Editing Muqtada al-Sadr (section)

=== 2003 ===
Shortly after the US-led coalition [[Invasion of Iraq|ousted Saddam Hussein]] and his Ba'ath regime, al-Sadr voiced opposition to the [[Coalition Provisional Authority]]. He subsequently stated that he had more legitimacy than the Coalition-appointed [[Iraqi Governing Council]]. He granted his first major Western television interview to [[Bob Simon]] of ''[[60 Minutes]]'', in which al-Sadr famously said "Saddam was the little serpent, but America is the big serpent."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1694593/|title="60 Minutes Wednesday" Muqtada al-Sadr's Battle Against the U.S. (TV Episode 2003)|publisher=IMDb|access-date=11 December 2014}}</ref>

In May 2003, al-Sadr issued a [[fatwa]] that became known as the ''al-Hawasim'' (meaning 'the finalists' – a term used to refer to the looters of post-invasion Iraq) ''fatwa''.<ref name="Cockburn 130">Cockburn, p. 130.</ref> The fatwa allowed theft and racketeering on the condition that the perpetrators pay the requisite [[khums]] to Sadrist imams,<ref name="Erik A. Claessen 2010 143">{{cite book|title=Stalemate: An Anatomy of Conflicts Between Democracies, Islamists, and Muslim Autocrats|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-38444-8|page=143 |author=Erik A. Claessen|edition=illustrated|chapter=6}}</ref> saying that "looters could hold on to what they had appropriated so long as they made a donation (khums) of one-fifth of its value to their local Sadrist office." The fatwa alienated many older members of his father's movement,<ref name="Erik A. Claessen 2010 143" /> as well as mainstream Shiites,<ref>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Phil|title=Criminals, Militias, and Insurgents: Organized Crime in Iraq|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Strategic Studies Institute|isbn=978-1-58487-397-6 |page=234|chapter=7}}</ref> and the Shia establishment and property-owning classes from the Sadrists.<ref name="Cockburn 130" /> However, the fatwa strengthened his popularity among the poorest members of society, notably in [[Sadr City]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Filiu|first=Jean-Pierre|title=Apocalypse in Islam|date=2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26431-1|page=147|edition=illustrated|author-link=Jean-Pierre Filiu}}</ref> It has been claimed that the original fatwa was actually issued by Sadr's advisor [[Kazem al-Haeri|Grand Ayatollah Kazem Husseini Haeri]], and that al-Sadr was simply loyally issuing the same instruction.<ref name="Cockburn 130" />

Al-Sadr is suspected in [[United States|US]] news media of having ordered the assassination of rival [[Shia Islam|Shia]] leader [[Abdul-Majid al-Khoei]] in 2003, a charge he denies and which remains unproven.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Khoury|first=Nabeel|date=16 May 2018|title=Iraq: The reinvention of Muqtada al-Sadr|url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/iraq-the-reinvention-of-muqtada-al-sadr/|access-date=12 October 2021|website=[[Atlantic Council]]|language=en-US}}</ref>