Islamic Dawa Party

The Islamic Dawa Party (Arabic: حزب الدعوة الإسلامية, romanized: Ḥizb ad-Daʿwa al-Islāmiyya), is an international Shia Islamist political movement that was formed in 1957 by seminarians in Najaf, Iraq. The party backed the Iranian Revolution and also Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the Iran–Iraq War. It also opposed the Iraq War. Iran played a crucial role in the development of the movement, especially its Lebanese branch which later became Hezbollah. As of 2019, after two decades of political prominence and success, its Iraqi branch is suffering from internal divisions and is in danger of losing its "political relevance".^[9] The party is led by Nouri Al-Maliki.

Not to be confused with Islamic Dawa Party – Iraq Organisation.

Islamic Dawa Party

حزب الدعوة الإسلامية

Nouri al-Maliki

Mohammed Sadiq Al-Qamousee
Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr
Sayed Talib Al-Refaii

July 1957

Najaf, Iraq

Jihadi Wing (1979–2003)
Quwat al-Shaheed al-Sadr (ar)
National Defence Brigades (ar)^[1]

Islamic economics^[2]
Populism^[3]

Shia Islam

State of Law Coalition

Axis of Resistance

Green, red

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Nouri al-Maliki^[4]

1979 (1979)–2003 (2003)

Sadr Camp in Ahvaz, Iran

Iraq
Lebanon
Kuwait

Ba'athist Iraq
Kuwait
Saudi Arabia
United States^[8]
France

Iran–Iraq War

1991 uprisings in Iraq

1968–1969: Al-Dawa founded by in response to repression of Shi'i religious academies in Najaf by the Iraqi Ba'ath regime.^[28]

Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

1974: Ba'athist revolutionary court arrests and sentences 75 Al-Dawa members to death.

1975: Annual pilgrimage from to Karbala – called the Marad al-Ras – is cancelled by the Ba'ath government.

Najaf

1977 February: The Safar Intifada. Al-Dawa organizes Marad al-Ras, in spite of government ban. Event is attacked by police.

1979: . Al-Dawa creates a military wing, later called Shahid al-Sadr.

Iranian Revolution

1980 30 March: Ba'athist retroactively bans Al-Dawa; membership was made punishable by death. 96 Al-Dawa members are allegedly executed this month.

Revolutionary Command Council

1980 1 April: Al-Dawa unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate , Foreign Minister at the time.

Tariq Aziz

1980 9 April: and his sister Amina Sadr bint al-Huda are arrested and executed.

Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

1981 Mid-December: Iraqi embassy in is leveled by a suicide bomber. Iraqi Al-Dawa party claims credit for the attack, citing Iraq's invasion of Iran. Perhaps the first Shia suicide bombing, the attack was an "oft-noticed precedent" for the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut.^[29]

Beirut

1982: Al-Dawa assassination attempt on in Dujail fails. Heavy crack-downs on Al-Dawa by Hussein's regime follow, leading to the Dujail Massacre. Many flee to Iran, where it suffers from competition with SCIRI.

Saddam Hussein

1983 12 December: In Kuwait, the American and French embassies, Kuwait airport, the main oil refinery in Kuwait, and a residential area for Raytheon employees are . 17 suspects were soon arrested, mostly Al-Dawa members, including Jamal Jafaar Mohammed (currently member of Iraq's parliament as a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling coalition). Jamal Jafaar Mohammed escapes from Kuwait before the trial starts and is sentenced to death in absentia in 1984.

bombed

1987: Al-Dawa attacks Saddam's motorcade but again fails to kill him.

1996: Attempt made on the life of Saddam's son, . Al-Dawa blamed.

Uday

2003: After the Al-Dawa returns to Iraq, basing itself in the city of Nasiriya which the party now runs and controls.

Invasion of Iraq

2005 January: The , triumphs in the January 2005 Elections; Dawa leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari becomes Prime Minister.

United Iraqi Alliance

2005 December: The , triumphs in the December 2005 Elections.

United Iraqi Alliance

2006: Al-Dawa deputy leader replaces Ibrahim al-Jaafari as Prime Minister.

Nouri al-Maliki

Dawa

Da'wa

Daawa

(Original Arabic is دعوة with pharyngeal consonant—see Dawah.)

(party founder)

Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

(political theorist, former party leader)

Ezzedine Salim

(former party secretary-general)

Hashim Al-Mosawy

(63rd Prime Minister of Iraq, former party member)

Ibrahim al-Jaafari

(64th Prime Minister of Iraq, current party leader)

Nouri Al-Maliki

(65th Prime Minister of Iraq, former party member)

Haider Al-Abadi

(68th Prime Minister of Iraq, former party member)

Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani

(former deputy chairman of PMF, former secretary-general of Kataib Hezbollah, former party member)

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis

(former member of the National Security Council, current chairman of PMF, former(?) party member)

Islamic Dawa Party