page_title: Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq / Politics
caption_attribution_description: English: Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq party, casts his ballot in Iraq's first free election at a polling station in the Baghdad Convention Center in Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 30, 2005. Millions of Iraqis throughout the country are participating in Iraq's first free election in over 50 years. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Angelique Perez, U.S. Air Force. (Released) 050130-F-3252P-021
context_page_description: The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq is an Iraqi Shia Islamist Iraqi political party. It was established in Iran in 1982 by Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and its political support comes from Iraq's Shia Muslim community.
  Prior to his assassination in August 2003, SCIRI was led by Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim; afterwards it was led by the Ayatollah's brother, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. After Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's death in 2009 his son Ammar al-Hakim became the group's new leader. In light of its gains in the three 2005 elections and government appointments, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council became one of Iraq's most powerful political parties and was the largest party in the Iraqi Council of Representatives until the 2010 Iraqi elections, where it lost support due to Nuri Al-Maliki's political party rise.
  Previously ISCI's militia wing was the Badr Brigade, where the party used it during the Iraq Civil War of 2006–2007. After the civil war, Badr Brigade turned into a political force of itself and left ISCI, although the two continue to be part of a coalition in Iraq's parliament. After the departure of Badr Brigade, ISCI created a new militia called the Knights of Hope.
context_section_description: SIIC is a Shia Islamist political party that is widely regarded as one of the most pro-Iranian parties in Iraq. SIIC's support is strongest in Iraq's south especially Basra, where it has been said to have become "the de facto government."
  It joined the United Iraqi Alliance list for the general election on January 30, 2005 (see Iraqi legislative election, 2005), but filed separate lists in some governorate council elections held on the same day (see for instance 2005 Nineveh governorate election). In the January 2005 election it won six out of eight Shia-majority governorates and came in first in Baghdad with 40% of the vote. Following the election SIIC had many members hired by various government ministries, particularly the Interior Ministry, "ensuring a favorable position for" it.
  Its administration in Southern Iraq has been criticized as corrupt and as "theocracy mixed with thuggery" According to a 2005 report by journalist Doug Ireland, the Badr Organization has been involved in many incidents of attacking and killing gays in Iraq. According to the British television Channel 4, from 2005 through early 2006, SIIC's Badr Organization members working as commandos in the Ministry of the Interior (which Badr controls) "have been implicated in rounding up and killing thousands of ordinary Sunni civilians."
  Ideologically SIIC differs from Muqtada al-Sadr and its sometime ally Islamic Dawa Party, in favoring a decentralized Iraq state with an autonomous Shia zone in the south.
caption: Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, casts his ballot at a poll station in Baghdad in the January, 2005 election.
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