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Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq المجلس الأعلى الإسلامي العراقي | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | ShaikhHumam Hamoudi |
| Founder | AyatollahSayyedMohammed Baqir al-Hakim |
| Founded | 1982 (1982) |
| Military wing | Badr Brigade (1982–2003) |
| Ideology | Sistanism[1] Shia Islamism Islamic democracy Decentralization Iraqi nationalism[2] |
| Religion | Shia Islam |
| National affiliation | Fatah Alliance (2018–present)[3] |
| International affiliation | Axis of Resistance[4] |
| Seats in theCouncil of Representatives of Iraq | 5 / 329 |
| Seats in thelocal governorate councils | 54 / 440 |
TheIslamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI orSIIC;Arabic:المجلس الأعلى الإسلامي العراقيAl-Majlis Al-A'ala Al-Islami Al-'Iraqi; previously known as theSupreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq,SCIRI) is aShiaIslamist political party in Iraq. It was established in Iran in 1982 byMohammed Baqir al-Hakim and changed its name to the current Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq in 2007. Its political support comes from Iraq'sShia Muslim community.
Prior to his assassination in August 2003, SCIRI was led byAyatollahMohammed Baqir al-Hakim; afterwards it was led by the Ayatollah's brother,Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. After Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's death in 2009 his sonAmmar al-Hakim became the group's new leader.[5] In light of its gains inthe three 2005 elections and government appointments, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council became one of Iraq's most powerful political parties and was the largest party in theIraqi Council of Representatives until the2010 Iraqi elections, where it lost support due toNuri Al-Maliki's political party rise.
Previously, ISCI'smilitia wing was theBadr Brigade, which the party used during theIraqi civil war of 2006–2007. After the civil war, the Badr Brigade turned into a political force on its own and left ISCI, although the two continue to be part of a coalition in Iraq's parliament.[6] After the departure of Badr Brigade, ISCI created a new militia called theKnights of Hope [ar].[7]
Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq was founded in Iran in 1982 during theIran–Iraq War after the leading Islamist insurgent group,Islamic Dawa Party, was severely weakened by an Iraqi government crackdown following Dawa's unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Iraqi presidentSaddam Hussein. SCIRI was the umbrella body for two Iran-based Shia Islamist groups, Dawa and theIslamic Action Organisation led byMohammad Taqi al-Modarresi. Another of SCIRI's founders was AyatollahHadi al-Modarresi, the leader theIslamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. 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 Shia 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 ..."[8]
However, there are crucial ideological differences between SCIRI and al-Dawa. SCIRI supports the ideologies of Iran's AyatollahRuhollah Khomeini thatIslamic Government must be controlled by theulema (Islamic scholars). Al-Dawa, on the other hand, follows the position of Iraq's late AyatollahMohammad Baqir al-Sadr, and al-Dawa co-founder, that government should be controlled by theummah (Muslim community as a whole).
Despite this ideological disagreement, several of SCIRI's factions came from al-Dawa before the2003 invasion of Iraq.[9] This historical intersection is significant because al-Dawa was widely viewed as a terrorist group during the Iran–Iraq War.[10] 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.[11]
With the fall of Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Iraq, SCIRI quickly rose to prominence in Iraq, working closely with the other Shia parties. It gained popularity among Shia Iraqis by providing social services and humanitarian aid, following the pattern of Islamic organizations in other countries such asHamas and theMuslim 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 todemocracy and peaceful cooperation. SCIRI's power base is in the Shia-majority southern Iraq. The council's armed wing, theBadr Organization, reportedly has had an estimated strength of between 4,000 and 10,000 men. ItsBaghdad offices are based in a house that previously belonged toBa'athist Deputy Prime MinisterTariq Aziz.
Its leader, Ayatollah al-Hakim, was killed in acar bomb attack in the Iraqi city ofNajaf on August 29, 2003. The car bomb exploded as the ayatollah was leaving a religious shrine (Imam Ali Mosque) in the city, just afterFriday prayers, killing more than 85. According to Kurdish Intelligence officials, Yassin Jarad, allegedlyAbu Musab al-Zarqawi's father-in-law, carried out the car bombing.[12]
In the Shia Islamist–dominated government in post-invasion Iraq, SCIRI controlled the Interior Ministry. The Iraqi Interior Minister,Bayan Jabr, was a former leader of SCIRI's Badr Brigade militia. In 2006 the United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, said that every month hundreds of Iraqis were being tortured to death or executed by the Interior Ministry under SCIRI's control.[13] According to a 2006 report by theIndependent newspaper:
'Mr Pace said the Ministry of the Interior was "acting as a rogue element within the government". It is controlled by the main Shia party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri); the Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr, is a former leader of Sciri's Badr Brigade militia, which is one of the main groups accused of carrying out sectarian killings. Another is the Mehdi Army of the young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is part of the Shia coalition seeking to form a government after winning the mid-December election.
Many of the 110,000 policemen and police commandos under the ministry's control are suspected of being former members of the Badr Brigade. Not only counter-insurgency units such as the Wolf Brigade, the Scorpions and the Tigers, but the commandos and even the highway patrol police have been accused of acting as death squads.
The paramilitary commandos, dressed in garish camouflage uniforms and driving around in pick-up trucks, are dreaded in Sunni neighbourhoods. People whom they have openly arrested have frequently been found dead several days later, with their bodies bearing obvious marks of torture.'[13]
SIIC is a Shia Islamist political party that is widely regarded as one of the most pro-Iranian parties in Iraq. SIIC's support is strongest in Iraq's south especiallyBasra, where it has been said to have become "the de facto government."[14]
It joined theUnited Iraqi Alliance list for the general election on January 30, 2005 (seeIraqi legislative election, 2005), but filed separate lists in some governorate council elections held on the same day (see for instance2005 Nineveh governorate election). 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.[14] Following the election SIIC had many members hired by various government ministries, particularly the Interior Ministry, "ensuring a favorable position for" it.[14]
Its administration in Southern Iraq has been criticized as corrupt and as "theocracy mixed with thuggery"[15] According to a 2005 report by journalist Doug Ireland, the Badr Organization has been involved in many incidents of attacking and killinggays in Iraq.[16] According to the British television Channel 4, from 2005 through early 2006, SIIC'sBadr 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."[17]
Ideologically SIIC differs fromMuqtada al-Sadr and its sometime allyIslamic Dawa Party, in favoring a decentralized Iraq state with an autonomous Shia zone in the south.[18]
During the2009 Iraqi governorate elections ISCI ran under the nameal-Mehrab Martyr List, the ISCI did not perform as well as they hoped to, winning 6.6% of vote and 52 out of 440 seats. They did however come second in the election.[19][20][21]
| Governorate | Percentage | Seats won | Total seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Anbar | - | 0 | 29 |
| Babil | 8.2% | 5 | 30 |
| Baghdad | 5.4% | 3 | 57 |
| Basra | 11.6% | 5 | 35 |
| Dhi Qar | 11.1% | 5 | 31 |
| Diyala | - | 0 | 29 |
| Karbala | 6.4% | 4 | 27 |
| Maysan | 15.2% | 7 | 27 |
| Muthanna | 9.3% | 5 | 26 |
| Najaf | 14.8% | 7 | 28 |
| Nineveh | 1.9% | 0 | 37 |
| al-Qadisiyyah | 11.7% | 4 | 28 |
| Saladin | 2.9% | 1 | 28 |
| Wasit | 10.0% | 6 | 28 |
| Total | 6.6% | 52 | 440 |
In aBBC 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 Shia 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 Shia families who fled Saddam Hussein's repression, particularly after the failed Shia uprising that followed the 1991 Gulf war.[22]
The Council was formerly known as SCIRI, but in a statement released May 11, 2007 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 Ba'athist government. "Our name will change to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. Other things will change as well," said the SCIRI official.[23]
Expressing the council's rejection of the "concept of a civil or sectarian war," the statement accused terrorists, extremists and supporters ofTakfiri (accusing someone of unbelief) of causing bloodshed in Iraq.[24]
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| Reserved seats (8) | |
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| Banned |
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