Islamic Dawa Party

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Template:Politics of Iraq The Islamic Dawa Party or Islamic Call Party (Arabic حزب الدعوة الإسلامية Hizb al-Da'wa al-Islamiyya) is an Iraqi political organization. It is one of the main Shi'ite parties. In the lead-up to the January 2005 Iraqi election it cooperated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and other Shi'ite groups in the United Iraqi Alliance. The party is led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a doctor, who served as the Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government from 2005 until 4/21/2006.

The party was formed in the late 1950s by a group of Shi'ite leaders, with Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr, the uncle of Muqtada al-Sadr, playing a prominent role. It was created to combat secularism, communism and Baathist Arab socialism which were then ascendant in Iraq. While founded and led by Shi'ites it worked closely with Sunni Islamic groups and a significant minority of the group's members were Sunnis. Al-Dawa rose to prominence in the 1970s when it waged an armed campaign against the Iraqi government. It supported the Islamic Revolution in Iran and in turn received support from the Iranian government, especially during the Iran-Iraq War. Despite this cooperation the Islamic Republic envisioned by al-Sadr differed sharply from that of Khomeini. While Khomeini, and the SCIRI, argued the power of the state should rest with the ulema al-Dawa supported the notion of power resting with the ummah.

The political ideology of al-Da'wa is heavily influenced by work done by Baqr al-Sadr who laid out four mandatory principles of governance in his 1975 work, Islamic Political System. These were:

Absolute sovereignty belongs to God.
Islamic injunctions are the basis of legislation. The legislative authority may enact any law not repugnant to Islam.
The people, as vice-regents of Allah, are entrusted with legislative and executive powers.
The jurist holding religious authority represents Islam. By confirming legislative and executive actions, he gives them legality." (From Research Paper by Rodger Shanahan - The Islamic Da'wa Party: Past Development And Future Prospects)

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Timeline

1974 The Ba'thist revolutionary court arrested and sentenced to death 75 al-Dawa members.
1975 The annual pilgrimage from Najaf to Karbala, called the Marad al-Ras, was cancelled by the government.
1977 The Safar Intifada in February: Al-Dawa organized the Marad al-Ras, in spite of the government ban; The event was attacked by police.
1979 Iranian Revolution. Al-Dawa created a military wing, later called Shahid al-Sadr.
1980 On 30 March the Revolutionary Command Council retroactively banned al-Dawa; membership was made punishable by death. 96 al-Dawa members are allegedly executed this month.
1981 On 1 April al-Dawa carried out an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister at the time.
1981 On 9 April Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Amina Sadr bint al-Huda are arrested and executed.
1982 Al-Dawa failed in attempt to assassinate Saddam Hussein. Heavy crack-downs on al-Dawa by Hussein's regime. Many flee to Iran, where it suffers from competition with SCIRI.
1987 Again Al-Dawa fails in an attempt to kill Saddam by attacking his motorcade.
1996 It is alleged that al-Dawa carried out the attempt on Saddam's son, Uday.
2003 After the Invasion of Iraq al-Dawa returned, basing itself in the city of Nasiriya which the party now runs and controls.
2005 The United Iraqi Alliance, triumphs in the December 2005 Elections.