Ammar al-Hakim

Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim (Arabic: سید عمار الحكيم‎) is an Iraqi politician who leads the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which was the largest party in Iraq's Council of Representatives from the 2003 Invasion of Iraq until the 2010 Iraqi elections.

Al-Hakim was born in 1971 in Al-Najaf, the son of Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, who preceded him as leader of ISCI, and the grandson on Grand Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim, who led the Iraqi Marja from 1961.

He went into exile in Iran in 1979 with his father after the government of Saddam Hussein had executed seven of his uncles and sixty two of his relatives. He attended private schools in Tehran and graduated from the Islamic Arabic University in Qom. He taught Arabic language, Islamic jurisprudence, logic, philosophy and the science of the Qur'an at the same university for several years.

He supervises the establishment and management of many organizations, Scientific and Cultural Institution in the exile. The most important one was “House of Wisdom for Islamic Science” from which a large number of students graduate in the field of Islamic knowledge.

In 2003 he established “Al-Hakim Foundation”, under the supervision of his uncle Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim. The Al-Hakim Foundation later received consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Headquartered in Najaf, it is now the largest institution of civil society in Iraq, with over 80 offices in all Governorates of Iraq, and working in the field of humanitarian assistance, development, human rights, and dialogue between religions. The Foundation also oversees several schools, colleges and cultural and scientific centers. The foundation holds numerous symposiums, conferences and social and cultural events, in addition to publishing a number of magazines and specialized publications.

Ammar Al-Hakim has had a significant impact on cultural, social and political fields on local, Arabic, Islamic and international levels, where he was the special representative of his uncle Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammed Baqir Al-Hakim who was represented in many political and religious gatherings locally and globally. He's characterized by admissibility and wide popularity due to his faith in dialogue and acceptance of others, and steadfast opposition to violence and injustice.

He has participated in many international conferences and he is an active member of many cultural organizations. These include the global pool of dialogue between Islamic sects, and global pool of Ahlu Al-bait (descendants of the Prophet Mohammad)

Ammar Al-Hakim has had a very interesting presence in the Iraqi, Arabic and international media; there were a lot of media interviews with him on issues of political, social and cultural rights, and the media cover most of his meetings with ambassadors and Iraqi and foreign officials.

He was the Vice President and a member of the central shura of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

On February 23, 2007, he was detained by U.S. forces at a border when he was returning from Iran for 12 hours and he was released. The U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad apologized for the arrest and stressed that Washington did not mean any disrespect to al-Hakim or his family.^[1]

He is married and is the father of four children.

References

1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/world/middleeast/23cnd-Iraq.html?hp