VZCZCXRO0667
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHMOS
DE RUEHKUK #0096/01 1111308
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P R 211308Z APR 06
FM REO KIRKUK
TO RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 0591
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0629
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHKUK/REO KIRKUK 0657

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 
 
KIRKUK 00000096  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
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 
 
KIRKUK 00000096  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
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