Political Islam in Iraq.What are the dilemmas the Islamic parties are facing in Iraq? Where is Iraq’s politics heading?

When the former Iraqi regime fell in 2003 the Islamic discourse during the early stages of the change was very strong because of the huge vacuum left by the Ba’athist regime, which ruled Iraq for 35 years during which it crushed all secular and liberal movements in Iraq. The Iraqi opposition parties which were mainly Islamic parties were united to topple the Ba’athist regime at any price and they collaborated with the Bush administration to achieve their goal and they eventually succeeded.

It was proven later that these Islamic parties were only united because of their hostility to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

After taking power, these Islamists have faced big dilemmas because of the political, ideological and religious differences which later led to a power-sharing government based on ethnic or sectarian identity.

On the one hand, the Islamic discourse in Iraq suffered a serious crisis, in particularly after the explosions of the Shiite Imams’ shrines in Samarra in 2006. As the Islamic discourse was divided into Shii and Sunni, and the result, Iraq was on the edge of civil war, thousands of Iraqis were killed and more than four millions were displaced .

On the other hand, is the crisis of the failure of these Islamists in governing like lack of services, corruption, poor security performance etc…

These Islamists are also suffering a crisis of nationalism. After having tried the governance based of sectarian and ethnic quotas, Iraqis have realised that this kind of governance was at the expense of Iraq’s national identity. This explain the reason why Iraq’s PM, Nuri al-Maliki, entered the last provincial elections which his electoral list “State of Law” won, without emphasizing on the religious slogans lifted by his rivals like ISCI and the Sadrists, instead he projected himself as a nationalist. As a result, the next general elections which are scheduled 18th January 2010 have pressed the Islamic forces in Iraq to change not only their alliances and their names but also to include less Islamic forces in order to appear acceptable to the Iraqi voters.

During the 2009 provincial elections, incumbent Islamic parties expect- al-Makili Da’aw which played down its religious base and focused on security gains – lost in nearly every province as voters chose politicians that vowed to maintain security gains, reduce corruption, support Iraqi nationalism and reject sectarianism.

In the run up to the 18th January 2010 elections, two non-sectarian political alliances emerged. One is led by Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia and former Baathist, who was the first Iraqi prime minister after the fall of Saddam Hussein. He has teamed up with Saleh al-Mutlaq, a secular Sunni MP and the leader of Dialogue Front, to form the Iraqi National Movement. Few days ago, Allaw announced that Tariq al-Hashemi, the Sunni Vice President and former leader of Iraqi Islamic Party, would join them.

Another new cross-sectarian coalition is Unity led by Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister, a secular Shia, along with Ahmed abu Risha, the prominent Sunni Sheikh and head of the Awakening Council which fought Al-Qaeda and dove them from Anbar province.

The emerged alliances and new polls show that most Iraqi Arabs, Sunnis and Shiites, want an end to the sectarian violence, they are sick of these Islamic parties and they favour a unified nation and strong central government.

Secular nationalism now seems to dominate political landscape in Iraq.

Shatha Al Juburi- Iraq researcher and political analyst

Rate the article
Bad	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Very good
Result : 95%							Participated in the vote : 4