It is a long lecture that Ayatollah Hussein Ismail al-Sadr is giving that evening - and it is all the more remarkable that he only touches religion on the sidelines.
He talks about a national identity that his country needs, about a sense of citizenship that the population lacks, about a sense of responsibility towards the homeland.
He deplores the rampant corruption and the weak institutions of the Iraqi state, which should actually be strong and sovereign.
Christoph Ehrhardt
Correspondent for the Arab countries based in Beirut.
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Hussein al-Sadr takes a sobering inventory of Iraqi conditions.
The state and administration are decomposed by corruption and nepotism.
The economy is paralyzed while the population grows.
In addition, Iraq is the scene of a power struggle between the encroaching neighboring country Iran and the United States.
A new exchange of blows has just taken place - Washington bombed militias loyal to Iran in the border area with Syria because they will not stop attacking American troops with drones and missiles.
Militias are showing the government their impotence
The armed groups, which are controlled by the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran, keep showing the government of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi how little their power is.
The internal tensions are also enormous.
Only a few weeks ago, a trial of strength between the government and militiamen threatened to escalate into an armed confrontation.
Hussein al-Sadr is concerned.
He is well connected in politics, the religious foundation that he runs in the capital Baghdad is not only involved in humanitarian projects such as clinics.
The Ayatollah also advocates reconciliation in Iraq.
“Dialogue is the only way to avoid bloodshed,” he says.
The country's recent history has cut deep rifts in society.
The ruler Saddam Hussein belonged to the Sunni minority - and made it clear to both the Shiite majority of the population and the Kurds in the north that he primarily trusted his people.
Those whom he saw as a threat to his rule were brutally tortured or murdered.
After it was overthrown by the American invasion in 2003, Iraq ruled years of chaos and violence, just widening the gap between the Sunnis and Shiites who henceforth dominated Iraqi politics.
“Armed uprising” against the establishment?
The political system that was established at the time still exists. Positions were not distributed according to competence, but along denominational lines to representatives of the various population groups - which above all brings their individual interests to the fore and promotes corruption. The mass protests that began in October 2019 and challenged the political class were directed against this system. But political persistence was stronger and the protests petered out, not least because of the impunity with which Shiite militias abducted or murdered leading critics and political activists.