KURDISTAN ISLAMIC GROUP SEEKS U.S. RELATIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000096

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, NCT, ROL COORDINATOR, USAID, IRMO/IPCC,

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/21/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KISL PHUM APER PRELIZ IR SY TU
SUBJECT: KURDISTAN ISLAMIC GROUP SEEKS U.S. RELATIONS

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CLASSIFIED BY: JBIGUS, PRT LEADER, REO Kirkuk, DoS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. SUMMARY. (C) The Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) supported
U.S. invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, but has been
disappointed with some U.S. actions toward it. The party seeks
to uphold the holiness of Islam and advocates Sharia law as the
main source of guidance on Iraqi law. The KIG and the Kurdistan
Islamic Union (KIU) share good relations but differ
ideologically on social and political solutions to Iraq. Our
contacts complained that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
illegally confiscated former Ba'athist buildings the KIG
occupied after the Kurdish uprising in 1991. They requested
U.S. help in releasing 37 of its members who allegedly were
illegally jailed by the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK). The KDP denied giving an alleged fatwa to execute
Mariwan Halabjaee for authoring the book, "Sex, Women, and
Islamic Law." END SUMMARY.

Supportive Overall of the United States
--------------


2. (SBU) In early March, Muhammad Radha Muhammad, head of the
KIG's Kirkuk office and Iraqi Council of Representatives member,
and Saman Abdullah Sa'id, member of the KIG's Relations and
Cooperation Bureau expressed to IPAOs in Kirkuk their views on
the United States. The KIG currently has two representatives on
the Iraqi Council of Representatives and six members in the
Kurdistan National Assembly.


3. (C) The delegation mentioned that the KIG had issued
condemning statements on the terrorist attacks in New York and
in Washington, as well as on the Taliban government. Muhammad
noted that the KIG after Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) wrote a
letter of gratitude to the U.S. Government for liberating the
Iraqi people from the Ba'athist regime. He emphasized that his
party respected Iraqi democracy and human rights, claiming that
the KIG since OIF had not committed any offenses against the
Coalition or other parties. Muhammad said that although
Coalition forces killed approximately 50 KIG members during
raids on Halabjah in March 2003, the party did not harbor
negative feelings toward the United States.

Frustrated With Some Coalition Actions
--------------


4. (C) KIG members, however, were disappointed that the
Coalition in 2003 arrested and imprisoned KIG leader Ali Bapir
on charges of having plans to attack U.S. forces and for having
relations with Ansar al-Sunna. According to KIG members, after
requesting a meeting with Bapir, the Coalition detained him for
22 months "before releasing him as not guilty." Muhammad added
that the KIG prior to Bapir's arrest had cooperated with the
Coalition to hand over its weapons. The KIG representatives
requested that the U.S. offer an official apology and
compensation to the KIG for detaining Bapir and for killing KIG
members during OIF.

Political Philosophy: Islam
--------------


5. (C) Muhammad said the KIG's political philosophy was Islam.
Muhammad argued that Sharia law should be the main source of
guidance for the Iraqi Government, and that the Constitution
should not contradict Islamic principles and legalities. The
KIG accepted Iraq's Constitutional language on the role of
Islam. The party's goal was to appoint representatives with
clean hands to work for the needs of the people. He explained
that KIG members on 15 February 2006 - with permission from the
KRG Interior Minister - peacefully protested against the Danish
cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet.

KIG Differs From the KIU
--------------


6. (C) When asked how the KIG and KIU differed, Muhammad said
the KIG, unlike the KIU, had engaged in armed resistance against
the former regime. The KIG and KIU disagreed ideologically on
social and political solutions to Iraq's problems. Muhammad
said that the KIG was an independent party, while the KIU was an
extension of the Muslim Brotherhood. He added that the KIG and
KIU shared good relations as political counterparts, but the two
parties did not have special ties.

Bullied by the KDP and PUK
--------------


7. (C) Muhammad requested that the U.S. pressure the KDP and

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PUK to return buildings that the KIG originally had appropriated
for its own use in Dahuk province. During the Kurdish uprising
in 1991, the KIG attacked and occupied several Ba'athist
buildings in Dahuk, eventually renovating them into KIG offices.
The KDP shortly thereafter, however, forcibly confiscated those
buildings for its own purposes without providing compensation to
the KIG. The KDP also imprisoned 37 KIG members, as a result of
KIG resistance to those actions. Although a minority of the
detainees received a trial and were found innocent, all 37 KIG
members remained incarcerated, according to Muhammad. The PUK
also jailed two or three KIG members. Muhammad complained that
the KDP and PUK had removed the KIG from all Ba'athist
buildings, but allowed smaller parties - such as the Kurdistan
Democratic Socialist Party and the Kurdistan Toilers Party - to
continue to occupy former regime buildings they had seized in
northern Iraq.

KIG Denies Fatwa Against Author
--------------


8. (C) When asked about KIG member and Kurdistan National
Assemblyman, Abd al-Qadir Sa'id's alleged fatwa to kill Mariwan
Halabjaee, author of "Sex, Islamic Law, and Women," Muhammad
said the fatwa was only a rumor and that Sa'id was not even a
member of the KIG's fatwa committee. The KIG had issued a
press statement denying that the party issued a fatwa. Muhammad
added, however, that KIG leaders planned to write a book,
protesting Halabjaee's writings.

KIG Views on Various Issues
--------------


9. (C) The KIG representatives asked that the U.S. focus on
improving three main problems in Iraq: first, the deteriorating
security situation; second, the fuel crisis; and third, Shia
militia members killing Sunnis.

--The KIG members claimed that many Iraqi Muslims believed the
U.S. came to Iraq to fight Islam. They argued that if the U.S.
cultivated stronger relations with Islamic groups like the KIG,
the U.S. would disprove those beliefs.

--The KIG received approximately $50,000 per month from the PUK.
Muhammad argued, however, that $50,000 was too little
compensation for the 2,500 martyrs the party sacrificed for the
PUK in previous battles.

Comment
--------------


10. (C) KIG gripes against the KDP and PUK for confiscating
its buildings and detaining its members without trials indicate
relations are strained, despite its partnership in the Kurdish
Alliance. The KIG appears to hold a more conservative Islamic
line than the KIU, being more straightforward in their goal for
an Iraqi Islamic state governed by Sharia law. At the same
time, the KIG representatives appeared sincere in their support
of current democratic trends in Iraq, such as elections, and in
maintaining good relations with the United States.


Biographic Notes:
--------------


11. (SBU) Muhammad Radha Muhammad was born in 1969 to a
religious Kurdish family in Chamchamal. He is a KIG politburo
member. He studied Sharia law at Imam al-Adham college in
Baghdad. He currently heads the KIG's office in Kirkuk.


12. (SBU) KIG leader Ali Bapir was born in Raniyah in As
Sulaymaniyah province in 1960. He attended grammar school in
Raniyah and secondary school in As Sulaymaniyah. Bapir studied
Islamic science in An Najaf for a time, but when the Ba'athist
regime tried to arrest him, he fled to Iran and finished his
studies in Islamic science under Iranian clerics. Following
OIF, the KIG reelected Ali Bapir as the party's spiritual
leader, as well as a 25-member politburo. Bapir ran on the
Kurdish Alliance list in the December 2005 national elections
and was elected to the Council of Representatives. Bapir has
published numerous books on Islam. He has written on human
rights, the Kurdish question, the Islamic solution for the
Kurdish question, social problems, elections, terrorism, and
globalization. Bapir reportedly has memorized the Koran, and
more than 150 of his seminars are recorded on tapes and CD's.
Bapir hails from a poor family; his father was a porter. Bapir
has four brothers, who are not particularly religious. One of
Bapir's brothers worked for the Ba'athist regime and allegedly
had a KIG member killed. Bapir, in response, killed that
brother himself. Bapir married his second wife after his first
wife died. He has 11 children.
BIGUS