(C) KRG MINISTER OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS ON MONITORING MOSQUES,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KIRKUK 000143

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, NCT, IRMO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/21/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PINR PINS PNAT PREF PREL PTER KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: (C) KRG MINISTER OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS ON MONITORING MOSQUES,
CHECKING FOREIGN INFLUENCES

KIRKUK 00000143 001.2 OF 003


CLASSIFIED BY: Jim Bigus, PRT Leader, POL, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY: Minister of Awqaf and
Religious Affairs (MARA) for the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG),Mohammad Ahamd Saeed Shakaly, said on August 8 that his
ministry monitored more than 3000 mosques in the Kurdistan
region and that checking sermons was a matter of "public
security" for the KRG areas. He claimed MARA had a system to
legally prosecute imams who incited violence and that no mosques
could be built or operated without MARA authorization. He said
MARA was trying to limit the influence of foreign Islamic groups
in the area that had increased between 2003 and 2005. MARA
relations with their Baghdad counterparts were with the Sunni
department mostly, which was separate from the Shia department.
Shakaly said MARA wanted to form a committee for religious
affairs composed of non-Islamic religious minorities to monitor
the relation between Islam and other religions, and that his
ministry would head the committee. END INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.

(C) 3000 MOSQUES MONITORED - NO BARZANI CRITICISM ALLOWED
-------------- --------------


2. (C) Shakaly claimed his ministry currently monitored about
3000 mosques but that this figure was increasing. Several
members of his staff had family members who had been victims of
suicide bombers, he said, and this was a sensitive issue. He
said their priorities were to contribute to regional stability
and the peace of the KRG, and to this end, he claimed MARA would
not permit the mosque to become a shelter for terrorists.
Mosque sermons, Shakaly said, must not incite violence or call
for jihad. He claimed outside of these issues mosques could
practice as they wish, but that otherwise they would be
prosecuted through the law. He added as an afterthought MARA
also did not permit criticism of the Barzanis.

(C) CHECKING SERMONS A "PUBLIC SECURITY ISSUE"
-------------- -


3. (C) Shakaly said some imams advocated stoning cars that had
women drivers, which could cause an accident. He claimed this
made cracking down on such sermons a "public security issue" and
in such cases MARA must take away their permission to speak. He
said MARA actively was trying to open dialogue with Islamic
extremists to see what they want and to bring them to the table
to convince them to abandon violence. Shakaly cited the Hajj
Ibrahim Mosque on the main road to Qoya in Erbil as a main
culprit in disseminating extremist sermons. MARA only had
authority in areas falling under KRG administration, he claimed;
other regions, such as Kirkuk, fell under Baghdad's supervision.

(C) "WE HAVE WAYS" TO SILENCE UNWANTED SERMONS
-------------- -


4. (C) Shakaly said the process of monitoring sermons was
facilitated by the fact that most of the 10,000 to 11,000 MARA
staff also worked as mosque employees, but that there was in
addition "always street talk" to alert them of dangerous
rhetoric. Shakaly claimed the "democratic ways of the west
sometimes can't be implemented in Kurdistan" due to inherent
cultural differences. He said the political impact of Islam had
not yet arrived in the Kurdish areas due to the influences of
Naqshbandi and Qadiri Sufism, which were peaceful movements and
heavily influenced the region. However, because of their
possible connections with extremists, Shakaly claimed, constant
vigilance was necessary and MARA had to use its own methods to
solve the problem, because the ministry did not want Kurdistan
"to become like other Islamic countries." As an example, he
claimed an imam recently compared Kurdistan's education and
government systems to "pharaoh" and MARA responded by inviting
him to their offices to discuss this, and warned him to avoid
such rhetoric or he would have his permit to speak taken away
and would be judicially prosecuted by the government. Shakaly
said mosques could no longer be built without MARA approval and
that imams were not permitted to preach without a license from
MARA. He claimed MARA recently moved two colleges, one for
sharia education and the other for sermon training, from the
more conservative and remote areas of Dahuk to Salahadin
University in Erbil, where MARA could monitor and instruct imams
on how to cleanse their sermons of extremist rhetoric. He added
mullahs were using old books and references and that MARA was
trying to reform this curriculum.

(C) FORMING MINORITY COMMITTEE FOR RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS
-------------- --------------


5. (C) One of MARA's priorities, Shakaly claimed, would be to

KIRKUK 00000143 002.2 OF 003


monitor the relations between Islam and other religions in the
Kurdistan regions of Iraq. Formerly called the Ministry of
Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Shakaly claimed the change in title
indicated this shift in concern for non-Islamic religious
communities. He said a specific law was under consideration to
form a "high committee for religious affairs" and that his
ministry would soon submit this bill to the KRG Council of
Ministers and the Kurdistan National Assembly for approval. He
said the law would create a committee of solely non-Islamic
minority communities, such as Yezidis and Assyrians, to make
sure "anything done for the Muslims also gets done for the other
communities." If MARA builds a mosque for the Muslims, Yezidis
would have a right to a temple, the Christians to a church, he
claimed. Shakaly said someone from his office would head the
committee.

(C) CHECKING FOREIGN INFLUENCES
--------------


6. (C) A limited KRG budget had permitted foreign groups,
primarily from Gulf States, to found mosques and finance groups
without oversight, Shakaly claimed. These foreign groups, he
said, focused on high profile areas to gain the maximum
exposure. He claimed between 2003 and 2005 an Islamic college
in Saudi Arabia built or purchased 430 mosques in the Kurdistan
region, mostly on the main paved roads. He asserted that in
some villages with over 100 families they did not build, but in
some with only 3 families they built a mosque because of its
strategic location. Shakaly claimed now any mosque construction
had to be channeled through MARA according to law. These
groups had come under the face of Islam, he said, but had a
hidden goal to assist terrorists. Since they already had a
large number of mosques, he claimed, there was no need for more;
they should focus on building schools and hospitals. Many of
these 430 mosques were still open, Shakaly claimed, but were now
funded and maintained by MARA, which had "gradually dried up"
funding for suspected mosques. He cited the Salaf Mosque and
the Khalija Kubra Mosque as examples. Shakaly claimed any new
mosques built by foreign donors must have their organization
approved, although MARA did not keep track of funding or banking
sources.

(C) RELATIONS WITH BAGHDAD MOSTLY WITH SUNNIS
-------------- --------------


7. (C) Shakaly claimed MARA's counterparts in Baghdad were
divided between Sunni and Shia departments, and that MARA had a
"very thin" relation with the Shia department. He said, for
instance, that MARA had helped in coordinating with Baghdad on
the Hajj to Mecca, and that the KRG had a representative on the
Committee for the Hajj in Baghdad to facilitate visas,
passports, and logistics. However, he said, as this represented
pilgrims from the mostly Sunni Kurdistan region, MARA's contact
primarily was with the Sunni branch of the federal ministry.
Shakaly claimed that even though the relatively small Shia
Kurdish population had Husayniyah, not mosques, and were
financially independent from the KRG endowments system, the
Husayniyah must still register with MARA.

(C) BIOGRAPHIC NOTES
--------------


8. (C) Mohammad Ahmad Saeed Shakaly: Current KRG Minister of
Awqaf and Religious Affairs; has worked in politics since 1963
when he became a Peshmerga; lived in Kirkuk most of his life and
owns a farm there; claims to speak Turkoman and Arabic fluently;
was targeted by terrorists while attending a mosque; his senior
advisor is Othman al-Mufti.

(U) COMMENT
--------------


9. (C) Post had heard concerns voiced from representatives of
Islamic groups that the KRG's crackdown on these parties and
mosques is not eliminating extremists but rather driving them
underground. If these claims are true, efforts by the KRG to
check the influence of radical Islam could contribute to future,
more lethal threats to political stability in the Kurdish
regions, particularly if these parties are enjoying growing
popular support. Based on post's meetings with Assyrian
leaders, a level of distrust exists regarding the KRG's plans
for the future of non-Muslim minority communities in the
Kurdistan region. While MARA's proposed "high committee for
religious affairs" could serve to ameliorate this distrust, it
could also serve as another mechanism for MARA to extend its
monitoring of religious activities to non-Islamic communities.
Shakaly's comment that certain Islamic groups had "no need for
more" mosques and thus would not receive funding to build more
could logically apply to non-Muslim communities on the grounds

KIRKUK 00000143 003.2 OF 003


that MARA had ceased to build new mosques, so it would not be
fair to approve new temples or churches.
JBIGUS