Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

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Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr , German also Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr ( Arabic محمد باقر الصدر, DMG Muḥammad Bāqir aṣ-Ṣadr ; * March 1, 1935 in al-Kazimiyya , Iraq ; † April 9, 1980 or 1981), was an Iraqi Grand Ayatollah and influential, politically engaged Shiite leader who wanted to establish an Islamic state and the introduction of Sharia law in Iraq. In his time he was considered an outstanding economic theorist in numerous leading Islamic circles, but was always controversial due to his sometimes radical stance. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had him murdered.

Life

Mohammad Baqir as-Sadr came from a respected family originally based in Lebanon, in which his grandfather Ismail as-Sadr and his father Sayyid Haidar as-Sadr had already held the offices of Grand Ayatollah.

As-Sadr is said to be a cousin of the also murdered Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq as-Sadr . Some sources also refer to him as his uncle. In 1945 his family moved to the city of Najaf , where he lived until the end of his life.

In 1957, al-Sadr played a key role in the founding of the Islamic Dawa Party , which developed into one of the major Shiite parties in Iraq , but was banned under the Saddam Hussein regime. Some voices see Baqir al-Sadr as the actual party founder. Others just guess.

After the establishment of the “Ulama Community in Najaf ” in 1958 by clergymen under the leadership of Sheikh Murtada al-Yasin, this group became a forum for young clergymen in the Koran schools of Najaf. As-Sadr played a leading role in this. He first published a pamphlet against communism (“Our Philosophy”) and in 1961, in his main work “Our Economy”, presented ideas of an Islamic economy. With this book, which also criticized socialism and capitalism from a Shiite point of view, he made himself known in leading Islamic circles as a political-economic theorist. As-Sadr also supported the establishment of a government in Iraq committed to the Islamic faith. One of his closest associates was Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah .

As-Sadr was arrested several times in the 1970s. He was also placed under house arrest in June 1979, but was later released.

Mohammed Baqir as-Sadr worked, in contrast to Mohammed Sadiq as-Sadr and later his son Muqtada as-Sadr , with the Iran-friendly Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim and was a supporter of the radical revolutionary Ayatollah Khomeini . Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr was considered an enemy of the Ba'ath Party , which Saddam Hussein also belonged to. For his Islamic Dawa party, which fought against the dictator , Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr received undisguised material, military and propaganda aid from Iran. In an open telegram, Khomeini asked him not to leave Iraq, as he had to lead the Islamic revolution there and liberate his country from the infidel Baath party.

In 1980 the long-smoldering social crisis in Iraq began to escalate. In the process, 30,000 Shiite Iraqis of Iranian descent were expelled from the country. On April 1, 1980 there was an assassination attempt on Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Asis. Since the Saddam regime suspected the Islamic Dawa party to be behind it, an example should now obviously be made to as-Sadr, the spiritual head of the party. As a result, he was arrested at home on April 4, 1980.

After the announcement of Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr's planned execution, there were major outrages among the Shiites and demonstrations in some neighboring Islamic countries, some of which resulted in violent clashes with the respective state power. In the Sheikdom of Bahrain, for example, numerous demonstrators were arrested after a demonstration in May 1980. When it became known that a detainee had died as a result of police torture, protests broke out again.

As-Sadr was hanged together with his devout younger sister, Amina Sadr bint al-Huda, a political-Islamic author who became known under the pseudonym Bint al-Huda . In the course of the persecution by Saddam Hussein's regime, thousands of his followers were also killed and hundreds of thousands fled into exile. As-Sadr's companion Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim followed the refugees to Tehran at the end of September 1980.

Political and social significance

By disseminating his political-social theories, with which as-Sadr was one of the first Islamic clergy to react to the then current global ideological currents after 1945 and to offer approaches of a religiously permeated counter-model for the Islamic states, he gained a high reputation radiated far into neighboring Islamic countries.

The ideas presented in his main work “Our Economy” deal only to a very limited extent with an actual, comprehensive conceptual draft of a functioning economic order. Central topics and problems are left out or only vaguely indicated. Ultimately, as-Sadr demands the religious state that holds the strings of its economy in its hands. Only the Iranian state of God established by Khomeini tried practically until 1988 to realize as-Sadr's ideas. After Khomeini had not developed his own concept of a religious state economy, he resorted directly to "Our Economy".

For some Shiite Muslims, Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr is a martyr .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Deutsches Orient-Institut (editor): Orient ", Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-406-53447-3 , p. 6
  2. ↑ a b c Werner Ende, Udo Steinbach, Renate Laut: Islam in the Present ", CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-53447-3 , p. 183
  3. ↑ a b Ralph-M. Luedtke, Peter Strutynski: Permanent War or Sustainable Peace? , Verlag Winfried Jenior, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-934377-94-7 , p. 101
  4. ↑ a b Faroug Farhan: Problems of the Iranian-Iraqi conflict from 1968-1984 , Peter Lang Verlag, Bern and Frankfurt 1989, ISBN 3-631-41572-9 , p. 264
  5. ↑ Ute Meinel: The Intifada in the Bahrain Oil Sheikh ", LIT Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg-Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6401-4 , p. 149
  6. ↑ Ute Meinel: The Intifada in the Bahrain Oil Sheikh ", LIT Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg-Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6401-4 , p. 150
  7. ^ Majid S. Moslem: Peace in Islam ", Klaus Schwarz Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-87997-324-5 , p. 90
  8. ↑ Moojan Momen: An Introduction to Shiʻi Islam ", Yale University Press 1987, ISBN 0-300-03531-4 , p. 263 (in English)
  9. ↑ Faroug Farhan: Problems of the Iranian-Iraqi conflict from 1968-1984 , Peter Lang Verlag, Bern and Frankfurt 1989, ISBN 3-631-41572-9 , p. 263
  10. ^ A b Andreas Rieck, Muhammad Baqir Sadr: Our Economy , Klaus Schwarz Verlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-922968-38-4 , p. 65
  11. ↑ Ute Meinel: The Intifada in the Bahrain Oil Sheikh , LIT Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg-Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6401-4 , p. 155
  12. ↑ Markus Köhbach, Rüdiger Lohlker, Stephan Procházka, Gebhard Selz (editor): Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes , self-published by the Oriental Institute, University of Vienna 2000, p. 183
personal data
SURNAME Sadr, Muhammad Baqir as-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sadr, Mohammed Baqir al-
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iraqi Grand Ayatollah and Shiite leader
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH al-Kazimiyya , Iraq
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1980 or 1981