A Statement by Muqtada al-Sadr

A Statement by Muqtada al-Sadr
Translated by Nathaniel Rabkin

God has said in His book: “indeed, they are youths who believed in their Lord and We have given them guidance . . .”

O men and soldiers of God, friends and partisans of God, followers and allies of the Imam, O army and followers of the Imam, may God bless you with life. Peace be upon you, as well as God’s blessings and His mercy.

By God, you have already melted the hearts of the enemy. You have adopted a position which enrages the infidels. We congratulate you on God’s victory and on the conquest which will soon come. We also applaud the love and obedience you have shown to your Hawzah [institution of Shi’ite religious learning] by your unity. Your standing together has terrified the occupier and his tails, and by standing in one rank, like a metal facade, against the attacks of the occupier and his followers you have shown your strength and your ability to liberate Iraq in the future. May God bless your efforts, and may you continue in your Jihad and in your resistance of the occupier, who has trampled your land, assaulted its sacred places, killed our young men, our women, our children and our old people without distinction, who has shelled our cities, and who has attacked our honor, our wealth, our scholars, our doctors, our professors, our government officials, our clerics [marjas], our lands and our unity. The occupier has also planted discord between us, and brought a project which it has named “democracy.” The occupier, along with a group of its followers, has made this project an excuse for striking the Iraqi people, wronging it, killing it, displacing it and arresting it.

But I am certain that our army and police, who have turned their eyes towards God and filled their hearts with love of the homeland and who see the Iraqi people as their brothers, have not and will not extend their hands to kill or arrest their sons and brothers, and certainly not their fathers and mothers. They have not and will not stain their hands with the blood of their people and their families by torturing them in American or other prisons, as the occupier has done to us, and as the destroyer [presumably Saddam Hussein] did before the occupier.

O death defying Army of Iraq, O steadfast Iraqi police: we have opened our hearts to you, and filled them with love. We have spread out our hands to you, holding olive branches and the Book of God [i.e., the Qur’an]. Do you love Islam and peace? If so, then I call you to help your besieged brothers and arrested sons, the wounded Iraqis who cannot find space in Iraq’s hospitals or treatment from its doctors. Unite with your mujahidin brothers for the liberation and independence of Iraq, and for the unity of its population and its territory. We will not be divided by elections, by democracy, by Americans, nor by occupiers, interlopers, Baa’thists or despicable sectarian partisans. May God reward you as he rewards those who do good. I ask God to make you a shield for Iraq, its people, its land, and its unity, and not for the occupier and his tails. For obedience to God should be above all things.

And yet, at the same time, we see the extent of the deployment of security forces ordered by Maliki’s government, and the extent of the escalation which it is undertaking against the people in all corners of Iraq. It is as if the people of Iraq, either the greater part of them or all of them, are wanted criminals. This recalls the statement of one of the oppressors, who unfortunately made the whole Iraqi people, of all creeds and religions, followers of the occupation.

If the deployment of the security forces shows anything, it shows that the government is still under the despicable pressure of the Americans, their lowly, hateful policies of deception, and their unjust power. Therefore, this government is trying to prevent the annual Million Strong demonstration against the occupation, and to prevent believers from participating in the elections. It is also working to lay the groundwork of the American project which dictates that Iraq be divided along sectarian and ethnic lines.

By God, even the destroyer [presumably Saddam Hussein] did not openly prevent the pilgrimage to Imam Hussein (God’s mercy be upon him); rather, he prevented it by spreading out checkpoints and roadblocks, by planting spies, by displaying weapons, and through other well known means. And now, we see with our own eyes, the same methods. Therefore, I call on those of the beloved Iraqi people who wish to demonstrate against the occupation to delay their protest, out of my fear for them and out of my determination to preserve their blood. By God, I fear that an Iraqi hand will be raised against you, and I expect that the Americans will raise their hands against you.

You should know that one of the most prominent members of the current government threatened last year to organize a million strong demonstration in support of the occupation, just as you organized a million strong demonstration against it. Know, I challenge him to bring this plan to fruition. If this shows anything, it shows the truth of what he told me himself a few years ago: that he “fears the occupier.”

Well [addressing the aforementioned politician], if you’re afraid of the occupier, the heroic and steadfast Iraqi mujahid has not and will not fear him. Our fierce shout and our Million Strong demonstration will take place at some other time, God willing, and will shake the seats of the tails [i.e., of the “occupier], and after them, those of the masters.

I call on the Iraqi government, if it exists at all, to try to defend the Iraqi people and to spare it the violation of its blood and honor. I call on it to defend the Iraqi people from the hateful sectarianism and partisanship which has spread in all of is offices and positions, to protect the Iraqi people from the car bombs, from the American militias which call themselves “corporations.” I call on the government to demand that the occupier leave or present a timetable for the occupation’s presence on our holy soil, and that it stop seeking the impossible. Let it attempt to provide services, security, stability, independence, and livelihood for the oppressed Iraqi people. Let it seek to please God by pleasing our religious leaders [marjas] and scholars, let it protect our religions, sects, and minorities, the Christians, Shabek, Assyrians and Chaldeans. Let it protect our sanctities and our clerics, rather than killing our people and threatening to annihilate it.

The Iraqi government should know that the army of the Imam al-Mahdi will continue to work hand in hand with the people of Iraq to provide this people with the security, stability, independence, liberation, unity, and brotherhood which it needs. And if it is necessary, the freeze will end so that we can realize our goals, our beliefs, our faith, our principles and our patriotism. We will do this in good time, and in an independent statement.

And finally, I say: peace be upon the martyrs of Iraq who were killed, first by the infidel Ba’ath, secondly by the occupation, thirdly by its tails, and fourthly by terrorism. Peace be upon the prisoners of Iraq. I raise my voice to call for their release, to call for arrest warrants to be executed justly and to be executed against the interlopers and against those who have bloodied their hands through murder and torture. Peace be upon the persevering, brotherly, mujahid demonstrators, as well as God’s blessings and His mercy.

Muqtada al-Sadr

[undated, but posted on the internet at http://al3marh.net/news/article848.html on April 8, 2008]