War 1990-1991, it is impossible to understand Sadr.
Sadr, or how he is referred to by General Petraeus, Sayid Moqtada al Sadr (an honorific title acknowledging his descent from the Prophet Mohammed's family), has abandoned military operations (in all but the most necessary situations of self defense for his Shiite followers) in favor of theology. His says he now wants to fight with doctrine and scholarship. Sadr is studying in the Najaf Hawza (the massive Shiite seminary complex) to become an Ayatollah, a process that takes many years and intense scholarship efforts.
Unless one weighs in theological factors such as the Shiite belief in the 12th or "Hidden Imam" who is to return at the end of time to establish justice and brotherhood on the earth, one can only see the angry cleric with clenched fist and scowling visage. I am not a Muslim nor do I believe in Islam, but to paint such an insulting and inaccurate caricature of Sayid Moqtada al Sadr such as Newsweek's cover story will only hurt the US interests in the region.
Islam will outlive all our efforts to establish a democratic regime in Iraq, and any success by the US and Coalition partners will require a change of heart about Iraqi clerics who defacto run the country. Our own distorted and unconstitutional aversion to all things religious is backfiring on our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Counterinsurgency requires the host nation, not the interventionists to win - on their terms, with their own cultural norms. We will never succeed in counterinsurgency operations in religious societies when we openly mock their religious leaders (and by extension, their religion). This may actually be contributing to the American body count; and wreckless American journalists may be fueling the very sincere efforts of some in Iraq to defend their belief in God.
FYI, I want to post this bit of information from my husband, MSG Proctor, who is a subject matter expert in the Army on Religious Leader Engagements in the war (i.e., how to deal with imams, sheiks and clerics to win the war).
Moqtada al Sadr is one of the most misunderstood figures in the Iraq war.
Far from being a terrorist or even a jihadist, Sadr is a very serious Hojat al Islam (advanced student of Islam) with a most sincere approach to his religious faith. Sadr's Uncle was assassinated by Saddam in 1981 and Sadr's father, the Ayatollah Sadiq al Sadr was one of the most courageous clerics in Iraq who stood up to Saddam and was executed in 1999. Two of Moqtada's brothers were also murdered by Saddam's brutal and often godless regime.
Sadr is being completely consistent with Shia Islam is his uncompromising declaration that the Americans must leave Iraq. Sadr's Mahdi Army has defended Sadr city from Sunni insurgents and terrorists as well as provided substantial social support to impoverished Shiites.
Newsweek's sensationalist cover story is fatally flawed entertainment - not journalism. Without covering the background of the brutal and bloody oppression of Iraq's Shia by the Baath Party Saddamist machine and the catastrophic failure of America to protect Iraaq's majority Shia after the first Gulf War 1990-1991, it is impossible to understand Sadr.
Sadr, or how he is referred to by General Petraeus, Sayid Moqtada al Sadr (an honorific title acknowledging his descent from the Prophet Mohammed's family), has abandoned military operations (in all but the most necessary situations of self defense for his Shiite followers) in favor of theology. His says he now wants to fight with doctrine and scholarship. Sadr is studying in the Najaf Hawza (the massive Shiite seminary complex) to become an Ayatollah, a process that takes many years and intense scholarship efforts.
Unless one weighs in theological factors such as the Shiite belief in the 12th or "Hidden Imam" who is to return at the end of time to establish justice and brotherhood on the earth, one can only see the angry cleric with clenched fist and scowling visage. I am not a Muslim nor do I believe in Islam, but to paint such an insulting and inaccurate caricature of Sayid Moqtada al Sadr such as Newsweek's cover story will only hurt the US interests in the region.
Islam will outlive all our efforts to establish a democratic regime in Iraq, and any success by the US and Coalition partners will require a change of heart about Iraqi clerics who defacto run the country. Our own distorted and unconstitutional aversion to all things religious is backfiring on our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Counterinsurgency requires the host nation, not the interventionists to win - on their terms, with their own cultural norms. We will never succeed in counterinsurgency operations in religious societies when we openly mock their religious leaders (and by extension, their religion). This may actually be contributing to the American body count; and wreckless American journalists may be fueling the very sincere efforts of some in Iraq to defend their belief in God.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/03/...at-al-sadr.html