The Muslim Student Association (MSA) held their 2007 West Zone Conference in April 2007 at UC-Berkeley. Amir Mertaban, the president of MSA West, gave a speech entitled "Methods of Da'wah." In his speech, he referenced Muqtada al Sadr, leader of the largest Shia militia in Iraq, the Mehdi Army. While al-Sadr-allied Iraqis have participated in the Iraq government, his militia has been responsible for much of the upheaval in Iraq, including insurgent warfare waged against the U.S. military Americans and massacres of Iraqi Sunnis.

Mertaban: Time magazine had this one article on Muqtada al-Sadr. Who knows who Muqtada al-Sadr is? He is one of the individuals in Iraq who is one of the leaders of the Shi'a resistance movement against U.S. troops. Anyways, Time magazine dramatizes everything. So here is Muqtada al-Sadr, ok? And I want you to look at my facial expression, because this is very powerful how they used him. He was wearing a huge black (unintelligible) with a big black (unintelligible) and he was going like this. And there is red fire in the background. I was scared. This is what (unintelligible) is. They're attacking Muslims not based on you and how you look and how you look - based on how he looks.

I don't even know the guy. The guy is probably a tight Muslim. I don't even know him. I don't really care too much about him to tell you the truth. But the idea is how they use individuals like that to portray Muslims.

Muqtada al-Sadr