on muqtada

What attracted my attention was that posters of Muqtada Al-Sadr which used to be all over the place are now mostly gone, I could even recognise some which were half torn off the walls. Abdul Sattar Al-Bahadili (Sadr's representative in Basrah) has reportedly been recruiting suicide bombers, a few people here say that 20 of Sadr's followers signed up, and there is news of an anonymous group in Iran that has been doing the same. People also say that Al-Bahadili (who now poses as a pious cleric seeking British slaves) used to be a comedian before the war, and that he once acted in a theatre play in the role of Khomeini. Interesting. Other than that, Basrawis are now pretty open in their criticism of Sadr, I believe the latest statements from Al-Sistani and the Marji'iyah in Najaf (which have been intentionally downplayed by the media) have a lot to do with that. A couple of months ago nobody would even dare to speak out against Sadr, but today for example, a medical aide at my hospital announced in front of a whole room of people, and to my greatest surprise, that 'Muqtada is a huge source of embarrassment for us'.