Transformation of the Islamic Da‘wa Party in Iraq: From the Revolutionary Period to the Diaspora Era

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This paper aims to clarify how the Islamic Da‘wa Party came to embrace Iraqi nationalism that was compatible with Islamic doctrins by examining its struggle and accommodation to the political changes in domestic, regional, and international dimensions from its establishment in 1957 to the mid-1990s.

Historical documents of the Da‘wa Party showed that it had three significant turning points: firstly, it shifted from a reformist Islamic organization to a revolutionary movement in the mid-1970s because of the complex influences of oppression, restriction by regulation, and segmentation of the leadership; secondly, it had to evacuate from Iraq to Iran after the Iranian revolution 1979 because of severe oppression by the Ba‘thist regime; thirdly, it distanced itself from the Iranian authority in the late 1980s.

These historical contexts paved the way to its emphasis of Iraqi nationalism in confronting international politics in the 1990s. In the diaspora leadership, the party had few resources; hence it had to maneuver between other forces by persisting in its independent stance. It was these complex factors that led the party to stress Iraqi nationalism while maintaining Islamic doctrine.

The Da‘wa Party remained flexible enough to accommodate the multitude of dimensions of political change. This reflects the compatibility of Islamism and Iraqi nationalism within the party itself. Furthermore, it implies the inappropriateness of a dichotomous understanding of Islamism and nationalism in analyzing the Da‘wa Party.