Oh no, not again! Today marks thirty years since this Shi'a cleric mysteriously vanished. Maybe he's also hiding in the bottom of a well? Maybe he's in a library somewhere working furiously, trying to work out the proper spelling of Mohammar Qadafi? From AP:
BEIRUT, Lebanon - For the rest of the world, the disappearance of the imam Moussa al-Sadr is probably at most a footnote in the checkered history of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. In 1978, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim religious leader flew to Tripoli for a week of talks with Libyan officials. He was never seen or heard from again.
But in Lebanon, the mystery of the missing imam remains a burning issue for Shiites, including leaders of the powerful Hezbollah movement — an indication of al-Sadr's potency as a symbol for a community that in 40 years has gone from a downtrodden, impoverished sect to a major political player.
Al-Sadr is one of the pioneers of Shiite empowerment that has become a force across the Middle East, spurred by the 1979 Islamic revolution in Shiite Iran and more recently by the rise to leadership of Iraq's majority Shiites after U.S. forces ousted Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Muslim-dominated regime.
Framed photos of al-Sadr adorn the shops and homes of Lebanese Shiites, and the day he was last seen, on Aug. 31, 1978, is marked annually in Lebanon, with this year's major ceremony planned in the southern town of Nabatiyeh.
On Wednesday, Lebanese judicial officials said prosecutors had just charged Gadhafi and six other Libyan officials with "incitement to kidnap and withhold the freedom" of al-Sadr. The charge could carry the death penalty, but the officials, insisting on anonymity since they were not authorized to speak to the media, conceded it was unlikely Gadhafi would ever be tried.
Most Lebanese presume al-Sadr is dead — he would be 80 if alive — but some cling to the belief he remains in a Libyan jail. It's an appealing idea for Shiites; a major tenet of the faith is that a revered 9th century imam has been hidden by God and will return as mankind's savior.
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Brotherly love and mutual respect between fellow Muslims alert:
Most of al-Sadr's followers are convinced Gadhafi ordered al-Sadr killed in a dispute over Libyan payments to Lebanese militias, but the imam's family argues he could still be alive in a Libyan jail.
