Is Iraq’s Dawa Party on verge of division?

Political rifts and partisan splits are nothing new to the Shiite Dawa Party, the dominant organization in Iraq's governing coalition since 2005. The differences within the party since Haider al-Abadi took office as prime minister in September 2014 are unprecedented, reflecting a national and regional conflict among Shiites.

The Dawa Party was founded in the 1950s by clerics and religious university students intent on fighting communism and establishing Islamic rule. The Muslim Brotherhood greatly inspired the party’s basic ideology, and the party’s founders had close ties to the Iraqi Islamic Party, which was considered the Muslim Brotherhood’s Iraqi branch. The Dawa Party is also associated with the Brotherhood-inspired Hizb ut-Tahrir. Taleb al-Rifai, a Dawa Party founder, cited these linkages in interviews with Rashid al-Khayoun for the book “Amali as-Sayed Taleb al-Rifai” (Dictations of Sayyed Taleb al-Rifai). Most Islamic political organizations from this earlier era tended to be pan-Islamic in their goals, ignoring the Sunni-Shiite division.

Historically sharp differences have occasionally emerged within the Dawa Party because of the dialectical nature of the relationship between its affiliated academics and clerics. The party experienced divisions during the decades it spent opposing successive leftist and nationalist regimes in Iraq, largely driven by differences among various politico-religious leaders, resulting in such formations as the Asefi-Dawa Party, Kourani-Dawa Party and the Islamic Dawa movement. When pressure by the Baathist Party forced members to flee to Iran and Syria in the 1970s and 1980s, their divisions and differences emerged there as well. In 2003, the party rose to power within the Iraqi Governing Council, but the old fractiousness remained.

Despite sharp internal differences, none of the Dawa Party's branches broke from the larger camp calling for Islamic rule. Before Abadi took office, the differences had been more about political tactics, than ideology, such as how to work with Iran in confronting former President Saddam Hussein and whether to joint the Iranian military forces or preserve their independence. Also, in light of the pragmatism espoused by many Dawa Party members, the dissident cadres of the party that broke away have not hesitated to join forces with their former party when partisan interests required it. This is one of the reasons the Dawa Party has managed to hold on to the reins of power since 2005. For instance, the Dawa Party-Iraq Organization and the National Reform Movement supported the Dawa Party in every elections held since 2003. At the moment, however, ideological and political disagreements among Dawa Party leaders could be interpreted as foreboding signs for the party.