Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: SCIRI becomes SIIC

  1. #1
    Council Member tequila's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    New York, NY
    Posts
    1,665

    Default SCIRI becomes SIIC

    Old name = Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq
    New name = Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council

    I suppose because the Revolution is over, and they won.

    Iraqslogger rounds up the Iraqi newspapers' analyses. The biggest switch is supposedly the replacement of the party's spiritual leader, formerly Ayatollah Khamanei of Iran, with Ayatollah al-Sistani. This represents a move away from the Khomeini-style/Iranian ideal of wilayet al-fiqh, or religious rule with al-Sistani's softer Islamism which sees the Shia clerical hierarchy as primarily moral judges outside of government. SIIC again reiterates its support for federalism and a large Shia-dominated southern region. The Kurds also support this.

    Scholar Reider Visser is skeptical here. Given SCIRI/SIIC's long association with Iran and the IRGC, I doubt there is really a big policy shift here.

    Prof. Juan Cole's analysis.

  2. #2
    Council Member tequila's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    New York, NY
    Posts
    1,665

    Default Iraqi Shi'ite heir steps into tough role

    Iraqi Shiite heir steps into tough role - Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug.

    When a Shiite religious leader's phalanx was waved through a security cordon and into the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala on Monday night, a crowd of rival militiamen grew incensed, sparking fighting that claimed the lives of at least 50 people and left parts of the holy city smoldering.

    The man at the center of it was a soft-spoken 36-year-old cleric who has emerged this summer as the likely next head of the party that is the United States' most powerful political ally in Iraq.

    Ammar Hakim is far from the secular, Western-educated men whom U.S. policymakers hoped would govern this land once Saddam Hussein was toppled. He wears the black turban of those who claim to be descended from the prophet Muhammad and was educated in the Shiite seminaries of Iran.

    In the last few months, Hakim has taken the helm of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, stepping in for his father, Abdelaziz Hakim, while he is being treated for lung cancer.

    The younger Hakim's rise comes at a crucial time for the party. The supreme council commands one of the two largest Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq's parliament but has been losing influence on the streets to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr, who controls the other bloc. If Hakim is able to counter Sadr, it could boost the Bush administration's hopes of maintaining Iraqi support for a continued U.S. presence here.

    The increasingly violent feud pits the well trained men of the supreme council's Badr Organization against Sadr's seemingly less disciplined, but larger, Mahdi Army. At stake are political influence and control of the vast oil wealth in the overwhelmingly Shiite south ...

  3. #3
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    27

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by tequila View Post
    Iraqi Shiite heir steps into tough role - Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug.
    Another log thrown on the fire of civil war?

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •