SheikhJalal al-Din Ali al-Sagheer (Arabic:جَلَال الدِّين عَلِيّ الصَّغِير,romanized: Jalāl ud-Dīn ʿAliyy aṣ-Ṣaḡīr) is an Iraqi politician and a former member of parliament in theIslamic Supreme Council of Iraq.[1] Prior to the2003 US-led Invasion of Iraq he was the chairman of theParis Mosque inFrance.[2] He is the imam of the Shi'a Buratha Mosque in Baghdad.[3]
In May 2005, he was appointed to thecommittee that drafted theConstitution of Iraq. In December 2005 he waselected to theIraqi Council of Representatives on theUnited Iraqi Alliance list.
In April 2006, three suicide bombers killed at least 69 people inan attack at the Buratha Mosque. al-Saghir accused Sunni politicians and clerics of waging "a campaign of distortions and lies against the mosque".[4] Two months later he was the target of another suicide bomber fromal-Qaeda in Iraq, who killed 13 people when he blew himself up in the mosque.[5]
In October 2006, he was one of the senior Iraqi clerics who prepared the Mecca Declaration condemning sectarian violence.[6] In November 2006 he clashed in Parliament with Sunni Arab leaderAdnan al-Dulaimi, which was shown on live television. He claimed Shiites in some areas were enduring violence that was driving them towards militias and "opening the gates of hell", and that Sunni Arab parliamentarians were inciting the violence.[7]
In February 2007, the Buratha Mosque was searched by Iraqi Special Forces as part of theBaghdad Security Plan after complaints that the mosque was a base for sectarian death squads.[8] In 2007 he was appointed to theparliamentary committee charged with agreeing amendments to theConstitution of Iraq.
In 2014, he created Saraya Ansar al-Aqeeda as a part ofPopular Mobilization Forces.[9]
In a January 2018 interview, Saghir stated his support for the authority of the Iranian Islamic theologian and head of stateAli Khamenei.[10]
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