Al-Monitor has posted an articled titled “Iraq Protests Present
Muslim Brotherhood With Opportunity ” that looks at the prospects for
the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq. The article
begins:
By: Mustafa al-Kadhimi for Al-Monitor Iraq Pulse. posted on January
9. From 2010 until now, the Iraqi scene has grappled with a paradox that
does not align with the Arab Spring protest movements. The Muslim
Brotherhood, which rose to power in countries swept by the Arab Spring,
found itself left out of the political game in Iraq since then. They
lost the 2010 elections as their popular bases swept the al-Iraqiya
list, which is led by a secular Shiite. Some of the leaders of this
coalition are former members who withdrew from the Islamic Party, which
represents the Brotherhood in Iraq. Not only does this scene reveal
the state of frustration plaguing the Brotherhood in Iraq after they
dimmed while their counterparts rose in the Middle East, but it also
largely explains why the party is clinging to the demonstrations that
recently broke out in the Sunni cities. These protests started to demand
specific rights, but they soon started to include slogans and ideas
that took on a sectarian dimension. Tribesmen and politicians stopped
addressing the protesters, and cleared the way for clerics who, for the
most part, belong to the Iraqi Brotherhood. The year 2009 was a turning
point in the political fate of the Islamic Party. That year brought
signs of the end of the party’s influence in Sunni cities, which the
party used to represent in local governments and parliament.
Read the rest here.
The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) has always been known to be strongly tied to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to a
profile posted on globalsecurity.org:
The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), established in 1960, is the major
Sunni political organization in the country …The party was suppressed
during the regime of former President Saddam Hussein. Many of its
members were forced to flee the country. The party returned to public
life after coalition forces occupied Iraq. The IIP seeks to preserve the
leading role Sunnis have had in running the country starting with the
establishment of the modern Iraqi state in the beginning of the 20th
century. The Iraqi Islamic Party was formed as an Iraqi Muslim
Brotherhood organization, and conducted underground work during the
Baathist period. Thee party does not considers itself a branch of the
Muslim Brotherhood Group, established in Egypt in 1994, nor a political
front for it in Iraq. The Iraqi Islamic Party acknowledges strong ties
to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood through political and intellectual
alliances.
A
post from last
September reported that a delegation openly identifying itself as the
Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood visited the party headquarters of the Egyptian
Muslim Brotherhood political party where they met with its leaders. A
post from August reported on the election of Ayad Al-Samarra’i as the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP). As discussed in a
post from
May 2009, Usama al-Tikriti had previously been chosen to head the
IIP. Knowledgable sources report that Usama Al-Tikriti has also been
serving as the General Guide (leader) for the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq
and is likely to retain that position. Usama al-Tikriti is also the
father of Anas al-Tikriti, the former leader of the Muslim Association
of Britain (MAB) and now a leader in the British Muslim Initiative
(BMI), both part of the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood.
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