Sadrist movement

التيار الصدري. A prominent political movement in Iraq, led by the populist Shi’a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The goals and philosophy of the movement originate with his father, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadeq al-Sadr, who was assassinated by Saddam Hussein in 1999 after leading Shi’a opposition against the regime throughout the 1990s. The Sadrist movement’s greatest stronghold is Sadr City, a Baghdad suburb originally known as Saddam City and renamed in 2003 after the Ayatollah and his son, both revered as spiritual and political leaders by Iraq’s Shi’a underclass. The movement’s strategies have widely evolved over the years, from its days of militant insurgency and sectarian violence during the Iraq War, to electoral politics in recent times. Its most consistent values are Iraqi nationalism, populism, and Shi’a conservatism.