Da?wa Al-Islamiyya, Al- ("Islamic Call," in Arabic)

views updated

DAEWA AL-ISLAMIYYA, AL- ("Islamic Call," in Arabic)

Iraqi Shiʿite party founded in 1957 by Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr and Monteza al-Askar, with the semiofficial financial support of Iran. In 1958, after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy, Al-Daʿwa opposed the Communist forces present in Iraq while disassociating itself from other Islamic parties. In 1963, after the Baʿth Party came to power, al-Daʿwa went underground. The leaders of the movement sent many Lebanese, who had come to study in at Najaf, Iraq, back to their homeland with the mission of propagating the ideas of al-Daʿwa there. In 1974, a fatwa was issued by Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr forbidding religious students to adhere to any political party, accentuating the isolation of the movement. In 1979, the Iranian Islamic Revolution caused al-Daʿwa to abandon clandestine status. Its leaders recognized Imam Khomeini as the sole head of the Islamic nation. The following year, when the Iraq-Iran war broke out, the headquarters of the movement was transferred to Teheran. Al-Sadr was arrested by the Iraqi authorities and executed. Al-Daʿwa joined the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a gathering of the Iraqi opposition. In 1982, a Lebanese branch of the movement was created under the impetus of Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah.

Dictionary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict