Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council

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Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council

المجلس الأعلى الإسلامي العراقي
SCIRI logo
Leader Sayyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim
Founded 1982
Religion Shi'a Islam
Political ideology Islamism
Nationality Iraqi
Website www.almejlis.org (Arabic)

The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) (Arabic: المجلس الأعلى الإسلامي العراقي) (previously known as Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)) is an Iraqi political party. Its political support comes from the country's Shi'a Muslim community. Prior to his assassination in 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, Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council is one of Iraq's most powerful political parties and the largest party in the Iraqi Council of Representatives.

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[edit] Name change May 2007

The Council was formerly known as SCIRI, but in a statement released May 11, SCIRI officials told Reuters the Islamist party would change its name to reflect what they called the changing situation in Iraq, removing the word "Revolution" because that was seen as a reference to overthrowing the secular Ba'athist government. "Our name will change to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. Other things will change as well," said the SCIRI official. [1]

Expressing the council's rejection of the "concept of a civil or sectarian war," the statement accused terrorists, extremists and supporters of Takfiri (accusing someone of unbelief) of causing bloodshed in Iraq.[2]

An American private intelligence agency has suggested that the process of "Iraqising" the party is supported by Iran to help the United States to stabilise Iraq, prior to an "honorable exit". [3]

[edit] History

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Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq was founded in 1982 during the Iran-Iraq war after the leading Islamist insurgent group, Islamic Dawa Party, was severely weakened by a government crackdown following Dawa's unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The Iranian Islamic revolutionary government arranged for the formation of SCIRI, which was based in exile in Tehran and under the leadership of Mohammad-Baqir al-Hakim. Hakim, living in exile in Iran, was the son of Ayatollah Mohsen-Hakim and a member of one of the leading Shi'a clerical families in Iraq. "He declared the primary aim of the council to be the overthrow of the Ba'ath and the establishment of an Islamic government in Iraq. Iranian officials referred to Hakim as the leader of Iraq's future Islamic state ..." [4]

SCIRI was designed to be an umbrella organization that would unite under one banner the various Iraqi Shia groups, including al-Dawa and Munazamat. For this reason, it has been likened to the American-backed Iraqi National Congress. [5]

However, there are crucial ideological differences between SCIRI and al-Dawa. SCIRI supports the idea of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that Islamic Government must be controlled by the ulema (Islamic scholars). Al-Dawa, on the other hand, follows the position of Iraq's late Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, and al-Dawa co-founder, that government should be controlled by the ummah (Muslim community as a whole).

Despite this ideological disagreement, several of SCIRI's factions came from al-Dawa before the 2003 invasion of Iraq[6]. This historical intersection is significant because al-Dawa was widely viewed as a terrorist group during the Iran-Iraq war[7]. 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 [8].

[edit] Post-invasion

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. The council's armed wing, the Badr Organization, reportedly has had 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, killing more than 85. According to Kurdish Intelligence officials, Yassin Jarad, allegedly Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's father-in-law, carried out the car bombing. [9]

[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.
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.

SIIC's support is strongest in Iraq's south especially Basra, where it has been said to have become "the de facto government."[10]

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). In the January 2005 election it won six out of eight Shia-majority governorates and came in first in Baghdad with 40% of the vote.[11] Following the election SIIC had many members hired by various government ministries, particularly the Interior Ministry, "ensuring a favorable position for" it.[12]

Its administration in Southern Iraq has been criticized as corrupt and as "theocracy mixed with thuggery"[13] According to a 2005 report by journalist Doug Ireland, the Badr Organization has been involved in many incidents of attacking and killing gays in Iraq.[14] According to the British television Channel 4, from 2005 through early 2006, SIIC's Badr Organization members working as commandos in the Ministry of the Interior (which Badr controls) "have been implicated in rounding up and killing thousands of ordinary Sunni civilians." [15]

Ideologically SIIC differs from Muqtada al-Sadr and its sometime ally Islamic Dawa Party, in favoring a decentralized Iraq state with an autonomous Shia zone in the south.[16]

[edit] Iranian support

In a BBC interview in London, Ghazi al-Yawar the Sunni Arab sheik, cited reports that Iran sent close to a million people to Iraq and covertly supplied Shiite religious groups with money to help compete 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[17]

[edit] Prominent figures of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council

[edit] References

  1. ^ Iraq's SCIRI party to change platform - officials, Reuters, 2007-05-11
  2. ^ Shia Group Changes Name Drops Revolution
  3. ^ Iraq: Transforming Iran's Shiite Proxy, Assisting the United States, Stratfor, 2007-05-11
  4. ^ Bakhash, Shaul, The Reign of the Ayatollahs Basic Books, c1984, p.233
  5. ^ "Jabar, Faleh A, Clerics, Tribes, Ideologues & Urban Dwellers in the South of Iraq: The Potential for Rebellion, in Iraq at the Crossroads (eds Toby Dodge & Steven Simon), Adelphi Papers 354, IISS 2003
  6. ^ The Post-Saddam Danger from Iran, the New Republic, October 7, 2002
  7. ^ Chronology of terrorism against Americans, 1979-1988
  8. ^ U.S. probes embassy's bombing in Kuwait
  9. ^ Zarqawi kin reportedly bombed shrine in Iraq
  10. ^ Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, (Norton, 2006), p.194
  11. ^ Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, (Norton, 2006), p.194
  12. ^ Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, (Norton, 2006), p.194
  13. ^ Steven Vincent, "Shiites Bring Reigid Piety to Iraq's South", Christian Science Monitor, July 13, 2005
  14. ^ SHIA DEATH SQUADS TARGET IRAQI GAYS -- U.S. Indifferent. D Ireland, March 22, 2006
  15. ^ Channel 4 program Dispatches
  16. ^ Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, (Norton, 2006), p.195
  17. ^ Iraqi Shiite with ties to Iran gains top billing World Security Network 16 December 2004

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Parliamentary political parties in Iraq Flag of Iraq
United Iraqi Alliance
Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council - Badr Organization - Sadrist Movement - Islamic Virtue Party - Islamic Dawa Party (main - Iraq Organisation)
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Iraqi Accord Front
General Council for the People of Iraq - Iraqi Islamic Party - Iraqi National Dialogue Council
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