Ayatollah Sayyid

Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim
محمد باقر الحكيم
Born8 July 1939
Najaf, Kingdom of Iraq
Died29 August 2003 (aged 64)
Najaf, Coalition-occupied Iraq
Political partySupreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq
Parent
FamilyHakim family

Ayatollah al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Muhsin al-Hakim at-Tabataba'i (8 July 1939 – 29 August 2003; Arabic: السيد محمد باقر محسن الحكيم الطباطبائي), also known as Shaheed al-Mehraab, was a senior Iraqi Shia Islamic Scholar and the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).[1][2] Al-Hakim spent more than 20 years in exile in Iran and returned to Iraq on 12 May 2003 following the US-led invasion.[3] Al-Hakim was a contemporary of Ayatollah Khomeini, and The Guardian compared the two in terms of their times in exile and their support in their respective homelands.[3] After his return to Iraq, al-Hakim's life was in danger because of his work to encourage Shiite resistance to Saddam Hussein and from a rivalry with Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, who had himself been assassinated in Najaf in 1999.[3] Al-Hakim was assassinated in a bomb attack in Najaf in 2003 when aged 63 years old.[3] At least 75 others in the vicinity also died in the bombing.[3]

Biography

Early life

Al-Hakim was born in Najaf in 1939 into the Hakim Family of Shi'ite religious scholars.[1][2][3] He was the son of Muhsin al-Hakim[4] and Fawzieh Hassan Bazzi. Al-Hakim was the uncle of Muhammad Sayid al-Hakim.[5] Al-Hakims father was a senior cleric in Najaf.[3] He learned a traditional Shiite imam's training.[3] He was arrested and tortured for his beliefs by the Ba'athist government in 1972 and fled to Iran in 1980.[3] Many relatives of Al-Hakim were killed by the Baathist government.[3]

Political activities in Iraq

Al-Hakim was head of the Supreme Council of the Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a highly influential group within Iraq's Shia community and high ranking U.S. officials had met with the brother of Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim,[6] intent on securing a new ally against Saddam Hussein.[6] He co-founded the modern Islamic political movement in Iraq in the 1960s, along with Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, with whom he worked closely until the latter's death in 1980.[6] In an event, Mohammad Baqir Al-Sadr sent Al-Hakim to calm the people who were trapped by Saddam Hussein's government troops between Karbala and Najaf.[7] This incident prompted the Baathist government arrest Baqir Al-Hakim, he was subsequently imprisoned and tortured.[7] When Mohammad Baqir Al-Sadr was on house arrest remained in communication with Baqir Al-Hakim.[7]

Though not among the most hard-line of Islamists, Al-Hakim was seen as dangerous by the ruling Ba'ath regime, largely because of his agitation on behalf of Iraq's majority Shia population (the ruling regime was mostly Sunnis).[8]

However, his sentence was commuted and he was released in July 1979.[7] The subsequent eruption of war between Iraq and largely Shia Iran led to an ever-increasing distrust of Iraq's Shia population by the ruling Ba'ath party; combined with his previous arrests, Al-Hakim defected to Iran in 1980.[1]

SCIRI and Iran

Safely in Iran under the protection of the Iranian government, Al-Hakim became an open enemy of the Ba'athists, forming the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI),[4] a revolutionary group dedicated to overthrowing Saddam Hussein and installing clerical rule.[8]With Iranian military aid, SCIRI became an armed resistance group, periodically making cross-border attacks against Baathist and maintaining covert connections with resistance elements within the country.[9]

Badr Brigades

The Badr Brigades were the military wing of SCIRI until 2003.[7] Al-Hakim created the Badr Brigades which fought against Saddam Hussein.[7] The Badr Brigades contained to number about 10,000 equipped and trained soldiers.[9] On 11 February 1995, Badr corps attacked Iraqi government forces in Amarah.[7] During the War in Iraq (2013–17), Badr Brigades fought against ISIL under the Popular Mobilization Forces.[10]

Return to Iraq

Al-Hakim returned to Iraq on 12 May 2003 following the overthrow of Saddam's regime by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq after spending more than two decades of exile in neighboring Iran.[2] There he emerged as one of the most influential Iraqi leaders, with his longtime opposition to Saddam gaining him immense credibility, especially among the majority Shia population.[8]

Initially, he was very critical of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but Al-Hakim gave the US credit for overthrowing Saddam's government first, so that SCIRI and other Shia opposition parties found time to re-establish themselves between Shia people.[8] Al-Hakim's brother, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, was appointed to the Iraq interim governing council and the two worked closely together.[8] By the time of his death, he remained distrustful, but publicly urged Iraqis to abandon violence, at least for the time being, and give the interim government a chance to earn their trust.[8] Although Al-Hakim publicly urged the abandonment of violence, his Badr Brigade was described by The Independent as "one of the main groups accused of carrying out sectarian killings".[11]

Assassination

Al-Hakim was killed on 29 August 2003, when a car bomb exploded as he left the Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf.[12] The blast killed at least 84 others; some estimate that as many as 125 died in the bombing. Fifteen bodyguards of al-Hakim were among the people killed in the blast.[13]

Perpetrators

On 30 August 2003, Iraqi authorities arrested four people in connection with the bombing: two former members of the Ba'ath Party from Basra, and two non-Iraqi Arabs from the Salafi sect.[14]

According to U.S. and Iraqi officials, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was responsible for Hakim's assassination.[15][16] They claim that Abu Omar al-Kurdi, a top Zarqawi bombmaker who was captured in January 2005, confessed to carrying out this bombing.[15][16] They also cite Zarqawi's praising of the assassination in several audiotapes.[15][16] Muhammad Yassin Jarrad, the brother-in-law of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed that his father, Yassin, was the suicide bomber in the attack.[15][16]

Oras Mohammed Abdulaziz, an alleged Al-Qaeda militant, was hanged in Baghdad in July 2007 after being sentenced to death in October 2006 for his role in the assassination of al-Hakim.[17]

Funeral

Hundreds of thousands of people attended his funeral in Najaf and showed their hatred of the US military occupation on 2 September 2003.[18] They protested the US forces and demanded their withdrawal from Iraq.[19]

His grave was petrol-bombed by anti-government protesters during the 2019 Iraqi protests.[20]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Cleric slain months after returning to Iraq". Reading Eagle. Baghdad. AP. 30 August 2003. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Joffe, Lawrence (30 August 2003). "Obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Joffe, Lawrence (30 August 2003). "Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Muhammad Baqir al- Hakim". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  5. ↑ "Who is Muqtada al-Sadr?". CNN. 6 April 2004. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 Smyth, Frank (3 October 2003). "Iraq's Forgotten Majority". New York Times. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Al-Bayati, Hamid (30 January 2014). From Dictatorship to Democracy: An Insider's Account of the Iraqi Opposition to Saddam (Illustrated ed.). USA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. p. 386. ISBN 978-0812290387.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kadhim, Abbas (26 July 2017). "A Major Crack in Iraqi Shia Politics". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  9. 1 2 "Iraqi opposition 'moves troops in'". BBC News. 19 February 2003. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  10. ↑ IFP, Editorial Staff (9 March 2019). "No Power Capable of Dividing Iran, Iraq: Zarif". ifpnews.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  11. ↑ "Iraq's death squads: on the brink of civil war", The Independent, 26 February 2006.
  12. ↑ Escobar, Pepe (2 September 2003). "Ayatollah's killing: Winners and losers". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 2 October 2003. Retrieved 27 January 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. ↑ "U.S. Blamed For Mosque Attack". CBS News. 11 February 2009. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  14. ↑ Cummins, Christopher (12 October 2016). "Shiites mark Ashura Day with Karbala pilgrimage". euronews.com. Euro news. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "Zarqawi kin reportedly bombed shrine in Iraq", by Mohamad Bazzi, 7 February 2005
  16. 1 2 3 4 Mike Brunker. "Study uses 'martyr' posts to break down 'foreign fighters' aiding Syrian rebels". NBC News. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  17. ↑ Mroue, Bassem (6 June 2007). "Alleged Al Qaeda Militant Is Hanged". The Sun. Baghdad. AP. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  18. ↑ "Mourners demand vengeance for cleric's death". The Guardian. AP. 2 September 2003. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  19. ↑ McCarthy, Rory (3 September 2003). "Shia mourners demand end to US occupation". The Guardian. Najaf. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  20. ↑ "Elites backed by Iran are clinging to power in Iraq". The Economist. 7 December 2019.
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