Moqtada al-Sadr, funny guy
Khaldoon Zubeir/Getty Images Amit R. Paley of the Washington Post has penned a not-very-flattering profile of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who heads the Mahdi Army militia in Iraq. We learn that Sadr was once nicknamed “Moqtada Atari” for his love of video games and that some of the locals see him as a ...
Khaldoon Zubeir/Getty Images
Amit R. Paley of the Washington Post has penned a not-very-flattering profile of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who heads the Mahdi Army militia in Iraq.
We learn that Sadr was once nicknamed “Moqtada Atari” for his love of video games and that some of the locals see him as a little “thick.” He was “known in his youth for stuffing himself with as many as a dozen falafel at a time.” Sadr also has a terrible sense of humor, apparently:
Moqtada, his friends said, has always been a prankster, in ways both innocuous and macabre. Once, he made a big show of offering a 7-Up to a student, who was then surprised to learn that Sadr had filled the bottle with water. In a more recent incident, he anonymously sent Shaibani, the aide, text messages threatening to kill him, only to reveal later with laughter that it was all a practical joke.
Ha, ha?
Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
More from Foreign Policy

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose
Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy
The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now
In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet
As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.