In the shadow of Sistani.

• Author: Enders, David
• Position: Moqtada Al-Sadr

The first time I asked a U.S. military commander about the young cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, in Najaf, the response from the Marine was: "We think he's on drugs." This was in September 2003, a few days after Sadr, who is the son of a famous cleric slain by Saddam, announced he was forming a militia. The following August, Sadr's militia clashed openly with the U.S. military. Since then, his power has only grown.

But if the American military still downplays Sadr's influence, the Iraqi government is trying not to make the same mistake. Over the summer, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari visited Sadr on the same day he traveled to Najaf to visit the Grand Ayatollah All Al-Sistank A year ago, this sort of recognition would have been unthinkable.

And when tensions reached a boiling point this May between Sunni leaders and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq because of allegations that the council's Badr security forces have been rounding up and killing Sunnis, it was Sadr who mediated between the two groups.

In October, Sadr announced for the first time that he would actively encourage his followers to run in U.S.-backed elections for the national assembly, a body that is increasingly focusing on evicting the American military through legislative means. Sadr joined forces with the United Iraqi Alliance, which means that his candidates will run on a ticket with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and Jaafari's Dawa Party. The move is a canny way to prevent Shiite voters from having to pick between candidates at the polls.

Currently, Sadr counts on twenty-four members of parliament, as well as three ministers. In the areas controlled by those ministries, women complain of being forced to dress in accordance with Islamic law. And the Sadrist minister of transportation has taken liquor out of Baghdad's duty-free shop at the airport.

Ali is a musician in Sadr City, and since the invasion, he has not been able to play in public for fear of retribution from militias.

"In the past, we used to do our job normally," says Ali. "But the current government does not care enough to protect us because the Islamists think that music affects Islam negatively."

Vehemently nationalist, Sadr appeals to a younger generation of Shiites and to some disenfranchised Sunnis. His power belies the simplistic Shiite vs. Sunni story that the mainstream media have been peddling. The rift among the Shiites also threatens the stability of Iraq.

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