ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is monitoring all Salafi clerics and their mosques in the region to assure they are not recruiting for the Islamic State, according to Mariwan Naqshbandi, an official at the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The decision to observe the mosques and mullahs, as Salafi clerics are known, was taken after several prominent figures aligned themselves with ISIS and young people from their mosques turned up fighting for the extremists in Syria, Naqshbandi said. The Salafi faith is an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam. The name derives from “salaf” or ancestors, and followers adhere to a strict and literal interpretation of the Quran. In recent years, the fast-growing Salafi movement has become associated with the jihad of extremist groups. Naqshbandi said the ministry was aware of about 500 Kurds between the ages of 14 and 25 who had joined ISIS. He said half of these men were killed and approximately 50 were captured when they returned to the Kurdistan region. A number of these men were recruited by an religious leader in Sulaimani, Naqshbandi said, showing a picture on his laptop of an imam in a white turban. “This is Imam Gailani, who sent 12 young men to Daesh and then went himself,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. The most high-profile defection to the jihadist group so far has been by a man known as Mullah Shwan, formerly a prominent preacher in Erbil. Since he joined the group he has appeared in numerous propaganda videos, at times pictured with Peshmerga prisoners and threatening Kurdish nonbelievers and the government. For Naqshbandi, Mullah Shwan’s defection came as a shock. “He was my friend. I could not believe he went to Daesh,” he said. “He sat here in my office often and we played football together. I went to his home and saw his daughters.” Naqshbandi said Mullah Shwan never told him he agreed with ISIS, but he did notice when he visited his home, his wife—who was said to wear the niqab over her face— did not show herself to visitors, which is unusual in Kurdish culture. “After Mullah Shwan left, we changed the system. Now we follow them all, and also those who are near to them, like family and friends,” Naqshbandi said. The problem for authorities is discerning between those Salafis who agree with ISIS and those who do not. “We don’t know when they will change. It can happen anytime,” Naqshbandi said. “We now have a profile of all of them and their ideas. We talked to all, but as we cannot be completely sure about them, we continue to follow them.” Naqshbandi said all 5,200 mosques in the Kurdistan region are now monitored. “We in the ministry will stop these radical imams,” he said. “And we did: in two months we already stopped 10 of them from functioning.” He admits this was not an easy task. “Some of those who promote radical ideas no longer go to the mosque since we are monitoring those. They meet at home or elsewhere. And the main meeting between Daesh and radical young people in Kurdistan takes place on Facebook, Twitter and the Internet,” said Naqshbandi. The recent past has proven him right. The perpetrators behind the April 17 bomb attack near the US Consulate in Erbil were organized online. They met in a mosque, then kept in contact and one of the attackers reportedly made a connection with Mullah Shwan through Facebook. The case has been a wake-up call for the ministry, Naqshbandi said. It has since set up special courses for all of 2,800 of Kurdistan’s imams. Still going through computer photos, Naqshbandi showed a picture of a group of radical imams that attended a recent week-long course. “We want them to change their minds. They mostly have only read Sharia. We have to change their ideas, teach them the nature of life, human rights and international law.” And that is just for the elders. To make sure radicalization no longer reaches the Kurdish youth, an Islamic program in public schools that previously taught Salafi ideas has been adapted to promote a more general view. In another important policy change, the Islamic Schools and Institutes organization, where most of the clerics are educated, has been moved the responsibility of the Religious Affairs Ministry to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Naqshbandi said. “It is better that we stop radicalism in the schools. The Ministry of Education has to make a new program for the Islamic schools, adding human rights and other subjects,” he said. Kurdish Islamic parties have spoken out against the move, but Naqshbandi said the responsibility for the Islamic Schools and Institutes is already out of his ministry’s hands. It is still involved, though, as the three ministries have formed a special commission to work on shaping a new curriculum.
