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Gallows Erected in Baghdad Threatening Corrupt Officials | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Media ID: 55349789
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Iraqi protesters amid the Liberation Square demonstrating against corruption and three premierships A.F.P


Baghdad- Iraqi capital, Baghdad, is caught up in a roaming chaos of protests and demonstrations. Movements and banners put up, contradictory to each other, to the extent that the viewer no longer is able to track down who is protesting against whom.

The people of Iraq, since 2011, have been watching protests held at the Liberation Square and in many other streets in Baghdad. Most demonstrations are provoked by the governmental corruption, sectarian division and the absence of public service.

As for the parliament, ministers are protesting against the current parliamentary premiership, demanding the removal of Salim al-Jabouri, the Parliament’s Spokesman, and his two deputies; and the Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi.

Protesting ministers only seem to aim at removing premierships from office, while acting on the impulse of desiring themselves and their affiliated parties high-up posts and places of authority, which they can later exploit.

Since July, 2015 large protests moved under the leadership of the Civil Democratic Alliance, and demonstrated nearly each and every Friday since. Protesters were restricted to a single party, until the Sadrist movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr decided to breake into the arena of demonstrations, transforming all his followers into potent protestors who gather across Iraq in masses comprising hundreds of thousands of people.

The marches have made a revolutionary politician out of al-Sadr, after he was a religious figurehead only. After taking a stand in the Green Zone for four days, al-Sadr now comes to enjoy a superior religious authority garnished with a political revolutionary zest.

Moving throughout the social spectrum of Iraq, al-Sadr now has power over the poor, all his followers perceive him as a defender of the underprivileged.

Sadrists (follower of the Sadrist movement), caught up in the heat of the rallies, erected gallows in the middle of the Liberation Square, as to threaten corrupt politicians , which received negative response from most Iraqis and was opposed by both the Civil Democratic Alliance and the Sadrist movement leadership.