Abd al-Aziz al-Badri
Abd al-Aziz bin Abdul-Lateef al-Badri (1929-1969) was an Iraqi Islamic scholar. He was one of the founders of the Iraqi branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir and later their leader in Iraq.
History
He was born in Baghdad in 1929.
He studied Islam under various scholars including Amjad az-Zahaawi, Muhammad al-Qazlaji and Shaykh Abdul-Qaadir al-Khateeb. He became Imaam in the Soor Masjid in 1949 and at the Khafafeen mosque in 1950.
He frequently vilified Abd al-Karim Qasim and led protests against him which sometimes numbered 40,000 people.
He was subject to house arrest between 2 /12/1959 and 2/12/1960 and he was in jail from 7/8/1961 until 4/12/1961. [1]
In the early 1950s, the international leadership of Hizb ut-Tahrir decided to create a branch in Iraq and approached several Islamic figures in Iraq including Abd al-Aziz. Abd al-Aziz later traveled to Jordan and met with Hizb ut-Tahrir founder Taqi al-Din al-Nabhaniand returned to Iraq to form a Hizb ut-Tahrir branch. He approached the Iraqi government seeking to register the party, but they were denied a permit and later faced persecution. He left Hizb ut-Tahrir in 1956.
He was opposed to the Hashemite monarchists of the Kingdom of Iraq, the communists, and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region. After leaving Hizb ut-Tahrir, he grew closer to the Muslim Brotherhood and was a prominent supporter of them in Iraq.
Throughout his life he was arrested 14 times and spent numerous periods under house arrest. In 1969 he was arrested by the Ba'ath regime after he condemned the arrest and torture of the son of Iraq's highest Shia Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim. He was tortured for 17 days until he died. It is said he was beaten by Nazem al-Kazaz, head of the Baath regime’s General Security Forces.
Sunni-Shia relations
He worked with the Shia and strove to develop good relations with them. He visited Karbala and Najaf to ask the ulama there to intervene with Gamal Abdel Nasser to stop the execution of Sayyid Qutb.[2]
Bibliography
- The Position of Islam on Socialism (he concludes it is apostasy)
- Islam Between the Scholars and the Rulers (in which he condemns scholars that work for rulers)
- Islam: A War Against Capitalism and Socialism