Iraqi Shiite Leader Muqtada al-Sadr Worries That ISIS Defeat Could Spark 'Genocide'

Muqtada al-Sadr in his home in Najaf (MEE/Jonathan Steele)

Middle East Online: EXCLUSIVE: Sectarian militias have no place in Iraq, says Muqtada al-Sadr

Mahdi army leader turned Iraqi peacemaker speaks to MEE of disbanding militias, defeating IS ... and welcoming Brexit

NAJAF, Iraq - The beard has gone grey, the eyes are less stern but, above all, his ideas have changed dramatically.

Muqtada al-Sadr, once dubbed "the radical firebrand cleric" in every Western media article that mentioned him, presents himself today, at the age of 43, as a promoter of sectarian tolerance and Iraqi national reconciliation.

In his first interview with a foreign journalist for three years, the man who created a Shia militia which fought the Americans and the British for several years of their occupation, told Middle East Eye that he wants all militias, including his own, to be disbanded.

Read more ....

Update: Isis defeat in Mosul could spark 'genocide', leading cleric warns (The Independent)

WNU Editor: Coming from someone who has caused much of this division .... and whose militia has been implicated in war crimes .... it is hard to trust what he says.

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