Author: Aylin D. Miller

Turkish-American Police Officer Shot, How About A Help Campaign National Turkish-American Organizations?

AMERIKADA COLARADO’DAKI UYELERIMIZIN DIKKATINE … TURKISH FORUM

Kimden: EMI P [mailto:[email protected]]

Dear Major Turkish-American Organizations,

It has now been over a week since 30-year old Turkish-American police officer Cem Düzel serving in the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) was shot in the line of duty on the night of August 1, 2018 and still remains in critical condition at the UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central, Intensive Care Unit (Note: No flowers are accepted in the ICU). Yet, no Turkish-American organization that I am aware of has shown enough concern to inform the nationwide Turkish-American community or to even post an e-mail announcement wishing him a speedy recover and that our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. HOW ABOUT SHOWING SOME LOVE AND CONCERN FOR A MATTER THAT DOESN’T PERTAIN TO SOCIAL EVENTS OR POLITICS?

I have contacted the CSPD and was told that donations to Ofc. Düzel and his family were being coordinated by the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association Fallen Officer Relief Fund (CSPPAFORF) Tel: (719) 634-0058 ; and that tax-deductible donation checks should be made out to:

CSPPAFORF

For Cem Düzel fund

and mailed to:

Colorado Springs Police Protective Association

516 North Tejon Street

Colorado Springs, CO 80903

Sincerely,

Enis Pınar

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fIT9w3KW5NAJ:https://www.dailysabah.com/americas/2018/08/05/turkish-american-police-officer-critically-wounded-in-colorado-shootout+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

AMERICAS

Turkish-American police officer critically wounded in Colorado shootout

DAILY SABAH WITH ASSOCIATED PRESS

ISTANBUL

Published August 5, 2018

Photo of Officer Cem Düzel from the Colorado Springs Police Department.

A Turkish-origin police officer who was shot in the head by an Iraqi immigrant in the U.S. state of Colorado on Thursday remains in critical condition.

Officer Cem Düzel of Colorado Springs was responding to a call in the early morning hours when a man pulled out a gun and began shooting at him, authorities said.

Düzel, 30, was shot in the head and remains in an area hospital. Health officials said he has shown movement on both sides of his body, a hopeful sign, local media reported.

Hundreds of community members attended a prayer vigil on Friday night to support Düzel. The community is also collecting donations to help his family with medical expenses.

The attacker was a 31-year-old Iraqi immigrant Karrar Noaman Al Khammasi, which court records show has a recent criminal history in the U.S.

Al Khammasi was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

He was first charged with drunk driving in 2013. After a month later, Khammasi added another charge of criminal extortion where investigators claimed he threatened a man and his family and set a car on fire.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports Al Khammasi’s criminal record includes a felony guilty plea to first-degree trespassing and a probation violation that brought a year-and-a-half-long prison sentence.

Al Khammasi was charged earlier this year for allegedly possessing a stolen handgun. Al Khammasi’s hospitalization caused him to miss a court appearance on the gun charge Friday.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Man charged in Colorado cop shooting was set for deportation

by Kathleen Foody | AP August 6

In this undated photo provided by Colorado Springs Police Department is Officer Cem Duzel. Police in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Monday, Aug. 6, 2018 that the officer who was wounded in a shootout was in “critical, but stable” condition. He was shot while responding to a call about shots fired early Thursday east of downtown. Investigators say 31-year-old Karrar Noaman Al Khammasi pulled a handgun and began shooting at officers. (Colorado Springs Police Department via AP) (Associated Press)

DENVER — A refugee from Iraq charged with shooting a Colorado police officer last week was set for deportation before a federal appeals court ruled in 2016 that a portion of immigration law defining violent crime was too vague, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.

The DHS official, who was not authorized to discuss the case on the record and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Monday that federal immigration authorities began deportation proceedings against Karrar Noaman Al Khammasi after he violated probation terms of a felony trespassing plea in 2015.

The official said an immigration judge ordered on June 13, 2016, that Al Khammasi be removed from the country.

Four months later, federal prosecutors ended the deportation proceedings, citing an unrelated 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found a portion of federal immigration law defining what makes crimes violent and making it easier to deport someone convicted of such a crime too vague. He was released on Nov. 7, 2016, the official said.

In the appeals case, Moldova native Constantine Fedor Golicov was convicted in Utah of failing to stop at a police officer’s command, prompting immigration officials to begin deportation proceedings against him. On appeal, Golicov argued that federal law outlining “classes” of immigrants who could be deported, including those convicted of a “crime of violence,” was unconstitutionally vague and should not be used to justify his removal from the country.

The U.S. Supreme Court took up a similar case this year, striking down part of federal immigration law making it easier to deport immigrants convicted of “a crime of violence.” Justice Neil Gorsuch, nominated by President Donald Trump, joined the court’s four liberal justices in that 5-4 decision.

After the decision, Trump tweeted that “it means that Congress must close loopholes that block the removal of dangerous criminal aliens, including aggravated felons.”

The Colorado Springs Police Department said Monday that the injured officer, Cem Duzel, remained in “critical, but stable, condition.”

Police Chief Pete Carey said Duzel, 30, was among several officers who responded to a call about shots fired near the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Carey said the officers found an armed suspect and the officer was injured in an exchange of gunfire.

Al Khammasi, 31, was wounded and remained hospitalized on Monday. His attorney, Jennifer Chu, declined comment on Monday when reached by phone.

August 9, 2018
PETROL PUMP WISDOM TO PONDER……

PETROL PUMP WISDOM TO PONDER…...

Can you imagine wanting to make sure you drove by a certain gas station every day just to see what the message was on the chalk board?

It’s True! A gas station has become quite a landmark in Gauteng, South Africa with its daily “# Petrol Pump Wisdom,” which are uplifting quotes written on a chalkboard. Some people say they deliberately travel this route just to read the quote which brightens their day.

The lady behind this wonderful initiative at Hutton Hyde Park is Alison Billett. She told SA People: “We inherited the board from the previous owner, Dick Hutton. When we bought the filling station from him almost 20 years ago we continued the tradition & it has become a landmark – more so now that it’s on social media!

“Not a day goes by when I don’t get a call or a visit from someone to tell me how much they appreciate the message – it seems that every day there’s something that just speaks to what is going on in someone’s life & that inspires or motivates them.

“Having people come & tell me their stories & how the quote helped them in some small way is what motivates me to keep writing! “We use a variety of quotations – some are topical, some are funny, some are inspirational, some even reflect what is going on in my life that day!

“Different things appeal to different people…

“The boards were spotted by a motivational speaker from the UK, Geoff Ramm, when he was driving by one day & he was so taken by them he included a piece about them in his book!

“The boards have appeared many times in newspapers & magazines and been spoken about on radio stations all over the world. 9GAG has re-tweeted them a few times too!” Bob 95 FM in the USA recently posted Alison’s “Rest in Peace” quote which has now been shared over a quarter of a million times around the world!

June 1, 2018
Top Aide to Kim Jong-un Is Bound for U.S., Trump Says

North Korea’s top nuclear weapons negotiator was headed for New York on Tuesday and expected to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as officials race to settle on an agenda for a June 12 summit meeting between the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Trump in Singapore.

Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Kim Yong-chol, one of the most trusted aides to the North’s leader and a former intelligence chief, was “heading now to New York.” In a reference to the moves made since he canceled the on-again-off-again summit meeting, the president added, “Solid response to my letter, thank you!”

The former intelligence chief, who is 72, has been at the side of the North Korean leader, 34, during a recent whirl of diplomacy, meeting with South Koreans in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula and with the Chinese.

Mr. Kim’s trip to the United States starts the most important negotiating track leading up to the summit meeting. Over the weekend, a team of American diplomats met with North Korean officials in the Demilitarized Zone, and White House logistics experts have been talking with North Koreans in Singapore about arrangements for the leaders’ meeting there.

But a trip to the United States by Kim Yong-chol — who has served the three leaders of the Kim dynasty that has ruled the North since 1945 — signaled that negotiations were reaching a critical point.

Mr. Kim would be the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit the United States since 2000, when Vice Marshal Jo Myong-rok invited President Bill Clinton to Pyongyang, with the prospect of sealing an agreement on curbing the North’s missiles. It never came to fruition.

A diplomat in Beijing, where Mr. Kim stopped overnight Tuesday, said it was not immediately clear whether the negotiator would meet with the Chinese again before going on to New York, where he is expected to arrive on Wednesday.

China’s Foreign Ministry would not confirm the former spymaster’s presence in Beijing, even though video footage showed him at the airport after his arrival from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

In recent weeks, China and the United States have been vying for the attention of Kim Jong-un, with Mr. Trump accusing China of contributing to a toughened North Korean stance on denuclearization after the North Korean and Chinese leaders met this month.

If the former spy chief met with senior Chinese officials in Beijing, he might risk angering Mr. Trump again, diplomats said. His stop in Beijing could also be related to his presence on a sanctions list that bars him from entering the United States.

An American diplomat said a waiver would have to be granted for such an individual to enter the United States, although it was likely one would automatically be given under extraordinary circumstances like these.

Mr. Kim was probably headed to New York, where North Korea has a mission to the United Nations, rather than to Washington because it was easier for him to get a visa there, another American diplomat said. North Korean diplomats and officials are not allowed to travel more than a few miles outside New York City.

Kim Yong-chol has already met Mr. Pompeo twice in Pyongyang. On the second visit, Mr. Pompeo expected to come away with a set of details for the Singapore summit meeting relating to the denuclearization of the North, but failed to do so. After the second meeting this month, Mr. Pompeo returned to Washington with three Americans who had been detained in North Korea.

In his most recent meeting with Mr. Pompeo, Mr. Kim struck a defiant tone, saying at a luncheon that North Korea’s willingness to enter into talks was “not a result of sanctions that have been imposed from the outside.” But he reminded the visiting Americans that North Korea intended to focus “all efforts into economic progress in our country.”

Mr. Kim has served as a senior manager of the North’s intelligence operations for nearly 30 years, according to the website North Korea Leadership Watch.

Mr. Kim’s rare combination of senior positions in the North’s highly stratified political and military apparatus makes him “one of the most powerful figures in North Korea,” it said.

He is also one of the longest serving senior officials of the Kim dynasty. Mr. Kim was involved in the 1990s in one of the earliest efforts to limit the North’s nuclear weapons. According to an account in “The Two Koreas,” by Don Oberdorfer and Robert Carlin, Mr. Kim was the toughest of negotiators on an accord that eventually failed in 1992.

At the time, Mr. Kim accused a South Korean diplomat of composing 90 percent of the language in the accord, it says, quoting him as saying, “This is your agreement, not our agreement.”

In the mid-2000s, he was assigned as head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the North’s spy agency, and paid particular attention to operations against South Korea. When he was chief of the North’s intelligence service in 2010, South Korea accused him of being responsible for blowing up a South Korean Navy vessel, killing 46 sailors. Five months later, the United States Treasury put Mr. Kim on the sanctions list.

In February, Mr. Kim was sent to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea. He appeared in photographs seated behind Ivanka Trump, a stern expression on his face.

Over the past few months, the United States and North Korea have come closer than ever to holding the first summit meeting of the countries’ leaders. In March, Mr. Trump surprised many people when he accepted Kim Jong-un’s invitation to meet, which was relayed through South Korean envoys. But last Thursday in a letter to the North Korean leader, Mr. Trump abruptly canceled the meeting.

He then changed course again on Friday, saying that the meeting might take place as scheduled. Officials from the United States and North Korea have since started a whirlwind of working-level diplomacy to try to narrow a gap over how to denuclearize the North and salvage the planned meeting.

May 29, 2018
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Challenge to Restrictive Arkansas Abortion Law

The Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear a challenge to an Arkansas law that could force two of the state’s three abortion clinics to close.

The law concerns medication abortions, which use pills to induce abortions in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The law, enacted in 2015, requires providers of the procedure to have contracts with doctors who have admitting privileges at a hospital in the state.

The law is quite similar to one in Texas that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2016.

Writing for the majority in the 5-3 decision, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the Texas law, which required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, placed “a substantial obstacle” in the path of women seeking abortions and amounted to an “undue burden on abortion access” in violation of the Constitution.

Judges considering laws restricting access to abortion, Justice Breyer added, must make a cost-benefit calculation, weighing the burdens a law imposes on abortion access against the benefits it confers.

Judge Kristine G. Baker, of the Federal District Court in Little Rock, blocked the Arkansas law, saying its medical benefits were few at best and outweighed by the burdens it imposed. The law, she wrote, quoting an earlier decision, was “a solution in search of a problem.”

But a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, vacated that decision, saying that Judge Baker had not specified how many women would be affected.

Arkansas has three abortion clinics. One, in Little Rock, offers both medication and surgical abortions. The others, in Little Rock and Fayetteville, offer only medication abortions.

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the local Planned Parenthood affiliate said it contacted every qualified doctor it could identify. No one of them, the group said, was willing to enter into the contract required by the law. This was unsurprising, Judge Baker found, as doctors in Arkansas who perform abortions “risk being ostracized from their communities and face harassment and violence toward themselves, their family, and their private practices.”

Arkansas officials told the Supreme Court that Planned Parenthood had not tried hard enough or told the doctors how much it was willing to pay.

If the law were to go into effect, Planned Parenthood said, only surgical abortions would be available in Arkansas. “This will particularly affect women who strongly prefer medication abortion,” the group told the Supreme Court, “including those who find it traumatic to have instruments placed in their vaginas because they are victims of rape, incest, or domestic violence, as well as women for whom medication abortion is medically indicated and safer than surgical abortion.”

In their Supreme Court brief in the case, Planned Parenthood of Arkansas & Eastern Oklahoma v. Jegley, No. 17-935, Arkansas officials responded that “there is no right to choose medication abortion.”

They added that their state’s law was not as onerous as the one from Texas, which required abortion providers to have admitting privileges. “Arkansas law only requires medication abortion providers to have a contractual relationship (to ensure follow-up treatment if needed) with a physician that has admitting privileges,” the officials’ brief said.

The law would effectively require women to travel long distances to obtain even the abortion procedure that remained available, Planned Parenthood told the justices. Women in Fayetteville, for instance, would have to make a 380-mile round-trip journey, twice, as Arkansas law also requires an in-person counseling session 48 hours before an abortion.

“Inability to travel to the sole remaining clinic in the state will lead some women to take desperate measures, such as attempting to self-abort or seeking care from unsafe providers,” Judge Baker wrote.

Medication abortions are considered quite safe. One study found that six of every 10,000 women who used the procedure experienced complications requiring hospitalization.

Since women typically take the second drug in the two-pill regimen at home, which may not be near the clinic, it is not clear that having a doctor on contract would make them safer than simply visiting an emergency room, Judge Baker wrote.

“Emergency room physicians are well qualified to evaluate and treat most complications that can arise after a medication abortion,” she wrote, adding that the relevant medical issues are “identical to those suffered by women experiencing miscarriage, who receive treatments in hospitals every day through emergency physicians.”

May 29, 2018
As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Wed, a New Era Dawns

In the knight’s stalls supporting Ms. Markle, beneath rows of medieval swords and helmets, sat a constellation of American celebrities, among them Oprah Winfrey who, with a great gift for openness and emotional candor, has become an icon for black women.

There were the Hollywood and humanitarian megacelebrities George and Amal Clooney, and the tennis star Serena Williams. A gospel choir sang the Ben E. King song “Stand By Me,” and the couple exited to the rousing civil rights anthem “This Little Light of Mine.”

In short, it was not your average royal wedding. Among the throngs who filled the streets of Windsor on Saturday were black women who had flown in from Houston and Atlanta, moved, sometimes to tears, to see a woman of color so publicly adored.

“One of the children of slaves is marrying a royal whose forerunners sanctioned slavery; the lion is lying down with the lamb,” said Denise Crawford, a court stenographer from Brooklyn.

“I just want to be here to observe the changing of the guard and the changing of the British Empire,” she said. “Today is a day that history will never forget.”

The most startling moments came with the sermon by the Most Rev. Michael Curry, the Chicago-born bishop of the Episcopal Church. Bishop Curry, in the great tradition of black preachers, delivered a loose, improvisational sermon that began as a meandering discourse but built to a passionate, shouting climax, name-checking Martin Luther King Jr. and slave spirituals along the way.

“I’m talking about some power, real power,” he boomed. “Power to change the world. If you don’t believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America’s Antebellum South who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has the power to transform.”

At one point, seemingly sensing the passage of time, he said, “We’re going to sit down; we gotta get y’all married.”

He punctured the hallowed, starchy decorum of the day, visibly shocking some members of the royal family. Some suppressed giggles. Zara Tindall, a granddaughter of the queen, looked as if she might fall off her chair.

The episode delighted viewers on social media.

“A black reverend preaching to British royalty about the resilience of faith during slavery is 10000000% not what I thought I was waking up for, the royal wedding is good,” Elamin Abdelmahmoud, social media editor at Buzzfeed, wrote on Twitter.

When the couple stepped out of the church and into the sunshine, a jolt went through the crowd, which cheered their first kiss as husband and wife.

For Britons, there was a sense of an old heartbreak being mended. Many people here feel a special affection for Harry, who was only 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash. On the day of the funeral, Harry was made to walk behind her coffin, and much of the country watched as his face crumpled.

“He was such a young boy,” said Christine Janetta, 57, one of the charity workers invited to greet the couple from the lawn on the grounds of Windsor Castle. “We’ve all been very protective of Harry, because we saw that little boy with his broken heart.”

Ms. Janetta said she was devoted to Princess Diana, and that she thought it would have given her a sense of deep relief to see her sons happily settled. “He’s just his mum,” she said. “He is a carbon copy of his mum. Just look at the smile.”

Harry’s popularity helped give him the power to stretch the bounds of convention by marrying Ms. Markle, an American of mixed race. The decision may have a lasting effect on British society, which has been swept by a wave of anti-immigrant feeling. But it has not made things easier for the couple.

As the wedding approached, British newspapers swung the klieg lights of their attention to Ms. Markle’s estranged half siblings, who said scathing things about a bride whom few Britons knew. More damaging were insistent approaches to her father, Thomas Markle, a retired Hollywood lighting director who declared bankruptcy years ago and now lives alone in Mexico.

A week before the ceremony, The Daily Mail reported that Mr. Markle had colluded with a photographer to stage seemingly candid pictures. With that, Mr. Markle dropped out of the wedding in disgrace, leaving Ms. Markle with only one blood relative, her mother, to attend the ceremony at her side.

On Saturday, royal fans embraced the couple unreservedly. People had camped out all night, huddling in blankets and clutching hot-water bottles, in hopes of making eye contact when the couple left the chapel. Along the main street of Windsor, people leaned precariously from windows.

Many of those lining the streets said they liked the change the couple represents.

“It’s very good for the monarchy that Meghan Markle is a divorcée,” said Christel Funten, a nanny, had traveled from Paris to attend the celebration. “It breaks a taboo. It’s magnificent.”

Charlotte Osborn, a Londoner, said the wedding showed how far the country had come since 1936, when King Edward VIII chose to abdicate the throne so that he could marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American.

Continue reading the main storY

“It’s a modern version of Wallis Simpson, where it all ends sensibly, rather than in disaster,” she said.

Any royal wedding is theater, and this one did not disappoint. The dim vaulted opening of St. George’s Chapel, whose construction was finished in the reign of King Henry VIII, was so densely crowded with meadow flowers that it felt as if you were stepping into a wonderland. A palace spokesman described the floral style as “cascading hedgerow,” and it filled the chapel with the smell of growing things.

Harry arrived at the chapel on foot, walking beside his brother, Prince William, in the doeskin frock coat of the Blues and Royals, the regiment he joined after graduating from military school. Harry took his place in the chapel and shifted in his seat nervously, trying to catch Ms. Ragland’s eye.

Ten minutes later, Ms. Markle stepped from a Rolls-Royce Phantom 4, in the company of two small pageboys in military dress. Her dress, with a flowing train 16 feet long, was dazzling pure white, wide-necked and minimal, leaving her collarbones bare, à la Audrey Hepburn.

The dress, which had been the subject of agitated speculation for weeks leading up to the wedding, was designed by Clare Waight Keller, the first female artistic director at the French fashion house Givenchy.

Continue reading the main story

Seven tiny bridesmaids and pageboys trailed behind her, holding the edges of her 16-foot veil. As she approached the altar, she gave a quiet “Hi” to Harry. He flushed and, when she stood opposite him, added, “You look amazing.”

Harry has decided to wear a wedding ring — a break from tradition not just for the royal family but for British aristocrats in general. Asked whether they would support the couple in their marriage, the guests said, “We will.”

As a bride, Ms. Markle stood apart from Diana, a 20-year-old who nearly disappeared inside pouffes of meringue, and from Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, a school friend who had known William for 10 years at the time of their marriage, and was well known to the British public.

Mesha Griffin, an African-American schoolteacher from Washington, had flown to Britain alone, just to be present on the day of Ms. Markle’s wedding.

“She is owning her heritage,” Ms. Griffin said of the bride. “She is going to impact history in a way we saw with Princess Diana, not in a disrespectful way. She will respectfully change history.”/NYTimes

May 21, 2018
Once Hated by U.S. and Tied to Iran, Is Sadr Now ‘Face of Reform’ in Iraq?

BAGHDAD — Iraqis are still haunted by memories of black-clad death squads roaming Baghdad neighborhoods a decade ago, cleansing them of Sunnis as the country was convulsed by sectarian violence.

Many of the mass killings in the capital were done in the name of Moktada al-Sadr, a cleric best remembered by Americans for fiery sermons declaring it a holy duty among his Shiite faithful to attack United States forces.

The militia he led was armed with Iranian-supplied weapons, and Mr. Sadr cultivated a strong alliance with leaders in Tehran, who were eager to supplant the American presence in Iraq and play the dominant role in shaping the country’s future.

Now, the man once demonized by the United States as one of the greatest threats to peace and stability in Iraq has come out as the surprise winner of this month’s tight elections, after a startling reinvention into a populist, anticorruption campaigner whose “Iraq First” message appealed to voters across sectarian divides.

The results have Washington — and Tehran — on edge, as officials in both countries seek to influence what is expected to be a complex and drawn-out battle behind the scenes to build a coalition government. Mr. Sadr’s bloc won 54 seats — the most of any group, but still far short of a majority in Iraq’s 329-seat Parliament.

Even before final results were announced early Saturday, Mr. Sadr — who did not run as a candidate and has ruled himself out as prime minister — had made clear whom he considers natural political allies. At the top of his list is Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the moderate Shiite leader who has been America’s partner in the fight against the Islamic State and whose political bloc finished third in the vote.

Pointedly absent from Mr. Sadr’s list of potential partners: pro-Iranian blocs, as he has insistently distanced himself from his former patrons in Iran, whose meddling he has come to see as a destabilizing force in Iraq’s politics.

Early Sunday morning, the prime minister met with Mr. Sadr in Baghdad. They discussed forming a government, and aides from both sides said the men saw eye to eye on prioritizing the fight against corruption.

While Mr. Sadr has all the momentum going into negotiations over the governing coalition, there is no guarantee his bloc will be in power. And it is too early to tell what the election may mean for Iraqi stability or American national security goals.

But the upset has clearly weakened the sectarian foundation of Iraq’s political system — and helped transform Mr. Sadr’s image from the paragon of a militant Shiite into an unexpected symbol of reform and Iraqi nationalism.

As the head of the Sairoon Alliance for Reform, Mr. Sadr presides over an unlikely alliance that pairs his pious, largely working-class Shiite base with Sunni business leaders, liberals and Iraqis looking for relief from the country’s long-simmering economic crisis.

For those joining the alliance, it was important to be convinced that Mr. Sadr’s shift from Shiite firebrand to Iraqi patriot was sincere, and likely to last.

Late last year, the cleric began reaching out to groups outside his base with an offer to form a new political movement, and the country’s embattled leftists and secularists — once his staunch enemies — faced a moment of reckoning.

They remembered how a rogue Shariah court he had established passed sentences on fellow Shiites deemed too submissive toward the American occupation of Iraq. And they recalled the countless Iraqis killed in battles between the country’s security forces and Mr. Sadr’s militia.

But a ragtag group of communists, social democrats and anarchists have come to embrace Mr. Sadr as a symbol of the reform they have championed for years — an image that the cleric has burnished, seeing it as the best path to political power.

“Let me be honest: We had a lot of apprehensions, a lot of suspicions,” said Raad Fahmi, a leader of Iraq’s Communist Party, which is part of Mr. Sadr’s alliance. “But actions speak louder than words. He’s not the same Moktada al-Sadr.”/NyTimes

May 21, 2018