A momentous but little noticed aspect of the formation of Iraq’s new government in early May was the inclusion of members of the Shia populist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr. The Sadris, as they are called, now hold two of the most important ministries in Iraq—health and transport, as well as the ministry of state for civil society. As al-Sadr’s Mahdi army was the only Shia tendency to rise up against the US-led occupation in Iraq, and has so far been the only Iraqi insurgent movement of any kind to command large and vocal levels of popular support, the fact that they are now so fully included in formal politics represents a major achievement for Iraq’s political process.
Shias outnumber Sunnis in Iraq by four to one, and al-Sadr’s supporters—3-4m of the poorest and most aggrieved members of the dominant sect—are probably the only faction in Iraq who have the ability to derail the US-led project. Partly because of the opacity of the Sadrist organisation, the question of whether Iraq’s biggest and most violent populist movement would participate in the political process was barely discussed in the western media during the January election.
Bartle Bull spent five weeks embedded with the Mahdi army in Sadr City before and after the election, observing what happens when a rebel movement decides to negotiate its way into formal democratic politics.
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