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Islamic party in Iraqi Kurdistan growing
in popularity
20.10.2007
By Brian Padden, VOA, Erbil
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October
20, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq' -- The
Kurdish region of Iraq is dominated by two
pro-American secular parties -- the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. A
third party, the Islamic Union of Kurdistan,
advocates an Islamic state and is growing in
popularity.
While the two parties that control Kurdistan region
of Iraq may endorse democratic values, critics say
they practice one-party rule.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan controls the
eastern section, with the city of Sulaimaniyah as
its power base. The Kurdistan Democratic Party
controls the rest and is centered in the regional
capital, Erbil. Both parties have their own
militias, and after a brief civil war in the
mid-1990s, have shared power over the region.
The most popular alternative to the ruling parties
is the Islamic Union of Kurdistan. It has no
militia, only a local television station to present
its vision of a moderate, Islamic democracy.
Hadi Ali is one of its leaders. He says his party is
growing in popularity, particularly with young
people. "We presented something new.
The other parties – they were fighting against the
regime before. And after the uprising, they started
to fight each other and formed a corrupt
administration that disappointed many young people,”
he says. “Young people found our party as a
non-corrupt alternative."
Ali says that his party advocates an inclusive
democracy in a framework of Islam that would be very
similar to western democracies.
"We want the secular like in the western countries
with a separation of religion and the state,” says
Ali. “But we are not against religion and here in
these countries, when they say secular, they mean
they are against religion.
David Romano of Rhodes College in Tennesse is a
Middle East researcher and recently published a
report on the growth of the Islamic movement in the
Kurdistan region of Iraq. He says the rise of the
Islamic Union of Kurdistan should be a concern to
the U.S. and other Western countries.
"I think they do have a marked, more anti-American
stance than the secular Kurdish nationalist parties.
You just have to remember that the Kurdistan Islamic
Union comes from the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iraqi
chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood," said the
professor.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928.
Since then, the Egyptian government has banned the
Muslim Brotherhood and other political parties based
on religion.
But its members continue to speak out and have
called for a board of Muslim clerics to oversee the
government. |
The Islamic Union of Kurdistan uses television
programs to spread its ideas
Hadi Ali is one of the leaders of The Islamic Union
of Kurdistan
David Romano of Rhodes College in Tennesse is a
Middle East researcher and recently published a
report on the growth of the Islamic movement in the
Kurdistan region of Iraq |
Still, Romano does not
agree that banning opposition groups is good for the
long-term future of the region. "As long as they
play by the democratic rules of the game, as long as
they talk the talk and walk the walk of democracy,
so to speak, they need to be allowed a chance to
compete and win elections; otherwise a turn to
radicalism is legitimized," he said.
Romano says suppressing dissent will turn the loyal
opposition to extremism and violence.
voanews com
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