Why Does Muqtada al‑Sadr Expect Us to Believe Him?

Muqtada al‑Sadr’s latest announcement—that his militia, Saraya al‑Salam, will be “integrated” into the Iraqi security forces—has been received with a mixture of skepticism and déjà vu inside Iraq. For many Iraqis, this is not a reformist gesture but another attempt by a political cleric to reinvent himself at a moment of shifting power balances. The question that imposes itself is simple: why does Sadr expect Iraqis, or the international community, to believe him now? The answer begins with the nature of the movement he leads. Few episodes illustrate the contradictions of the Sadrist current more clearly than the trajectory of one of the former commanders of the Mahdi Army who defected years ago and sought asylum in Britain. Once a […]