The Movement for the National Liberation of Iraq from Foreign Occupation is upon us, and if Muqtada al-Sadr gets his way, he will be leading it. At least that’s what he hopes. Muqtada al-Sadr issued a call for Iraqis to protest the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad with an anti-American protest by way of a statement read out loud by a senior member of his movement on Friday in Sadr City. The protest is to take place in Najaf on April 9.

It would appear al-Sadr has been listening to the United States Congress and is simply going along with their lead.

One source opined, “I assume that thought will be given how to respond to legions of young Iraqis , parading down Sadr City, dressed in black, … BUT unarmed, with mothers and sisters in tow. One may hope there not be a shot heard, lest it become the volley heard around the provinces. This is nothing but the free-will exercise of a free people”

According to Al-Jazeera, al-Sadr said, “Fly Iraqi flags atop homes, apartment buildings and government departments to show the sovereignty and independence of Iraq,” … “[Show] that you reject the presence of American flags and those of other nations occupying our beloved Iraq…”

His statement was reported by Al-Jazeera to have been read to worshipers during Friday prayers at a mosque in Kufa, a holy Shia city south of Baghdad and the first by al-Sadr since March 14, when he called on his supporters to resist US forces in Iraq through peaceful means.

Sadr’s forces have been staying quiet, not causing problems or brandishing their weapons. The hope is that this protest will remain peaceful. We all know how easy it is for a group to be set off by some small offense. The fact that women and children will be in this group, reportedly, will hopefully be a sign that it is intended to be peaceful.

“I renew my call for the occupier (the United States) to leave our land,” said the statement. “The departure of the occupier will mean stability for Iraq, victory for Islam and peace and defeat for terrorism and infidels,” CNN news reported Friday.He pointed out the poverty, instability, violence and lack of essential services such as electricity and water in his nation since the U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003.

“Iraq has endured difficult years because of this oppressive occupation that claims it removed the destroyer (Saddam Hussein) to bring the ghost of a fake democracy,” Sadr said, according to reports in Australia’s Herald-Sun newspaper Friday. (source)

There were 16 Iraqis Killed in US Air Strike on Sadr City Friday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki called for restraint, urging Iraqis not to allow themselves to be divided by “evil doers”. Al-Sadr is supporting the Petraeus security plan:

“There is no alternative from the Baghdad security plan except anarchy. We in the Sadr bloc will continue to support the plan until we have security and order,” the head of the bloc in parliament, Nassar Al-Rubaie, told Reuters. As thousands of Iraqi and US troops have clamped down in Baghdad, the epicentre of the sectarian violence, and stepped up efforts to crush Al-Qaeda, the Sunni Islamist group has replied by unleashing what Petraeus called “sensational events”. (source)

However, the Washington Times has different take on the situation.

Shi’ite militiamen, who melted away from Baghdad when U.S. and Iraqi troops began their security crackdown seven weeks ago, are rolling back into the city with fresh Iranian training, Iraqi and other officials said. It is not clear whether the radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is in control of the newly trained group…U.S. forces are concerned that, despite Shi’ite leaders’ assurances that they have pulled their fighters off the streets, uncooperative militias will return and seek to destabilize efforts to secure the city. Videotapes and other evidence of Iranian propaganda have been found on people recently detained in Sadr City, said a member of one of the multiple Iraqi and U.S. security forces trying to return security to Baghdad.

Retired Ambassador of Pakistan to Iraq Karamtullah Khan Ghori , in Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English-speaking daily, writes in his opinion the security problems in Iraq are caused by the “inability to grasp the basics of the Iraqi tribal culture” a ” … centuries-old tradition of Arab tribes that they would only obey and honour a chief who was firm and resolute, and not a wobbly and bumbling gambol as Nuri Al Maliki is, or Iyad Alawi was.”

Moqtada Al Sadr holds the key to the Sadr City, the teeming hub of Shia rejuvenation in the heart of Baghdad. … He’s not only holding his peace but also holding his young, firebrand legions of Jaish Al Mehdi (JAM) in check, … By lying low in the face of the current military ‘surge’ he’s not only conserving his strength but also keeping his options wide open.

Digging into just who al-Sadr is, and his relationship to the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani:

Moqtada al-Sadr is the fourth son of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad al-Sadr, who was killed in 1999, along with two of his sons, by agents presumed to be working for Saddam Hussein, thus becoming one of the major symbols of Shi’a resistance to Saddam Hussein’s former regime. However, al-Sadr’s heterodoxical theology, his inherited position as Shi’a theological royalty, and his highly militant paramilitary force, the Mahdi Army, all put him in opposition to Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani’s softly-softly approach.As Rahimi writes in his analysis for The Jamestown Foundation:

“Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Sadrist movement, mainly dominated by Moqtada al-Sadr, has emerged as one of the most populist and grassroots currents in the post-Baathist era. Yet the militant movement has also posed the most serious threat to clerical orthodoxy and its conservative and quietist tradition, best embodied by Ayatollah al-Sistani.”

At first, al-Sadr made little effort to build bridges with al-Sistani … (More)

We will be watching al-Sadr’s protest and praying it is peaceful. Will Sadr show up for the protest? Wait and see.

Originally posted at Right Truth,  featured at Victory Caucus