Jaafar Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr (born 1970 in Najaf, Iraq[1]) is an Iraqi politician with the Shiite Islamist Islamic Dawa Party.

Early life

Al-Sadr is the only son and one of six children of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shia cleric who was imprisoned, tortured and then executed by the government of Saddam Hussein in 1980, after he published a defense of the Iranian Revolution.[2] Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr is said to have been the ideological father of the Islamic Dawa Party.

Jaafar al-Sadr is the brother-in-law of Muqtada al-Sadr, who married his sister.[3] He also has family ties to Mohammad Khatami, the former reformists President of Iran.[4]

After the death of his father when he was eight, he moved to al-Kadhimiya in Baghdad where he went to school and studied law at Baghdad University.[1] He then moved to Najaf, where he studied under his relative Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr.[4] He moved to Qom, in Iran, in 1998 where he studied under Ayatollah Kazem al-Haeri;[5] In 1998 he was arrested and his office closed down.[6] He was put under house arrest and jailed for six months (sources differ on this).[4] He moved to Beirut in 2006 where he obtained a degree in Sociology and Anthropology.[7][8] He has a son and three daughters.[1]

Political life

He returned to Iraq after the invasion of Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein - sources differ as to whether this was in 2003 or 2009.[4][1] Jaafar al-Sadr was elected in 2010 as a member of the Council of Representatives within Baghdad Province for the State of Law Coalition of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He said he refused to join the Islamic Dawa Party founded by his father because he disagreed with the Islamist ideology but liked Maliki's platform of non-sectarianism and the rule of law. He said that years of studying Islam had convinced him that religion and politics don't mix and that he disagreed with his brother-in-law Muqtader al-Sadr on the use of violence to achieve political goals.[7] He declared that he doesn't believe in a religious or a secular state, but in a "civil state, which is the formula closest to the British and German model of dealing between state and beliefs".[1] He said the invasion of Iraq was wrong even though Iraq was suffering from "an abhorrent dictatorship"; Iraqi people "needed help and understanding from the freedom-loving and anti-injustice peoples in the world and did not need an invasion and occupation".[1]

He received 28,779 personal votes in the election, the second largest number of votes on this list after the Prime Minister.[9][5] Following the election, he was touted as a potential prime minister. Whilst negotiations were on-going on the formation of a new government, the Sadrists conducted a "referendum" among Sadrist supporters on who should become the Prime Minister; Jaafar came second, receiving support from 23% of the 1.2 million people who voted.[10][11][12]

He resigned from parliament in February 2011, to protest at the deterioration in services and the system of "patronage and cronyism".[13][8]

Al-Sadr was again cited as a potential Prime Minister following the 2018 election, where the list headed by his brother-in-law, Muqtada al-Sadr, was the surprise winner with 54 seats.[14] Veteran Shiite Arab politician Adil Abdul-Mahdi was eventually elected Prime Minister. He was appointed the Iraqi ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2019.[15]

Following the 2021 election, he was again nominated to the Prime Ministership by the "Save the Homeland Alliance", which brought together three of the four largest parties - the Sadrist Movement, the Kurdistan Democratic Party the Sunni Arab majority Progress Party.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "جعفر الصدر لـ"إيلاف": لا أؤمن بأطروحة الإسلام السياسي". Elaph - إيلاف (in Arabic). 2010-06-19. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  2. ↑ Augustus R. Norton (19 January 2009). Hezbollah: A Short History. Princeton University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-691-14107-7. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Cockburn, Patrick (21 October 2008). Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq. Simon and Schuster. p. 112. ISBN 9781439141199.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Kaysi, Marina Ottaway, Danial. "Who Will Be the Next Prime Minister of Iraq?". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved 2018-05-28.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. 1 2 "Talisman Gate بـاب الطلــسم: Sadrist Referendum Results". talismangate.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  6. ↑ Mamouri, Ali (2018-05-22). "Can Iraq's Sadr swing nonsectarian government?". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  7. 1 2 Sly, Liz (2010-05-03). "An unlikely Iraqi leader emerges". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  8. 1 2 "MP in Iraq PM's bloc resigns over "cronyism"". Now Media. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  9. ↑ "Jaafar al-Sadr : A confluence prime minister for Iraq". The Daily Star Newspaper - Lebanon. 2010-08-19. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  10. ↑ Muir, Jim (2 April 2010), "How Sadrist vote could anoint new Iraq PM", BBC News, retrieved 5 May 2010
  11. ↑ Muir, Jim (8 April 2010), "Iraqi water still muddy after Sadr vote", BBC News, retrieved 5 May 2010
  12. ↑ Ahmed, Hamid (8 April 2010), "Sadr followers spurn front-runners in Iraq", boston.com, retrieved 26 May 2010
  13. ↑ "Jaafar Al Sadr submits resignation From House Of Representatives". Bab News (via Dinar Vets Message Board). Retrieved 2018-05-28.
  14. ↑ Abadi Likely to Remain Iraq’s Prime Minister: Source, Tasnim News Agency, accessed 2018-05-28
  15. ↑ "Ambassador Mohammad Jaafar Al-Sadr met with the Director of the international directorate at the Home office". Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in London. 2021-09-12. Archived from the original on 2021-09-12. Retrieved 2022-04-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  16. ↑ "Sadr grants opponents 'opportunity' to form government without him". www.rudaw.net. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
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