The followers of Muqtada al Sadr have held the obligatory Friday protest today to denounce Israeli operation. The protest featured the regular agitprop: the stomping on and burning of Israeli and US flags, chants of “No, No, to the Occupier,” etc. AFP reported that 2,000 Sadrist supporters showed up for the demonstration. Think about that number. Baghdad, with a population estimated around 7.4 million, is the second largest city both in the Arab world (Cairo is first) and in Southwest Asia (Tehran is first). The protest took place in the Baghdad district of Sadr City, the purported “stronghold” of the Sadrists. Sadr City’s population is estimated at two million. The protests took place on Friday, when most Muslims attend mosque. The Sadrists choose Friday for protests because it gives them the best opportunity to round up potential demonstrators as they leave mosque. Yet the Sadrists could only net 2,000 people to protest the hated Jews and Americans as the Israelis are in the midst of an operation in Gaza. If you want an indication of the decline of the Sadrist movement (and not to mention the relative apathy in Baghdad over the plight of the Palestinians, but that’s another story), then look no further than the number of protesters the Sadrists could draw.
