Anger, the demolition of mosques, and arrests in Iraq... This is how Mahmoud al-Sarkhi's call for the demolition of the shrines of Shiite imams was met.

Nasiriyah

- On April 11, a group of young people who follow the authority of the Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi appeared from different Iraqi provinces, and they called in direct religious sermons for the demolition of the graves and shrines of the saints and imams of the Shiites. These sermons that spread in one day led to quick reactions And violent, accompanied by the arrests of young people and the launch of campaigns to demolish mosques and Husseiniyas belonging to the supporters of Al-Sarkhi.

The shrines of imams are considered sacred by the Shiites, and hundreds of thousands visit them throughout the year, during the visit of the holy religious shrines, and they consider them a legacy from the people of the House of the Noble Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and therefore the demand for their demolition prompted violent popular responses.

Since he appeared on the Iraqi scene more than two decades ago, Al-Sarkhi has engaged in major rivalries, challenges and discussions with followers of Shiite references, about the sciences and leadership of the well-known religious seminary. He also entered into a direct confrontation with the government in which his supporters took up arms and many victims fell.

Al-Sarkhi, who identified himself as a reference and is followed by thousands who imitate him in jurisprudential and ideological issues, appeared after the assassination of the prominent Shiite cleric Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr in 1999. He began his working life as an engineer in the military industry, then entered the religious study later and declared himself a reference after assassination incident.

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— Muqtada al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr (@Mu_AlSadr) April 13, 2022

reactions

The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, was the first to announce his position on the call for the followers of Al-Sarkhi to demolish the graves of imams, and vowed to resort to legal, legal and customary methods in the event that Al-Sarkhi did not repudiate the advocates of demolition.

But after the angry popular reactions against Al-Sarkhi, which included the demolition and burning of mosques and Husseiniyas, Al-Sadr called in another statement to stop the demolition of mosques affiliated with Al-Sarkhi. doctrine and love for the infallible, may God’s peace be upon them all, and it is a true wrath.”

He added, "But they should refrain from demolishing mosques, burning and vandalizing them, as well as blowing them up, and only closing them and preventing the people of sedition from performing their suspicious rituals in them.

Angry people in front of a mosque for Sarkhi followers in Dhi Qar (communication sites)

Why call for the demolition of graves?

We did not come up with anything new until we were accused in this way as if we had left the religion. The preachers of Mr. Sarkhi spoke in a scientific and objective manner and based on the books of the Shiites, and we expressed our point of view with a scientific methodology without offending anyone or inciting, but on the other hand mosques and Husseiniyas were burned and books were unfortunately torn apart. What he said to Al-Jazeera Net, Ahmed Al-Husseini, one of Al-Sarkhi's imitators.

Al-Husseini adds: The call was not to demolish the graves of the imams as it was promoted, but the preachers of the Sarkhi school relied on historical sources among the Shiites about the graves and their flattening, and this includes any human being, whether he is a prophet, an imam or a righteous man, and this matter was put forward by Mr. Al-Sarkhi a long time ago regarding the graves .

He stressed that there is no indication of the timing of the invitation at the present time, noting that "we have no hidden purposes in order to try to stoke public opinion, nor to deny the shrines of the Ahl al-Bayt."

Blasim: Al-Sarkhi forbade belonging to the Popular Mobilization and tried to insinuate his supporters into the security institutions (Al-Jazeera Net)

Transitions and situations

After the assassination of the cleric Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr at the end of the nineties of the last century, Al-Sarkhi emerged and considered himself the sole representative of his line and demanded that Friday prayers be held and even performed in the Najaf stadium, so he was arrested for a certain period, according to the talk of the researcher in religious group affairs, Muayad Balasem, to Al-Jazeera Net.

After the fall of the regime of the late President Saddam Hussein - as Balasem says - Al-Sarkhi demanded the killing of all members of the Baath party without trial and issued a fatwa that the victims of mass graves should remain in their places and turn them into museums and official cemeteries, then supported the Iraqi resistance in the first and second battles of Fallujah against American soldiers in 2004 At that time, he launched a campaign of statements and donations under the name "Fallujah Goodness and Resistance".

Blasim adds: Al-Sarkhi strongly opposed the elections in 2004 and the political process that followed. He prohibited voting for the constitution when most religious authorities called for it. He demanded that the Holy Qur’an become the only constitution for the Iraqi people, and considered democracy to be outright infidelity in the law of God Almighty.

Security forces bombed al-Sarkhi headquarters in Karbala and dozens of his followers were killed in 2014 (Reuters)

However, after he forbade the constitution and democracy, and returned to participate in the 2008 elections in the name of the Reform Party, he did not get any parliamentary seat, but he got the seat of a member of the Diwaniyah Provincial Council, and his followers took up arms against the government 3 times, the first in 2005, the second in 2007, and the most recent in 2014 coincided with the takeover of Mosul by the Islamic State, and after 2014, the military escalation stopped.

Al-Sarkhi denied the existence of the Islamic State - according to Balasem - and considered the fatwa of jihad issued by the supreme authority of Iraq's Shiites, Ali al-Sistani, to be sectarian.

Balasem considers that Al-Sarkhi does not have many followers in the southern governorates, but he has limited influence in the governorate of Diwaniyah, especially the Levant district, and in Babel in the western Hamza, and then they had political representation in the governorate council in 2009 with two seats, and he has supporters in Dhi Qar governorate who are concentrated in the Fahd district Mainly and smaller numbers in the rest of the provinces.

He added that Al-Sarkhi requires his followers to the so-called electronic victory, which is that they create many fake accounts that defend him and spread his ideas in the form of bribery in social media, as well as reporting accounts that attack him, and politically it is forbidden to belong to the Dawa Party, the Supreme Council, the Sadrist movement and the rest of the Islamic and non-Islamic movements.

Al-Saray considered that Al-Sarkhi seeks to be an important figure in the equation of Shiism by drawing attention (Al-Jazeera Net)

Draw attention

Researcher and writer Rashid Al-Saray summarizes that the steps taken by Al-Sarkhi will not go out of the circle of appearance or prominence, as well as an attempt to violate clear and agreed-upon matters among the Shiites regarding jurisprudential and ideological issues.

Al-Saray adds to Al-Jazeera Net that Al-Sarkhi seeks to be an important figure in the equation of Shiism through influence, and the curriculum began through his continuous talk about science, as well as some publications, lectures and video clips in which he also appears in the creation of Islamic rap, and all of this falls into the angle of love of appearance and prominence.

One of the preachers of Al-Sarkhi supporters was arrested in Babylon (communication sites)

countermeasures

The observer in the local affairs, Muhammad Al-Aboudi, says: We disagree or agree with Al-Sarkhi. This is not within the competence of the general public who entered the line to exercise the role of authority and the role of the clergy. And we kill to confront an idea put forward by someone.

He adds - to Al Jazeera Net - that the issue is related to the authority, if it finds it harmful to the public interest, it is the one who bears the responsibility and does so through legal methods, whether the ruling is with Al-Sarkhi or against him, and no one has the right to demolish the properties of others without referring to a court ruling that decides Situation.

Following the sermons of Al-Sarkhi’s followers, the security forces had arrested his Friday preachers in the governorates of Babil, Dhi Qar, Diwaniyah and Basra, at a time when an arrest warrant was issued against Al-Sarkhi - who is outside the country - by the Maysan Investigation Court against the background of those calls.