Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq is winning over adherents through all-expenses-paid mass weddings, free education, and other charitable projects
November 20, 2007 8:07 am Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Iraq, Haunting Images
Islamic guidance is part of eight new, free primary and secondary schools funded by a Shiite foundation in Najaf.
Sam Dagher
Rising player with a vision for Shiite Iraq | csmonitor.com, November 20, 2007
Free schools and mass weddings create support for a Shiite-run south.
By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Reporter Sam Dagher discusses the role of martyrs in Iraq’s Shiite political parties.
NAJAF, Iraq - Ammar al-Hakim is presiding over an Iraqi Shiite building boom. His austere Shaheed al-Mihrab Foundation has raised 400 mosques in Iraq since 2003. It’s building the largest seminary here in the holy city of Najaf and opening a chain of schools. And it now has 95 offices throughout the country.
What’s more, Mr. Hakim’s foundation is winning over adherents to his party – the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) – through all-expenses-paid mass marriages along with cash payments and gifts for the newlyweds, free education and stipends at his new schools, and an array of other charitable projects such as caring for orphans and displaced families.
All of this is being done to promote ISCI’s core vision: a federation of nine provinces where conservative Shiite Islam would reign.
While opponents say that such a federation among central and southern provinces would only hasten the breakup of Iraq and create a ministate where Iran would hold great sway, Hakim and his party are making great gains.
For them, the plan would bolster security for Shiites and benefit the stability of the country as a whole. And, most significant, they are winning much support ahead of a national referendum on the issue by April 2008, as proscribed by the Constitution.