Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq المجلس الأعلى للثورة الإسلامية في العراق




Leader	Sayyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim

Founded	1982
Religion	Shi'a Islam

Political ideology	Islamism
Nationality	Iraq

Website	www.sciri.ws (Arabic)

The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) (Arabic: المجلس الأعلى للثورة الإسلامية في العراق ) is an Iraqi political party. Its political support comes from the country's Shi'a Muslim community. Prior to August 2003, SCIRI was led by Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim; its current leader is the ayatollah's brother, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. In light of its gains in both elections and government appointments, SCIRI is one of Iraq's most powerful political parties and the biggest party in the Iraqi Council of Representatives.

1 History
2 Politics
3 Iranian support
4 Prominent figures of the SCIRI
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

Historically, an Iraqi insurgent group backed by Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, the party was founded in 1982 when the Islamic Dawa Party was severely weakened after its failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. Based in Tehran, it was designed to be an umbrella organization that would supposedly unite the various Iraqi Shia groups, including al-Dawa and Munazamat, under one banner. For this reason, it has been likened to the American-backed Iraqi National Congress. ^[1]

Moreover, there are crucial ideological distinctions between SCIRI and al-Dawa. While SCIRI supports the tenet of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that government should be controlled by the ulema (Islamic scholars), al-Dawa sided with Iraq's Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, who posited that government should be controlled by the ummah (Islamic laity).

Despite this ideological disagreement, several of SCIRI's factions came from al-Dawa before the 2003 invasion of Iraq^[2]. This historical intersection is significant because al-Dawa was widely viewed as a terrorist group during the Iran-Iraq war^[3]. In February 2007, journalists reported that Jamal Jaafar Muhammed, who was elected to the Iraqi parliament in 2005 as part of the SCIRI/Badr faction of the United Iraqi Alliance, was also sentenced to death in Kuwait for planning the al-Dawa bombings of the French and American embassies in that country in 1983 ^[4].

Iraq
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Iraq

Constitution Presidency Council President (Jalal Talabani) Council of Ministers Prime Minister (Nouri al-Maliki) Government from 2006 Iraqi Council of Representatives Iraqi High Tribunal (judiciary) Political parties Elections Electoral Commission Legislative: Jan 2005 Dec 2005 Constitutional referendum Governorates Regions of Iraq Foreign relations Human rights Minority politics Foreign aid
Other countries · Politics Portal view • talk • edit

With the fall of Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Iraq, SCIRI quickly rose to prominence in Iraq, working closely with the other Shi'a parties. It gained popularity among Shiite Iraqis by providing social services and humanitarian aid, following the pattern of Islamic organizations in other countries such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. SCIRI is alleged to receive money and weapons from Iran, and is often accused of being a proxy for Iranian interests. The party leaders have toned down many of the party's public positions and committed it to democracy and peaceful cooperation. SCIRI's power base is in the Shi'a-majority southern Iraq. In the past it had an armed wing, the Badr Organization, with an estimated strength of between 4,000 and 10,000 men. Its Baghdad offices are based in a house that previously belonged to Ba'athist Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

Its leader, Ayatollah al-Hakim, was killed in a car bomb attack in the Iraqi city of Najaf on August 29, 2003. The car bomb exploded as the ayatollah was leaving a religious shrine (Imam Ali Mosque) in the city, just after Friday prayers. The assassination was carried out by al-Qaida in Iraq.^[5]

[edit] Politics

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, casts his ballot at a poll station in Baghdad in the January, 2005 election.

It joined the United Iraqi Alliance list for the general election on January 30, 2005 (see Iraqi legislative election, 2005), but filed separate lists in some governorate council elections held on the same day (see for instance Ninawa governorate council election, 2005).

Badr Organization has allegedly been involved in many incidents, in 2005 report appeared that they were attacking and murdering gays in Iraq [1].

[edit] Iranian support

In a BBC interview in London Ghazi al-Yawar , the Sunni Arab sheik cited reports Iran sent close to a million people to Iraq and covertly supplied Shiite religious groups with money to help competing in the elections.But U.S. and Iraqi officials say that many of the migrants crossing the largely unmonitored border are Iraqi Shiite families who fled Saddam Hussein's repression, particularly after the failed Shiite uprising that followed the 1991 Gulf war^[6]