Modernity And Tradition In The Islamic Movements In Iraq: Continuity And Discontinuity In The Role Of The Ulama

Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Wntr, 2001 by Keiko Sakai

This opened the way for the ascendance of non-'ulama members of the party to its leadership. A mixture of laymen and 'ulama at its headquarters became one of the characteristics of al-Da'wa, as Wiley describes, [23] and it caused several ideological conflicts among them, though not serious enough to break up the party. A typical case was that of al-Subayti, who turned out to be one of the most important leaders in the 1970s. He put priority on joint cooperation with Sunni (or trans-sectarian) Islamic organizations, rather than its operation in Shi'i hawza. This tension that existed can be seen in the example which al-Khursan notices, saying that some 'ulama insisted on the necessity of recruiting ulama to the leadership of al-Da'wa for ideological and political purposes. [24]

Al-Khursan proceeds to show more significant examples regarding better understanding at which point they clashed with each other: this was the reason why Sayyid Sami al-Badri in Karrada Sharqiya in Baghdad left the party and established his own organization Harakat Jund al-Imam. Al-Khursan said that al-Badri had concentrated his work based on hawza and husayniya, and that this was not a priority for the leadership, represented by 'Arif al-Basri. For the political leadership of the party the main concerns were, for example, participation in the election of the teachers' union. [25] Al-Subayti admitted the necessity for specification of political activities in the party, and describes that "people in hawza are good at interpreting shari'a and other judicial matters, but not at specializing in politics." [26] Al-Khursan empathizes with the significance of this dispute, as it shows the divergence of the notion to what degree they believed they could expand their Islamic movements. Al-Badri's notion of a sphere o f activities was confined to the ulama's traditional field of hawza, while others believed that they could spread their operations not only dependent upon the networks of marja'iya but to the whole Muslim world. In other words, it was a contradictory case between Locality and Universality within the party.

Impact of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the 'Ulama's Exodus to Iran

The second turning point for relations between al-Da'wa and marja'iya was of course the success of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 and the execution of Baqir al-Sadr in the following year. These successive incidents had rather paradoxical effects. Establishment of the Islamic republic in Iran based on the idea of wilaya al-faqih shook the relative dominance of laymen in the party leadership mentioned above. The loss of the founder/leader, Baqir al-Sadr, on the other hand, made the party members recognize that they could not depend on the sole marja'i any more.

The Islamic revolution offered a new opportunity for politicized 'ulama in Iraq to find a way out of the harsh oppression of the Iraqi regime, and to flee to Iran in order to pursue broader political activities there. Most Islamic organizations had to move their centers of leadership to Iran, and under the protection of the Islamic regime 'ulama regained their political role in Islamic movements. This brought about a relative decline in laymen's leadership, and a new structure for the party was put forward at the Basic Congress of the party in Tehran in 1980. In 1982, the Council of Jurisprudence (al-majlis al-fiqhi) was set up in the party as a higher central committee. Introduction of Khomeini's notion of wilayat al-faqih also encouraged the political activities of 'ulama.