[lbo-talk] Sadr's popularity

[Dwayne Monroe]

Repeatedly, the Western media describes al Sadr as a "minor cleric" with 
a small following.  The implication is that a few hundred crazies, at 
best, are crazily following a malcontent.  Obviously, al Sadr is able to 
field a large number of dedicated people -- both as protesters and 
fighters.  Large enough and sufficiently armed and organized to create 
the unmistakable impression of a micro Tet offensive last Sunday.

Only a taste, I suspect, of what they can do .

Juan Cole addresses the matter of al Sadr's popularity and impact --

...

US television cable news is doing its best to obscure the real issues here.

1. They keep asking where Muqtada is and calling him a "fugitive." 
Muqtada announced that he is in his father's mosque in Kufa, and there 
is no reason to doubt this. He hasn't fled and his whereabouts are well 
known.

2. Talking heads both from Iraq and from the ranks of the US retired 
officers keep attempting to maintain that Muqtada's movement is small 
and marginal. One speaker claimed that Muqtada has only 10,000 men.

In fact that is the size of his formal militia. Muqtada's movement is 
like the layers of an onion. You have 10,000 militiamen. But then you 
have tens of thousands of cadres able to mobilize neighborhoods. Then 
you have hundreds of thousands of Sadrists, followers of Muqtada and 
other heirs of Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr. Then you have maybe 5 million 
Shiite theocrats who sympathize with Muqtada's goals and rhetoric, about 
a third of the Shiite community. The Sadrists will now try to shift 
everything so that the 5 million become followers, the hundreds of 
thousands become cadres, and the tens of thousands become militiamen.

[...]

full at -

<http://www.juancole.com/2004_04_01_juancole_archive.html#108119698951121964>