Melding Koranic verse with political invective, Araji urged the crowd to resist the pact and their movement’s foes. “Iraq has been killed! Iraq has been sold!” he thundered. “America is now the enemy of God.”
The congregation of a few thousand was smaller than usual, a sign of the Sadrists’ uncertain future…
In the provincial elections, scheduled for early next year, the Sadrists do not plan to field their own candidates. They will order followers to support independent candidates they can control.
It is partly a tactic for survival: Their rivals, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and its armed wing, the Badr Organization, and the Dawa party control key positions in local governments, as well as within the army and police. “They want the Sadr movement to disappear,” Araji said.
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