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562*MIDDLBEAST JOURNAL
Basra is often blamed on al-Hakim's Supreme Council for Isiamic Revolution in Iraq,
the Sadr Movement is a considerable force in the city in its own right. 64 Still, the
demands of the protesters were remarkably local, having to do with discontents about
the way the British were running the city and with their appointees to the governing
council.
FACIIONAUSM
Muqtada al-Sadr ma4e a trip to Iran for a week beginning June 7, meeting'with
high Iranian authorities and with his mentor, Ayatollah Kazim al-Ha'iri. Given the
subsequent tension that developed between the two, this meeting may not have gone
well. The Iranians had supplied food and other aide to Sadr Movement clerics in East
Baghdad, allowing them to gai.n popularity by providing services to the people. Muqtada
may have been seeking further such aid. If so, the Iranians wanted a quid pro quo.
They wanted the exclusivist and sectarian Sadr Movement to avoid any further internal
Shi'ite clashes such as had broken out over al-Khu'i's arrival in Najaf in early
April. Former Iranian president and head of the Expediency Council, 'Ali Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanja~i, said "All Iraqi Shiite groups and fighters, especially those ofthe
Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, should keep their unity and
work for Iraq's interests by combatting internal and external conspiracies."6S
Rafsanjani's pleading was not entirely successful. By late June, Muqtada was
telling journalist Hazim aI-Amin that there was no coordination between him and the
other Shi'ite leaders in Najaf, and that itwas the fault ofGrand Ayatollah Sistani and
his colleagues, who were apolitical because they were not Iraqis. (This is a reference
to his father's theory ofthe "al-Hawza al-Natiqa" or the "Speaking Religious Authority:'
the mantle of which Muqtada now claims). AI-Amin also reported thatSistani
and Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir aI-Hakim of SCIRI had grown closer, in hopes of
uniting against the threat of the exclusivist and powerful Sadr Movement. Muqtada
told him that he believes in the Khomeinist theory of the role ofthe jurisprudent, but
-Continuedfrom Previous Page
Ilhilworldlmiddle_east/2972308.stm ; "Iraqis protest against new British. roler in Basra :' Agence
france Presse, June I, 2003; "Iraqis protest against British role in Basra:'Agence France Presse, June
IS, 2003.
64.. Andrzej Rybak, "Irak.Tageblicher: Basra holt Schwung JUr den Neubeginn," ["Iraq Diary:
Basra gets Momentum for a New Beginning:' Financial 'limes Deutschland, AprilS, 2003 at http://
www.ftd.deJpw/inlIOS0940024444.html?nv=tn-rs. He says, "Viele unterstiitzen den jungen
'Religionsgelehrten Muqtada al·Sadraus Nadschaf, der gegen die Priisenzder USA in Irak. '.• eintritt."
[Many .Support the Young Religious Scholar Muqtada al·Sadr of Najaf, who Stands against the US
Presence in Iraq:']
65. "Iran's Rafsanjani Appeals for UnityAmong Rival Iraqi ShiiteGroups:'Agence France-Presse,
June 8,2003,. See also "Muqtada al·Sadr)'abhathfi Qumm lawdatal-Ha'iriila al-Najaf," ["Muqtada
al-Sa~r discusses in Qom the Return ofal-Ha'iri to Najar'), AI-ZLzman, June 6, 2003..
1CW12oo3. 4:00 PM