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Ramadan in Iraqi Kurdistan, a time to get
closer to your political party
1.9.2010
By Khabat Nawzad |
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September 1, 2010
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The Iraqi Kurdistan
Region’s population of around 4 million people is 95
percent Muslim. The region is also home to over
4,500 mosques. It is fertile ground for the Islamic
parties, especially during Ramadan.
All three Islamic political parties in Kurdistan
agree that Ramadan is a month that should be devoted
to worship and drawing closer to God but none of the
parties is able to resist the golden opportunity
presented by the month to preach an agenda that they
hope results in the public drawing closer to them.
In some way, all of the Kurdistan Region’s three
main Islamic parties take advantage of Ramadan using
the opportunity to communicate political while
claiming a purely spiritual motivation for their
activities.
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File photo |
When Ramadan starts,
banners and posters bearing slogans and the
different parties’ branded liveries begin to be seen
affixed to walls everywhere, more meetings are held
and the parties throw their own Iftar banquets.
‘All political parties, even the secular ones,
attempt to use Ramadan for personal gains and to
benefit from this month as much as possible,’ claims
Mariwan Naqshabandi, a specialist on religious
affairs and Islamic parties in Kurdistan.
‘Islamists are the most active because more people
attend mosques. This is that time when Islamists can
take a bigger role; mosques are their strongholds.
The Islamists claim they respect the month’s
holiness but their posters show that their real
purposes are far more worldly.’
Some members of religious political parties are
happy to acknowledge an inherent link between
religion and politics. Irfan Ahmad Kaka Mahmoud, is
a leading member of the Islamic Movement,
Kurdistan’s oldest Islamist party, which was founded
in 1987 along jihadi lines. He sees Ramadan as a
prime time for politics.
‘Politics and religion are closely linked and this
link will exist forever. We practice politics in
Ramadan more than in any other month,’ he admits.
‘Ramadan is a holy month,www.ekurd.neta
jihadi month and the best month to practise
politics. It is the month when the Quran was sent
down to the people and the Quran carries a jihadi
message.’ He continued, citing the Battle of Badr,
the first battle fought by Muhammad against the
Quraish.
The Islamic Movement intends, according to Kaka, to
hold Iftar banquets and to distribute dozens of its
banners and slogans in public areas to increase the
party’s visibility and hopefully help it to add to
the two seats it currently holds in the region’s
parliament.
These are the intentions also of the Islamic Union
and the Islamic Group, although they are more
concerned with trying to portray themselves as
moderate and opposed to the politicisation of
Ramadan.
Dr. Muhammad Ahmad, a member of the Islamic Union's
Political Bureau, opposes, at least in his words,
the use of the month for any political or
party-related purposes.
‘We do not practice any politics in Ramadan. Instead
the party’s media channels positively encourage the
population to understand the meaning and importance
of this holy month,’ he says.
Ahmad, who is the also the president of the Islamic
Union Shura Council, added that the Islamic Union,
which hold six parliamentary seats, freezes its
activities and ‘invests in serving Ramadan because
it is about the spiritual relationships that we all
need.’
An event organised to honour writers from Halabja
and the profusion of Ramadan themed posters with the
name of the party prominently displayed suggests
that Ahmad’s words can only describe an ambition
rather than a reality. However, the Islamic Union is
no different to the Kurdistan Islamic Group, which,
while claiming to minimise its political activities
happily admits that its focus during Ramadan is on
the dubious process of ‘education’.
‘Politics is put aside in Ramadan. We have
completely stopped all our party activities as well
as administrative tasks,’ claims Abdul-Sattar Majeed,
a member of the Group's Political Bureau.
‘We place our focus on other educational concerns
and propaganda is one of our main concerns during
Ramadan.’
Naqshabandi believes that all the parties act in the
same way when it comes to Ramadan, seeking to market
themselves through posters with apparently pious
messages and Iftar banquets. However, he also thinks
that this year things have not gone as well for them
because ‘they are facing many internal political
crises.’
‘There are organisational issues and severe internal
conflicts that have emerged,’ he said, referring to
the conferences held by the Islamic Union and the
Islamic Group.
In May, members of the Union were reluctant to
approve the candidacy of Salahuddin Bahaa el-Din as
secretary-general of the party for a second term and
in July the Islamic Group’s conference revealed
‘major crises in the party's branches in the
provinces,’ according to Naqshabandi.
‘In addition, many problems are beginning to surface
within the leadership of the Islamic Movement, the
biggest of the three parties. They were able to win
only one seat in the Iraqi parliament.
‘The problems the parties face have forced them to
focus on finding solutions instead of using Ramadan
as a prime time to politically mobilise the
population,’ he concludes.
The internal divisions in the parties could be a
function of the declining influence and popularity
of Islamic parties in Kurdistan and the differing
solutions to this crisis offered within their
leadership. With seats in the Kurdish and the
federal parliament on the decline of the Islamists
the real question could be how many more Ramadans
they can expect to see.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency, niqash org
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