Turning ex-combatants into Sadris: explaining the emergence of the Mahdi Army

Taha, Amir

doi:10.1080/00263206.2018.1550078

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The turbulent relationship between al‐Sadr and Iran came to an end after his assassination, but the nationalist legacy he left behind resurfaced after his son rose to prominence (Taha, 2019, pp. 359–360).…”

Section: Iran and The Al‐sadr Family: A Troubled Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this context, Sadrists are seen as vacillating between nationalism and sectarianism (Schmidhauser, 2013) in their relationship with Iran and its Iraqi allies. While Sadrists' reliance on nationalist narratives to mobilize supporters (Selvik & Amirteimour, 2020; Taha, 2019) in their quest for advancing Islamist goals (Bayless, 2012) has been more explored within the context of Iraqi politics than the relationship with Iran, Sadrist nationalism encompasses layers that go far beyond Iraqi contentious politics. Drawing upon empirical data, this article identifies and studies these layers of Sadrist nationalism which are territorial nationalism, localized Iraqi Arabness, and a nationalized version of Shi'ism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Iran in the Sadrist version of Iraqi nationalism

Khanafira Mavadat

2023

Digest Mid East Studies

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Unlike many other Shiite political factions in Iraq, the Sadrist movement has become increasingly vocal in its criticism of Iranian influence in Iraq. Anti‐Iran chants have become almost ubiquitous in Sadrist demonstrations over the past few years, and prominent Sadrist politicians have unabashedly pointed the finger of blame for Iraq's crises at Iran. The growing Sadrist criticism of Iran has simultaneously come with the gradual ascendance of nationalist narratives in the religious movement. This article aims to study these narratives and their correlation with Iran. It argues that the Sadrist version of Iraqi nationalism encompasses three components that aim to differentiate Iraqi Arab Shiite identity from Iran. It also studies how Sadrist nationalism contributed to the rise of the Iran‐bashing trend among Iraqi Shiites.

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Section: Iran and The Al‐sadr Family: A Troubled Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Iran in the Sadrist version of Iraqi nationalism

Khanafira Mavadat

2023

Digest Mid East Studies

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“…In reality, as more perceptive studies have pointed out, veterans of the former regime brought their military training, experience, and weapons to a wide range of armed groups across Iraq's post-2003 sectarian divides, including the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr. 40 Iraq's Baʿthist legacies were more complicated and extensive than the sectarianization of political narratives attempted to ascribe. Seen in this light, beyond using the documents of the Baʿth Party Archive against former Sunnis alone, there existed a real potential for Iraq's rival Shi'ite Islamist parties to use them against each other.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archives of Saddam Hussein's Baʿth Party and the Politics of Remembering and Forgetting the Baʿthist Era in Iraq

Brill

2023

Int. J. Middle East Stud.

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On August 31, 2020, a US military plane returned the archive of the Baʿth Party Regional Command, more commonly known as the Baʿth Party Archive, to Iraq from California, where it had been held by Stanford University's Hoover Institution Library and Archives since 2008. A leftover issue from the 2003 Iraq War, it had been static as a policy matter for years, but appeared on the agenda of the US–Iraq Strategic Dialogue in summer 2020. Mustafa al-Kadhimi's emergence as the compromise choice for prime minister by Iraq's competing factions that May facilitated this development. Kadhimi, a journalist and human rights activist by background, was one of the cofounders with Kanan Makiya of the Iraq Memory Foundation (IMF), a nongovernmental organization that followed in the wake of the US-led invasion in 2003 as a US Department of Defense contractor. The origins of this relationship dated to the aftermath of the 1990–91 Gulf War. Shortly after arriving in Iraq in 2003, and responding to the rumor that looters were headed toward the mausoleum and museum of Baʿth Party founder Michel ʿAflaq, Kadhimi and Makiya by chance discovered the Baʿth Party Archive underneath the structure, which was adjacent to the Baʿth Party's headquarters in Baghdad.

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Turning ex-combatants into Sadris: explaining the emergence of the Mahdi Army

Cited by 2 publications

References 12 publications

Iran in the Sadrist version of Iraqi nationalism

Iran in the Sadrist version of Iraqi nationalism

The Archives of Saddam Hussein's Baʿth Party and the Politics of Remembering and Forgetting the Baʿthist Era in Iraq

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