What is Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim?
Ayatollah '''Sayed Mohammed Baqir''' (or '''Bakr''') '''al-Hakim''' ([[1939]] - [[August 29]], [[2003]]) was the foremost [[Shia]] [[Muslim]] leader in [[Iraq]] until his [[assassination]] in a [[terrorism|terrorist]] bombing that killed him and 80 others as they were leaving a [[mosque]] in [[Najaf]]. He was the son of Ayatollah [[Muhsin Al-Hakim]], the worldwide leader of Shia Muslims from [[1955]] to [[1970]]. Al-Hakim co-founded the modern [[Islamist]] political movement in Iraq in the [[1960s]], along with Ayatollah [[Sayed Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr]], with whom he worked closely until the latter's death in [[1980]]. Though not among the most hard-line of Islamists, Al-Hakim was seen as dangerous by the ruling [[Baath]] regime, largely because of his agitation on behalf of Iraq's majority Shia population (the ruling regime was comprised mostly of [[Sunni]]s). This led to his [[arrest]] in [[1972]], but he was released shortly thereafter. He was partially blamed for the uprising in [[Najaf]] that occured in February [[1977]], and so was arrested again, and this time sentenced to [[life imprisonment]]. However, his sentence was commuted and he was released in July [[1979]]. The subsequent eruption of war between Iraq and (largely Shia) [[Iran]] led to an ever-increasing distrust of Iraq's Shia population by the rulling Baath party; combined with his previous arrests, this convinced Al-Hakim that it was impossible to continue his Shia advocacy in Iraq, and in [[1980]] he fled to Iran. Safely in Iran, Al-Hakim became an open enemy of the Baathists, forming the [[Supreme Council of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq]] (SCIRI), a revolutionary group dedicated to overthrowing [[Saddam Hussein]]'s regime. In [[1983]], Hussein responded by arresting 125 members of Al-Hakim's family who had remained in Iraq, and executing 18 of them. This further embittered Al-Hakim's view of the Baathists in general and Hussein in particular. With Iranian aid, SCIRI became an armed resistance group, periodically making cross-border