Iraqi Shiite Leader Muqtada Sadr Retires from Politics, Accuses PM Al-Maliki of Tyranny

Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr, declaring his withdrawal from politics, called Prime Minister Al-Maliki “a dictator and a tyrant,” accusing him of plunder, killings, and corruption. “Iraq is ruled by bloodthirsty wolves who hunt for money,” while their people “suffer torment and fear,” he said.

Following are excerpts from his speech, which aired on Al-Jazeera on January 18, 2014.

Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr: A black cloud blankets the skies and the land [of Iraq]. Blood is being shed and wars are spreading. People are killing one another, at times in the name of the law, and at times in the name of religion.

Cursed be a law that violates people’s honor and sheds their blood, and down with a religion that permits beheadings, bombings, and assassinations. Politics have ushered in oppression and recklessness, as well as autocracy and violations, when a dictator and a tyrant has mounted the throne, plundering money, killing people, fighting whole cities, dividing religious sects, and buying people’s loyalties, so that everybody will vote to keep him in power.

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Iraq is ruled by bloodthirsty wolves who hunt for money, leaving their people behind to suffer torment and fear.

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Iraq is ruled by a gang that came from across the border. For a long time we had waited for them to come and liberate us from the dictatorship [of Saddam], only to find that they themselves cling to the throne in the name of the Shia.

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This government muzzles people, kills members of the opposition, deports people who hold dissenting views, and fills the prisons with them, and with resistance fighters who have tried to liberate their land from the tanks and planes of the occupiers.

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When we in the Al-Sadr family cannot change the situation, we say: “Oh Allah, do not place us together with oppressors.”

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Regardless of my decision [to retire from politics], people should take part in the coming elections, so that the government does not fall into unreliable and deceitful hands.

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