Interview
Mohammed Abdulwahab Shamaa, former director of Mosul’s Sunni Waqf (Endowment) Directorate, on June 25. Photo: Rudaw TV
The alleged confiscation of endowed Sunni land in Nineveh by Shiite paramilitaries has become a hot button issue in Iraq - one that could have deep sectarian repercussions. Some of the property reportedly being claimed as Shiite belongs to mosques and religious institutions.
Figures who are otherwise known for their non-sectarian stance, such as the Sunni former Iraqi Minister of Defense and current MP Khalid Al-Obeidi, have claimed that the issue is likely to stoke another round of sectarian conflict in Iraq.
Mohammed Abdulwahab Shamaa is the former director of Mosul’s Sunni Waqf (Endowment) Directorate. Holding a degree in Islamic Sharia Sciences, he is a former director of an Islamic studies center and former Imam of the famous Nabi Younis mosque destroyed by ISIS in 2014. He sat down with Rudaw to blast Shiite groups confiscating land in Nineveh, claiming that Shiites do not endow land in the same way that Sunnis do - even in Shiite-majority provinces.
Rudaw: Who do you think is trying to incite tension between the Sunni and Shiite endowment authorities?
Mohammed Abdulwahab Shamaa: Honestly, many people are unaware of the bases of this issue and its mechanisms. Before 2003, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, was effectively caretaker and protector of the properties of all existing sects.
The transferal of ownership of a Shiite property to a Sunni and vice versa never used to happen. For example, if a Sunni turned his property into a mosque, the mosque automatically belonged to the Sunni Waqf [Endowment]. In the same way, if a Shiite turns a house, building or orchard into a Shiite property, it becomes the property of Shiite brothers.
What was the definitive proof of ownership? If you were to say “this is my house,” what proves it is yours? The property deed proves it.
[In the same way, for endowments] there is a Waqf [Endowment] deed. Many don't know what this is. It is as following. A man or woman owns a property, a house, an orchard. They come and say “this is my property, and I endow it to a mosque for the sake of Allah”. This will be written in the Endowment deed. All properties have this deed. On the deed, it is written that "I, son of so and so, went to the Endowment Directorate. I have come and relinquished ownership as an endowment for the sake of Allah for this mosque, without being compelled to do so".
What can now be done for the disputes, rivalry and sedition to be solved?
The best solution for preventing the eruption of this crisis is a return to the use of endowment deeds in the same way that property disputes refer back to property deeds. Any sophistry or propaganda [claiming that property in Nineveh is Shiite property] is theft, extortion and trespassing, and it is leveraging the authority of a government silent to what is happening. If there had been a strong central authority, what happened wouldn't have happened. But it appears as though the silent authorities are okay with the theft happening in Mosul.
The aim is demographic change. Let me put that out there bluntly. It is demographic change empower by the authority that is accepting of what is happening otherwise how could the authorities otherwise accept such blind, impulsive sedition in Mosul?
A Sunni MP says that the court will agree with you, determining Sunni ownership of these properties. Since you know the courts while rule in your favour, why haven’t you tried to discuss this matter with the Shiite Marja [highest legal Shiite authority] – even though some make demands for these properties to be taken from you in his very name?
The main medium of proving ownership in the country, even on an individual level, is through the court and the judiciary. Besides the endowment deed and other supporting documents, we don't have anything else. If the Shiite Endowment could lead me to a Mosul resident who has endowed his property to a Shiite group, then I am ready to become a Shiite. There is no Sunni who would endow his property to a Shiite group. At the same time, there is no Shiite who will endow his property to a Sunni group. This is a fact that we can't overlook.
The continuing of these actions is a blind, impulsive sedition, whose ramifications are only known to Allah. Do you know who was responsible for the Endowment Properties in the pre-2003 Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs? Many might be surprised at hearing this. I know him personally, since I have worked in this field for more than 30 years. The official supervising the endowment properties in the past was a Shiite man, Gatih Abdul Nabi. He was an expert in the matter. In 2003, they [Shiite parties] came to ask him what the Shiite share of endowed properties was in Iraq. He told them that the Shiites only had 4 percent.
The majority of the endowments were for and by Sunni people. Sunni people endowed their properties to Sunni mosques. The Shiites don't have endowments. They don't endow [property] for Allah. They do it for individuals, like the al-Hakim family [prominent Shiite family of religious authority] and other families. I have never heard of Shiites endowing their properties for mosques or Husseiniyahs [another site of Shiite congregation]. They endow it to individuals.
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