The unquiet cleric
A new challenge for an embattled prime minister
Mar 19th 2016 | BAGHDAD
THE biggest challenge faced these days by Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, arguably does not come from Islamic State, even though it has occupied a third of his country. It comes instead from one of his own Shia political partners: Muqtada al-Sadr, a cleric who has escalated his political demands into a threat to storm government offices.
Mr Sadr, whose fighters battled American and Iraqi government forces between 2004 and 2008, has re-emerged from a period of political silence to champion the rights of the common Iraqi—insisting that Mr Abadi root out corruption, fire many of his ministers and appoint a new cabinet of technocrats.
To drive home his demands, the young cleric launched a show of force on March 4th with a huge protest outside the fortress-like Green Zone, where government offices and diplomatic missions are located. When security officials declared the night before that the protest would not be allowed, Mr Sadr sent fighters with rocket-propelled grenades into the streets. The authorities backed down. But although the protesters then demonstrated peacefully under the watchful eye of Mr Sadr’s own security forces, the cleric has told them to be ready to storm the Green Zone if he gives the word.
