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View Full Version : Iraqi Cleric's Movement Gains Steam



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04-10-04, 01:46 PM
Apr 10, 1:22 PM (ET)
By HAMZA HENDAWI

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - At least 20,000 worshippers, about twice the usual number, gathered for weekly prayers at a mosque run by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, indicating that he may be winning sympathy from more Shiites as his militia challenges U.S. authority in Baghdad as well as across central and southern Iraq. Aided by hundreds of young seminary students, the 30-year-old cleric and his supporters have in recent days boasted of widening support after mass protests and fighting this week with U.S. and other coalition troops. "Our movement is stronger today than it was a week ago," said Ibrahim al-Janabi, a senior al-Sadr aide. "But most important of all is that God is on our side," he said Friday after prayers in Sadr City, the movement's Baghdad stronghold. Al-Sadr, whose slain father was one of Iraq's top Shiite clerics, has over the past year mixed street politics, the lure of religion and the pent-up anger of a community oppressed for decades to build a base among mostly young and poor Shiites.

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Thousands of Shiite Muslims chant "Long live Muqtada al-Sadr" during traditional Friday prayers at the al-Hikma Mosque in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 9, 2004. The Coalition Authority has declared al-Sadr, seen in the poster at left, an outlaw and is battling with his militia throughout Iraq. Poster at right shows Muqtada al-Sadr's father Mohammed. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)