Despite efforts to silence him, Muqtada al-Sadr has emerged as the most important political figure in modern Iraqi history -- RT Op-ed

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : His populism, once derided by the United States, now represents the best path forward for Iraq if it is to emerge from under the shadows of the dual occupation of the United States and Iran.
48% : Sadr withdrew to Iran, where he began intense religious studies at a Shiite seminary, or hawza, in the holy city of Qom.
42% : After Sadr's father, Ayatollah Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, was killed by Saddam in 1999, Haeri became Muqtada's spiritual leader, a role he continued when Muqtada traveled to Iran for his religious studies.
41% : In Iran, Sadr studied under Ayatollah Kadhem al-Hussein al-Haeri, an Iraqi born cleric who was a follower of Sadr's uncle Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr.
39% : Sequestered in Iran for his religious studies, Sadr did not directly participate in the March 2010 elections, but his National Iraqi Alliance won 70 seats, making it a critical force in the creation of the coalition government that succeeded Nouri al-Malaki's.
34% : Best described as an Iraqi nationalist, Sadr opposed the US occupying forces and the dominance of pro-Iranian Iraqi Shia who had fled Iraq under Saddam and taken refuge in Iran, only to return to Iraq now he was gone.

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