The formation of the Islamist movements in Iraqi Kurdistan goes back to the late 1970s concurrent with the incidents of the Islamic revolution of Iran. Before that, there was no report concerning the existence of the Islamic movements. Even though there existed Islamist sentiments in this region and also in Iranian Kurdistan and Turkey, these sentiments and attitudes did not appear in the form of Islamist organizations.
The presence of the political and nationalist groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey, Iran and Syria was one of the most vital reasons for this matter. For several decades, the above-mentioned groups were dominant in the region, and with an emphasis on the nationalistic discourse, that is, implementing the local Kurdish demands, on one side, and utilizing the ideologies of the Marxists on the other side, were the obstacles hindering the manifestation of the Islamists symbols. Essentially, from the fact that Marxism was an authoritarian ideology on its own and contrary to the liberal democracy, the Kurdish nationalist groups who supported it, never allowed the other political groups to carry out their activities especially the religious groups which had a conservative nature. This enmity was also evident in the years after the activities of the Islamist groups.
Just like the other political groups and Islamic movements, the Islamist movements of Iraqi Kurdistan have different orientations and have been rivals. This matter was evident specifically among the moderate and radical groups. From the early 1980s onwards, the Kurdish Islamist groups established themselves in the Iraqi Kurdistan scene. The major groups are as follows:
- The Kurdistan Islamic Movement
The Kurdistan Islamic Movement was in a way the first and biggest Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group. Although the supporters and leaders of the groups believe that the Kurdistan Islamic Movement was formed in 1979, however, the activities of the movement in the early 1980s did not have any evident symbols. Owing to this fact, some analysts believe that this group began its political activities in the late 1980s. Shaykh Uthman Abdul-Aziz and several other Kurdish Sunni mullahs who were all part of the non-political group “Union of Religious Scholars,” formed the Kurdistan Islamic Movement. Shaykh Uthman Abdul-Aziz who was the mufti of the group and the Halabjah and Hawraman regions till the time of his demise in 1999, was the leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement. Even though, in the beginning, the Iraqi Ba’athist regime was happy with the formation of the group and used to support it, however, the Islamic movement quickly became an enemy of the regime. It used to strongly oppose the regime’s ideologies of Arab socialism, secularism and pan-Arabism.
It is said that at the beginning, the supporters and leaders of the groups were influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and Iraq (who were not very active). Nonetheless, with the commencement of the Afghan wars and the entry of the Islamist Arabs to Afghanistan, some of the Kurdish Iraqi Islamists also became evident amongst them and later on joined the Kurdistan Islamic Movement. The centralization of the Kurdish Iraqi Islamists was in the Hawraman region which for centuries became a centre for religious activities and a centre for the Sufi cults, made the people of this region adhere to the ideology of political Islam. The city of Halabjah is located at the heart of the Hawraman region. The Hawraman region is kind of surrounded by mountains in the south and east, and by Darbandi Khan in the west and north, and it is isolated from the remaining regions of Iraqi Kurdistan. It is this geographical feature that has made the Kurdish Islamist groups enjoy a peaceful region in comparison to the other Kurdish political groups of Iraq.
In the late 1980s, the Kurdistan Islamic Movement intensified its activities like holding demonstrations and peaceful protests against the Ba’athist regime of Iraq. This led to widespread retaliation from the Iraqi military and the escape of the Islamists to the mountainous regions. It was from the midst of 1987 that the Kurdistan Islamic Movement commenced their official armed resistance against the Ba’athist regime of Iraq by announcing a holy war (jihad) against them.
With the onset of the Operation Dawn 10 (Val-Fajr-10) in the Iran-Iraq war and the entry of the Iranian army in the regions of Iraq in the north of this country, the Kurdistan Islamic Movement enjoyed the support of the Islamic Republic of Iran and managed to eliminate the Iraqi army from the region in the early days of 1988. The chemical attack of Saddam Hussein in Halabjah city on March 16, 1988, was the outcome of the victory of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement. After a little while, in an operation famously known as Anfal Campaign, the Ba’athist regime of Iraq chased a lot of the groups from the region towards the south and brought the loyal Sunni Arabs to that region.
Even though the military strength of the movement was weakened as a result of these attacks, however, the next incidents like the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the creation of a safe zone by the American military in the northern region of Iraq in Kurdistan, led to the revival of the movement and the beginning of Islamist activities of the Iraqi Kurds together with the other Kurdish political groups. The creation of a no-fly zone in northern Iraq by the United States made the Islamists like the two Kurdish groups, that is, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan to start a new era of their political activities and regional autonomy.
Just like the other two Kurdish groups, the Kurdistan Islamic Movement exercised local authority in the region under their influence. The attempts to implement Islamic legal laws (shari’ah), establishing a council, providing health, scientific and social services to their own members and supporters were among these measures. This movement took part in the local parliamentary elections of Iraq Kurdistan in 1992 and only managed to garner a fifth percent of the votes. This display of little power was not enough to guarantee the movement an entry into the local parliament. The commencement of the activities of the movement for the sake of promulgating the influence and authority of their place jeopardized the authority of the Kurdish ethnic groups specifically the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and resulted in widespread wrangles amongst them.
Indeed, the 1990s marked the years of armed conflicts amongst different Kurdish Iraqi groups over local authority. Not only did the Kurdistan Islamic Movement have conflicts with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan over local authority, but were also involved in bloody armed battles with the two major Kurdish groups, that is, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. From the fact that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan under the leadership of Jalal Talabani, was a staunch enemy of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, after the onset of the conflicts between the two major Kurdish Islamist groups, this movement joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party under the leadership of Masoud Barzani and intensified their pressures against the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
The extensive mediation from the foreign agents like Iran, groups opposing Iraq and the United States did not yield any fruit in reconciling the belligerent Kurdish groups. This matter went on until in the late 1990s when Bill Clinton invited Talabani and Barzani to Washington and made efforts in uniting these two against the Ba’athist regime in Iraq. This measure succeeded and the two groups agreed in Washington to put aside their differences. Together with all this, the end of the armed conflicts between the Kurdistan Islamic Movement and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was the outcome of the intermediary efforts of the Islamic Republic of Iran who invited the two parties to Iran in May 1997 and through the Islamic Summit in Tehran, it managed to end the war between them. Although the radical members of the group were opposed to this treaty, however, the leader of the movement was interested in its continuity.
After the separation of the Hamas factions and the monopoly of the Islamic movement from the Kurdistan Islamic Movement in 1997, the Kurdistan Islamic Movement sought to strengthen itself. In August 1998, it merged with another Islamic Kurdish group named Revolutionary Kurdish Party of God (Harakat al-Nahdah al-Islamiyyah) under the leadership of Sadiq Abdul-Aziz (the brother of Uthman Abdul-Aziz, the leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement). It changed its name to the Islamic Unity Movement of Kurdistan. This coalition was broken in 2001 with the separation of Ali Bapir, one of the members of the movement, who carried with him several members of the Revolutionary Kurdish Party. Again, the Kurdistan Islamic Movement regained its name from the Islamic Unity Movement of Kurdistan to its original name.
Mulla Uthman Abdul-Aziz, the leader of the movement, passed away in 1999 and his brother, Mulla Ali Abdul-Aziz took over the leadership. He continued with the ceasefire with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and even cooperated with this group in the region under their control in the local government of Kurdistan. The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Justice of Local Government were in the authority of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement.
By opting for moderate politics, the Kurdistan Islamic Movement took part in the local elections in summer, 2001 and by mobilizing its supporters in the regions under the control of Barzani and Talabani, it managed to get twenty percent of the votes in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the Halabjah region, the Kurdistan Islamic Movement garnered more than fifty percent of the votes. Intensifying the authority in the popular base of the movement led to the redirection of its leadership from the Halabjah region to the city of Erbil. They also opened offices in other cities like Sulaymaniyah.
- The emergence of the radical groups
Similar to the other regions of the Middle East and the Muslim world, the Kurdish Islamization in Iraq suffered divisions due to the influence of its own environment. Although these divisions and separations within the Kurdistan Islamic Movement were apparently over the current policies, however, in reality, it described and reflected the transformation within the Islamist movements in the region and the emergence of Islamic radical and violent movements. Within the Islamic Kurdish movements, this transformation and some groups emerged from the Kurdistan Islamic Movement which followed the radical and Salafist methods.
Jund al-Islam (JAI) and Ansar al-Islam (AAI)
The major group that split from the Kurdistan Islamic Movement which later on became very famous, was the Ansar al-Islam which was initially known as Jund al-Islam. What caused the division and separations within the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, was the agreement between the movement and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in May 1997, with the mediation of Iran. When the Kurdistan Islamic Movement accepted to withdraw the implementation of the Islamic laws (shari’ah) in their own regions according to the treaty of Tehran, whereby a part of that territory of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was within the local government of Iraq Kurdistan, the radical elements within the movement began to complain. In reality, these radical elements were people that participated in the years of jihad in Afghanistan, and used to fight against the Soviets together with the other Islamic Arab radical groups (known as the Afghan Arabs). In the late 1980s, they returned to Kurdistan Iraq and joined the Kurdistan Islamic Movement. These forces which were under the influence of the extremist ideology of the Salafists and kind of Wahhabism wanted the implementation of the Islamic laws and a war against the left-wing Kurdish groups and the Iraqi government.
In the first stages of some divisions within the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, two small groups named Hamas under the leadership of Omar Bazyani, and Tawhid under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Hawleri separated from the Kurdistan Islamic Movement. Indeed, these two were from the Erbil region which was under the control of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, a rival party to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Perhaps, this matter too was kind of influential in their separation.
It is said that other than experience in the years spent in Afghanistan, whereby the group was acquainted with the Salafist ideologies, the charitable activities and also the help of Saudi Arabia in the Iraqi Kurdish regions, from the early 1990s and onwards, attracted these people towards the Salafist ideology. It seems that that the events of September 11, 2001 encouraged the unity of these two small groups. Shortly after this event, Hamas and Tawhid with the cooperation of a third group known as the Soran Units formed a new group known as the Group of the Soldiers of Islam (Jund al-Islam) under the leadership of Abdullah al-Shafi’i. This new group announced jihad against the left-wing secularist Kurdish groups in the region.
Jund al-Islam which from the beginning had been involved in a serious armed conflict with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, suffered a great defeat after some months and their retreat led to the differences and divisions within the movement. It was during this stage whereby one of the prominent radical members of Jund al-Islam known as Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, popularly referred to as Mulla Fateh Krekar, who used to cooperate with the Afghan Arabs in Afghanistan and had joined the Kurdistan Islamic Movement in the early 1990s, became the leader of the Jund al-Islam.
Mulla Krekar changed the name of Jund al-Islam to Ansar al-Islam and commenced a new era of armed conflict against the Kurdish secular groups. From the beginning, that is, before his separation from the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, Mulla Krekar had this view that the aim of the Kurdish Islamists must be (the toppling of the Iraqi government and replacing it with an Islamic government). Some local reports also stated that Mulla Krekar and Ansar al-Islam were in the process of changing the local government of Iraqi Kurdistan to a new government in the Taliban manner. The remaining groups are radical groups that form the Jund al-Islam and Ansar al-Islam (like Hamas and Tawhid) were accused of attacking the bookstores, beauty salons, clubs and tourism centres in the major cities of Iraqi Kurdistan. They were even accused of acid attacks on women that did not adhere to the hijab attire. Likewise, the Tawhid group was accused of the assassination of Franso Hariri, a prominent Assyrian politician and an ally of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and was also the governor of the city of Erbil.
Ansar al-Islam and another Kurdish group named Kurdistan Islamic Group were in a fight with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in order to prevent its authority from spreading to the southern regions of Hawraman. These two groups resided in the bushy regions. This was in order to prevent the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan from eliminating the Islamists from the regions under their influence and control after the agreement of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in 1997 (Islamic Summit in Tehran). As a result of the conflicts between the Ansar al-Islam and the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, hundreds of people including several members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan lost their lives. Even though the Kurdistan Islamic Movement was seeking to mediate between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Ansar al-Islam and bring them into reconciliation, however, they did not succeed in this matter. In 2001, as a result of some attacks from the Ansar al-Islam in December 2002 and before that, attacks from the Jund al-Islam, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan lost 53 and 42 fighters respectively. However, due to more superiority of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, this group managed to restrain the radical Kurdish Islamists to a great extent.
Together with all these, the efforts of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan for totally eradicating the radical Islamist Kurdish groups and specifically the Ansar al-Islam did not bear any fruit. The detention of Mulla Krekar, the leader of the Ansar al-Islam in Holland in late 2002 weakened the movement to some point. Nevertheless, his successor, Abdullah al-Shafi’i managed to maintain the cohesion of the movement and continue with its activities. The armed operations of the Ansar al-Islam movement against the left-wing Kurdish Iraqi groups and their American sponsors intensified after the American invasion in Iraq and the toppling of the Ba’athist regime in 2003. The United States which was very much afraid of the spread of Islamic radicalism similar to al-Qaeda and Taliban in Iraq sought to cooperate with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan to eliminate the Ansar al-Islam group. According to some reports, this cooperation took place before the American invasion of Iraq.
The militia groups (The United States Special Operations Forces) entered Iraqi Kurdistan even before the United States invaded Iraq and with the help of the devotees of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, they hastened to the battle in order to defeat the Ansar al-Islam group. Apart from the United States special operations forces, the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) of the American army also participated in the activities against Ansar al-Islam and managed to inflict a tremendous blow to it.
Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah
It seems that after the detention of Mulla Krekar in 2002 and the commencement of widespread joint invasions of US forces and the devotees of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan against Ansar al-Islam, the new leaders changed the name of the movement from Ansar al-Islam to Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah. From 2003, along with the remaining Islamic radical non-Kurdish groups like Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah began their armed operations against the American targets and their allies in Iraq. Likewise, it is said that the Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah participated in the resistance operation against the American troops in the Iraqi cities of Baqubah, Fallujah and Samarra. On February 1, 2004, during a bombing operation against the Kurdish secular groups of Iraq (Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), this group killed 109 people in the city of Erbil.
Likewise, from 2004 onwards, this group has carried out a series of armed operations and bombings against the Kurdish and American targets in Iraq. Based on some reports, in the midst of 2007, the Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah group managed to form a grand coalition of the Sunni groups opposing the Americans in Iraq with the aim of eliminating the Americans from Iraq. The groups affiliated with Ba’athist and al-Qaeda were not invited to this grand coalition. In this same year, the leaders of the Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah decided to change this name and replace it with its original name of Ansar al-Islam. Abdullah al-Shafi’i, the leader of this group explains the change of the name and renaming it Ansar al-Islam by saying: “By paying heed to our responsibility which is to preserve the pillars of Islam, the unity of Muslims and dealing in matters that guarantee our continuity, we have decided to carry on our duties under the name of Ansar al-Islam.”
The Kurdish secular groups of Iraq believe that after the detention of Mulla Krekar in Norway, he was still giving instructions to the Ansar al-Islam and Jama’at Ansar al-Sunnah. Owing to this fact, they requested the Norwegian government to hand him over in order for them to punish him as they had sentenced him in absentia to death by hanging. Even though the Norwegian government wanted to hand over Mulla Krekar, from the fact that the Norwegian constitution is against the extradition of people that are in danger of being murdered in their countries of origin, it decided against this measure from 2007 onwards. After the detention of Abu Abdullah al-Shafi’i, the leader of Ansar al-Islam, on May 4, 2010, by the American troops in Baghdad, a great blow was inflicted to this group.
- Kurdistan Islamic Group
Just like the other Islamic movements, this group which is considered to be one of the Islamist radical Kurdish groups, separated from the Kurdistan Islamic Movement. Ali Bapir, one of the prominent members of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, stepped onto the scene by separating from the movement in May 2001 and forming the Kurdistan Islamic Group as one of the most active Islamic groups in northern Iraq. Although the Kurdistan Islamic Group was considered to be among the groups affiliated to the Ansar al-Islam due to its radical nature and its activities, nevertheless, by releasing an official statement on October 11, 2004, this group refuted the existence of such a relationship. Before that, in January 2003, Ali Bapir, the leader of the group, also announced as follows:
“Our policy is cooperating and initiating brotherhood with all the Islamic groups. We are seeking to have this brotherly cooperation with the Islamic parties and organizations. Likewise, we do not deem unlawful to cooperate with any group which puts the benefits of people and country into consideration as long as it is not against the Islamic laws.”
Alongside its radical activities, the Kurdistan Islamic Group strived to attain a suitable position in the power of Iraqi Kurdistan and also in the national government of Iraq by participating in different local and regional elections. In the parliamentary elections of Iraq in 2005, the Kurdistan Islamic Group participated as an independent group and by attaining more than 60,000 votes (0.7 %), it managed to get two seats in the provincial national assembly of Iraq. Likewise, in the local parliamentary elections of Kurdistan that were also conducted on the same date, the group won six seats. This group also won another seat in the Iraqi parliamentary elections conducted in December 2005.
Contrary to 2005, in the local parliamentary elections of Iraqi Kurdistan that were held in 2009, this group formed a coalition with the Kurdistan Islamic Union, Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party and Kurdish Future movement and named it the Service and Reform List. By attaining 8.12% of the votes, it managed to get thirteen seats out of 111 seats in the local parliamentary elections. This coalition also participated in the Iraqi parliamentary elections held in 2010 and by attaining 1.32% of the votes, it managed to get two parliamentary seats.
- Kurdistan Islamic Union
Contrary to the radical groups like Ansar al-Islam and their allies, the Kurdistan Islamic Union is considered among the moderate Islamic movements within the region. Some reports also show the relationship of this group with the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab countries. This group was formed in 1994 and its leader was Salahuddin Bahauddin. Apart from Bahauddin, Hadi Ali was also among the main leaders of the group. During the fifth convention of this party in 2008, he was elected as the head of the political bureau of the party.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union has a vital base among the university students of the Iraqi Kurdistan regions. During the Students’ Union elections in the University of Duhok, it garnered almost forty percent of the votes. The main headquarters of this union is in the city of Erbil. It also had a friendly relationship with the Kurdish non-religious groups, that is, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. From the fact that the Kurdistan Islamic Union separated from the grand coalition of the Kurdish groups in December 2005, and wanted to participate in the Iraqi parliamentary elections and local parliamentary elections of Kurdistan on its own, it faced a lot of criticism from the supporters of the two major Kurdish parties of Iraq. Together with all these, the Kurdistan Islamic Union managed to get a third of the votes and five seats out of the 270 seats in the December elections of 2005. Many political analysts believe that due to its moderate ideology, the Kurdistan Islamic Union is the third strongest Kurdish group in Iraq.
Contrary to the other Kurdish groups, the Kurdistan Islamic Union does not have an armed force of its own. By owning a local television channel, they seek to present to people an image of moderate Islamic democracy. Hadi Ali, one of the leaders of the union, believes that the group would gain a more popular base due to its presentation of new views and plans. He also emphasizes that the Kurdistan Islamic Union supports an inclusive democracy in the Islamic frame which is very similar to the Western democracy. Nevertheless, some Western researchers view the Kurdistan Islamic Union and its development in Iraqi Kurdistan as a threat to the security of the United States and the West and have outlined the party’s tough anti-US position as the reason behind their view.
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