Ali Bapir
| Ali Bapir | |
|---|---|
| عهلی باپیر | |
 | |
| Founder and Leader of Kurdistan Islamic Group | |
|
Assumed office 2001 | |
|
In office 2001 – Current | |
| Iraq Council of Representatives | |
|
In office 2009–2013 | |
| member of political bureau of Kurdistan Islamic Movement | |
|
In office 1991–2001 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
1961 (age 56–57) Peshdar region Rania (city), Sulaymaniyah, Iraq |
| Political party | Kurdistan Islamic Group |
| Occupation | Political leader |
| Profession | Author , Politician and Islamic Scholar |
| Website | http://alibapir.com |
Ali Bapir, also called Mamosta Ali Bapir and Sheikh Ali Bapir (in Kurdish: مامۆستا عهلی باپیر, in Arabic: الشيخ علي بابير) is a Kurdish Islamic intellectual and politician in Iraqi Kurdistan. He is the founder of Kurdistan Islamic Group. Born 1961 in the Peshdar region, Iraqi Kurdistan.
He is most well known for his moderate religious views and his modern interpretation of Islam, which calls for coexistence in a democratic society. He has written more than 90 books on politics, Islam, society, Kurds and Kurdistan.
In 2009 Iraqi general elections for Council of Representatives, he was one of the top 10 candidates with most votes all over the country. His party has good relations with European Union countries, the United States and other countries in the region.
He is currently the leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Group, a major Islamic party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Activities
In 2002, he broke away from the Kurds' main Islamic group. He and his private army of 1,000 fighters set up camp near the Kurdish village of Khurmal in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains along the Iranian border.
Next door was the camp of Ansar al Islam, an extremist group believed to have links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. U.S. forces struck Bapir's compound with Tomahawk missiles on March 22, 2003, killing dozens of his loyalists and throwing his movement into disarray just as Hussein's Iraq was collapsing.
After the war, Bapir pressed the U.S. to compensate families of those killed in the attack. He was invited to talk it over at the U.S. compound near the Kurdish resort town of Dokan. But instead of meeting with officials on July 10, 2003, he and his entourage were stopped at a checkpoint, blindfolded and bundled into helicopters.
Bapir eventually was taken to Baghdad and Camp Cropper, the high-security prison where Hussein was held until his execution in late December. He says he was subjected to physical and mental abuse, including beatings and sleep deprivation. He stopped eating and lost 30 pounds. An alarmed doctor persuaded his captors to treat him better, he said. A pained expression washes over his face as he discusses those first days.
"I don't like to talk about this," he says. "This was a very bad time."
He was confined to an 8-foot-square cell. For nearly a year, his only human contact was with interrogators from the CIA, FBI, Pentagon and British intelligence, who accused him of planning attacks on coalition forces, of supporting Ansar al Islam and of consorting with violent elements of the former regime. After the scandal erupted over prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, prison conditions improved. Bapir was allowed to write letters, speak with his wife on the phone and talk with fellow prisoners.
A British interrogator eventually told him that the Americans in Iraq were convinced that he was innocent of all charges and that he had been detained on false accusations.[1]
Bapir has long said he desires a relationship with the West, but his suspected links to Ansar al Islam, a radical group with ties to al-Qaida, often have made his overtures suspect.
Bapir and 3,000 to 5,000 of his followers live in the village of Khurmal in northeastern Iraq. Their territory bordered mountains and a hamlets controlled by Ansar.
About 200 Ansar families live in Khurmal and many of Ansar's guerrillas would appear nightly in the village to take refuge from battles with the Washington-backed militia controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Bapir repeatedly denied that his band of armed men, numbering about 1,000, supported Ansar.[2]
But the PUK, which gave Bapir hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in hopes that his group would abandon its radical tendencies, determined before the U.S. invasion of Iraq that Komaly Islami was too closely aligned with Ansar. U.S. forces widened the scope of its cruise-missile attacks to include several of Bapir's compounds in the foothills near Khurmal.[3]
Ali Bapir has stated his political party's position in relation to other Islamic groups.
" Our policy is that we enter into fraternity and cooperation with all Islamic groups. We seek such fraternal relations with Islamic parties and organizations, Islamist figures, and groups that follow a Salafi tradition or a Sufi or a scientific tradition. In the Komala Islami, we believe that the group must be open-minded and seek fraternity with all those who call or act for Islam. If we see a mistake, we will try to correct it through dialogue and by creating a fraternal atmosphere."
KIG in the Elections
In the Iraqi legislative election of January 2005, it decided to run independently from the main Kurdish coalition. It received over 60,000 votes (about 0.7%) and two seats in the transitional National Assembly of Iraq. After the elections, the party agreed to join the Kurdish alliance's National Assembly caucus.
At the same time, it won 85,237 votes and 6 Kurdish National Assembly seats in the Kurdistan election on the same day. In the Local elections, that day they won 18,781 votes (2.9%) and 1 seat (out of 41) in Hawler as well as 53,088 votes (7.3%) and 3 (out of 41) seats in Silemani.
In the Iraqi legislative election of December 2005 they decided to join the Kurdish coalition and were allocated one seat.
In the Iraqi Kurdistan legislative election, 2009 they formed a coalition with the Kurdistan Islamic Union, Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party and the Future Party, called the Service and Reform List. The list came third in the election winning 240,842 votes (12.8%) and 13 (out of 111) seats.
In the Iraqi legislative election, 2010 they formed their own independent list. They received 152,530 votes (1.32%) and 2 seats (one in Hawler and one in Silemani).
Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG)
Kurdistan Islamic Group (Kurdish: کۆمهلی ئیسلامی له کوردستان / عێراق Komelî Îslamî le Kurdistan / 'Êraq; Arabic: الجماعة الإسلامية في كردستان / العراق al-Jumāʿa al-islāmiya fī Kurdistan - al-ʿIrāq) is an Islamist movement in Iraqi Kurdistan. Established by Ali Bapir in May 2001. Bapir is a former leader of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan.