Given that the Iraqi parliament has not agreed on a new national anthem, Adel Najman, an Iraqi musician living in Australia, decided to compose music for the poem “Salam Ala Hadabat al-Iraq” ("Peace on the Hills of Iraq") by the late poet Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri. It's one of the three poems that have been competing for the national anthem for years in the Iraqi parliament.

Najman told Al-Monitor by phone from Australia: “After the [political] dispute impeded the selection of a national anthem, I decided not to wait any longer and I started composing music for Jawahiri’s poem. We performed it with a group of Iraqi guys in Australia, while a foreign band played the music. Then, we presented it to the Iraqi Embassy in Canberra.”

Najman confirmed that he did not refer to any official party when he chose this poem to be the national anthem. Then, he took the initiative to compose music for the poem and published it online.

“I liked the words of the poem because it talks about peace, which is what we need to restore Iraq to its normal situation,” he explained.