| |
Strident call for 'Islamic
order'
By Valentinas Mite
BAGHDAD - The Supreme Assembly for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) is the main political party
of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslims, who make up some 60 percent
of the population.
Ahmed Ali al-Hafadgi is a
senior official in SAIRI and he says that his group will
implement Islamic order in Iraq if it obtains a majority
in any future election for a sovereign Iraqi government.
"We call to enforce the Islamic order," he said. "Some
other movements have a similar point of view because the
majority of [Islamic movements in Iraq] are Shi'ite."
The SAIRI calls for the imposition of Islamic
law, or Sharia, in Iraq and for Islamic religious
leaders to decide important questions of state based on
interpretations of religious principles. The group was
formed in 1980 by an Iraqi Shi'ite cleric, Muhammad
Baqir al-Hakim, who fled to Iran after being tortured
for political activities by the former regime of Saddam
Hussein. Now a grand ayatollah, Hakim waged a 20-year
war against Saddam, fighting against him in the 1980-88
Iran-Iraq war and later routinely conducting
cross-border guerrilla operations in predominantly
Shi'ite southern Iraq.
Hafadgi is vague in
explaining just what an "Islamic order" would mean in
Iraq, perhaps because he is sensitive to US concerns
about the SAIRI's agenda and the group's ties to Tehran.
He says, without elaborating, that the political system
in Iraq would be different from that in Iran, where
Muslim clerics have the upper hand in all state and
public affairs.
Instead, he says that the SAIRI
is due to publish its program soon and explain. He
declined to comment on what imposing Sharia in Iraq
would mean for women's rights, as well as on what
punishments might be instituted for alcohol use,
thievery, adultery and other behavior often strictly
regulated under Sharia law.
The Bush
administration has repeatedly ruled out any Iran-style
theocracy for Iraq and charged Iran with seeking to
meddle in Iraqi politics. But US officials have left the
door open to Islamic participation in Iraqi politics and
even an Islamic government, provided it is democratic.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell recently told
US-funded Radio Sawa that "democracy can co-exist with
any faith".
Hafadgi says, if in power, the SAIRI
would rule in a democratic way and "would allow the
Sunni, the Kurds and other religious minorities to
worship God in their way". But he insists that Muslim
society is fundamentally different from the West and
that Western-style secularism would not fit Iraq. "There
is no difference between politics and religion [as it is
present in the West] in our point of view. Who said that
politics should be secular? Islam is a religion of work
and politics," he said.
Asked about the
organization's relations with other secular-based
political parties in Iraq, SAIRI officials say that
their group is ready to share power in a parliamentary
system while working toward an Islamist future.
Washington has included SAIRI along with other former
exile political groups - and the two Iraqi Kurdish
factions - in leadership talks on Iraq's future.
Asked specifically about SAIRI's relations with
the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a leading secular
party founded by Ahmad Chalabi, Hafadgi says the groups
can work together. "Will we abolish Chalabi's party if
we win the election [for a future Iraqi government]? It
is not possible because we will have a civil war and the
Americans will return," he says.
At the moment,
it is unclear how much of a government role US officials
are prepared to turn over to any Iraqi political groups
in the near future. The US-led Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) recently reversed an earlier plan to
convene a national conference of Iraqis to choose
representatives to work with the authority in an
advisory role.
CPA chief Paul Bremer is reported
to have told Iraqi political groups that US officials
will instead select members for an advisory council some
six weeks from now. US officials have said privately
that the council could advise the authority on economic
and political issues and appoint advisers to Iraqi
ministries to work with the ministries' US overseers.
Many analysts believe any fully sovereign Iraqi
government could be at least a year or more away.
Hafadgi is quick to say that the SAIRI has no
problems with the US, who overthrew their mutual enemy,
Saddam. But his group - and other Iraqi parties - have
strongly criticized the CPA's cancellation of the
national conference. He says the US has failed to set up
the kind of post-Saddam government that Iraqis had
envisioned: "We don't have any problems [with the
Americans, but] it was the Americans who did not fulfill
their promises. They did not establish the coalition
government as we have agreed with them."
Another
point of disagreement between SAIRI and the US is the
future of 10,000 SAIRI fighters, the so-called Badr
Brigade. The US has demanded that they give up their
arms and disband as part of a general disarmament of the
Iraqi citizenry. US forces recently declared a two-week
amnesty period in which Iraqis can turn over weapons in
an effort to improve law and order in the country.
Hafadgi says the situation in Iraq is too unsafe
now to disband the Badr Brigade, but that in the future
the fighters will become "some kind of a peaceful
humanitarian organization". He says he can "swear by all
gods that the members of the Badr Brigade did not
threaten anybody in Iraq and did not put a gun at
someone's head". It is too early to measure the success
of the weapons amnesty. But US soldiers patrolling
Baghdad at night are still being shot at, in the
majority of cases with light arms.
The SAIRI is
the most powerful Shi'ite political force, but not the
only one. The Dawa Islamiyah, or Islamic Call, once an
integral part of the SAIRI, is today an independent
force. Other Shi'ite groups have coalesced around other
prominent Shi'ite clerics. Baghdad's Shi'ites are well
informed about the SAIRI and say that it is an
organization respected for its fighting and sacrifice
during Saddam's rule.
Nadgi, a Shi'ite, is a
vendor in central Baghdad. He said, "The biggest
sacrifices that the Iraqis made in the days of Saddam
were committed by SAIRI members. [People] who were
executed during Saddam's rule were [mainly] the
supporters of SAIRI."
The mood is completely
different among the Sunnis. Saddam, who sells car parts
in Baghdad, is a Sunni. He said the Shi'ites were never
in power in Iraq, and with God's help, never will be.
Copyright (c) 2002, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
with the permission of Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut
Ave NW, Washington DC 20036
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
