Baghdad, Iraq - Three bearded and burly Shiite Muslim militiamen hold down Karrar as a former Iraqi army doctor lifts up the tearful nine-year-old's white robe.
"It's okay, everything will be fine, Sayed Moqtada (Sadr) will come to see you now," Mushtaq Abdelwahid, 27, whispers into the boy's ear as a big poster of the Shiite radical leader, frowning and dressed in his trademark black robes, stares down from the wall.
Doctor Amer al-Ankabi, 44, approaches Karrar with a pair of pincers and inspects the screaming boy. He concludes it would be too dangerous to perform the circumcision, saying the procedure involves cosmetic surgery.
"It was not done right the first time and some foreskin was left around the tip," says his disappointed father Ahmed Abdelkadhim, 33.
A relieved Karrar is led out and in comes his brother Hussein, four.
With an electric cutter, the procedure lasts just seconds.
A smiling and triumphant-looking Ahmed lifts up his tearful boy in his arms and takes him outside, penis exposed.
The boy is handed a bag of chocolates with a piece of paper inside reading: "Gift of the office of the martyr Sadr," referring to Sadr's late father Mohammed Sadeq, a widely respected religious leader who was assassinated in 1999.
Some one hundred anxious mothers and fathers with babies in their laps or children clutching their hands waited their turn Saturday in the courtyard of the Sadr cultural centre in Al-Amil, a poor working-class neighbourhood on the capital's west side.
The free circumcision is announced over a huge loudspeaker outside the centre and on banners hung all over the district.
"This campaign is made possible with God's blessing, so please refrain from bringing musical bands with you, shooting in the air or doing anything contrary to Islam," reads the banner.
Like Judaism, male circumcision is mandatory in Islam and dates back to a covenant between the Prophet Abraham and God thousands of years ago.
"It's like my wedding day," beams Riad Abboud, 30, holding in his arms his newly-circumcised son Mustafa, aged one.
Colourful streamers, Iraqi flags and posters of Sadr, his father and revered Shiite imams hung all around the centre's courtyard and families said they planned parties for their circumcised little ones.
"We are doing this to support poor families," said Sheikh Mahmud al-Subaih, a Sadr partisan who oversaw the circumcision drive.
"We want to share the suffering and worries of our people."
He said the centre was also offering lessons in the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as well as culture and ethics "to counter the invading US influence."
The use of circumcision for political ends is not new in Iraq -- under Saddam Hussein's regime, the procedure was provided free at offices of the ruling Baath party on July 17 and 30 every year to commemorate the regime's rise to power.
The move by Sadr's partisans appears to be part of a calculated effort to win grassroots support ahead of new elections due in December.
Although the 30-something cleric has stood aloof from the political process, insisting he is not interested in government posts, nearly 20 of his followers won election to parliament in January as part of the main Shiite alliance.
"There is a time for study and there is a time for fighting. Sayed Moqtada has told us to study," said Ammar Sabah, 33, who fought against US troops last year with Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.
The bloody uprising in Shiite areas of central and southern Iraq lasted six months before the religious hierarchy brokered a settlement under which the militia handed over its weapons in the capital.
Sabah, a fine arts student, is surrounded by other veterans of the fighting in the central holy city of Najaf and the Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City, who have come to lend a helping hand with the operationss.
And in poverty-stricken post-war Iraq, it is not just Shiites who are coming, despite the sectarian tensions sparked by the Sunni Arab insurgency.
Ahmed Jamil and his wife Muntaha, both Sunnis from the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi west of the capital, hold up their two newly circumcised boys with pride.