Husain Ar-Radi (;1924, Najaf – 24 February 1963, Baghdad), also known as Hashiim, 'Ammar, and Salam Adil (), was an Iraqi communist politician as well as a poet and painter. He was the leader of the Iraqi Communist Party from 1955 until his death by execution or under torture after the Baathist coup in 1963. Early life Husain al-Radi was born into a Shia Muslim family of sayyids in southern Iraq in 1924. His father was a junior clerk in a flour mill. Al-Radi trained as a teacher at the Elementary Teachers' College in Baghdad, where he first came into contact with the Communist Party in 1943. After graduating, he was appointed to a school in Diwaniya but was dismissed in 1946 on account of his political activities. He then moved to Baghdad, where he made a living selling grilled meat on the streets. Muhammad's descendants through Fatimah are known as sharifs, sayeds or sayyids. These are honorific titles in Arabic, sharif meaning 'noble' and sayed or sayyid meaning 'lord' or 'sir'. As Muhammad's only descendants, they are respected by both Sunni and Shi'a, though the Shi'as place much more emphasis and value on their distinction.[156] Party activity, 1949-1955 In January 1949, al-Radi was arrested at a demonstration and imprisoned. On his release in 1951, he was appointed comrade in charge of the southern division of the Iraqi Communist Party, and in 1953 he became a member of the party's Central Committee. In that year, he represented Iraq at the second London Conference of Communist Parties in the Sphere of British Imperialism. That same year, following the arrest of party secretary Baha al-Din Nuri, Abd al-Karim Ahmad al-Daud became party secretary and began to promote a far-left line as well as a considerable level of confrontational activity. Al-Radi opposed this line and in September the party agreed a more moderate policy, but on 16 June 1954 hardliner Hamid Uthman escaped from Kut jail and succeeded in reimposing the far-left line. He was elected party secretary in place of Al-Daud. Uthman accused al-Radi of rightist deviationism and had him expelled from the Central Committee. The latter then moved to the mid-Euphrates region. Secretary of the Iraqi Communist Party Al-Radi was recalled by the Central Committee in June 1955, after it removed Uthman from the secretariat. His more moderate line, focused on an alliance with all potential progressive and national forces, seemed