Postmodernism and the Moqtada al-Sadr warrant

Iraq's Supreme Court has reportedly reissued a six-year-old warrant for Moqtada al-Sadr's arrest.

This story isn't getting much attention in the English-language media -- everyone's focused on the Diyala bombings (more on those soon) -- but it has the potential to be quite significant.

The warrant is for the 2003 murder of Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a pro-American Shi'ite cleric who was hacked to death by a mob in Najaf. The Coalition Provisional Authority issued a warrant for Sadr's arrest in 2004, but he was never arrested, and the warrant was eventually buried as part of a reconciliation deal with his Mahdi Army.

Until now, according to the Associated Press:

But The Associated Press has obtained a new arrest warrant dated Feb. 7 that lists al-Sadr along with 13 other men as wanted in the killing of al-Khoie. The copy of the warrant was provided by a top government official familiar with the warrant. The official requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the document.

Sadr has spent the last two years living in Iran and burnishing his religious credentials; the warrant reportedly calls for his arrest if he returns to Iraq. Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for the Sadrist movement, says Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is behind the warrant, and accuses the PM (عربي) of "psychological war" against Moqtada.

"This story... is psychological warfare, perpetrated by the opponents of the Sadrist movement, to influence the outcome of next week's election," he said.

Maliki's spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, denied that any warrant exists (عربي), and said Sadr is part of the Iraqi political process and "welcome in his country."

I don't know whether Dabbagh or Obeidi is right -- and at this point, it probably doesn't matter anyway. As Juan Cole writes, the timing of this story -- just four days before Iraqi elections -- is quite suspect. It seems designed to intimidate and demoralize Sadr's supporters. And since Maliki's State of Law coalition would benefit from a weakened Iraqi National Alliance (the Sadrist/Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq coalition), it's not unreasonable to think he was involved, either in issuing a warrant (if one exists) or spreading rumors about one.

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