Ali Qaradaghi, a Kurd from the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province, has served as the Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) for years. The group has not had a leader since the death of its former head Qaradawi, a renowned Arab scholar, in September 2022.
The IUMS held its sixth congress in Doha, Qatar on Monday, electing Qaradaghi as its new chairman. He received over 91 percent of the votes, the union announced on its Facebook page.
Several Arab countries have listed the IUMS as a terrorist organization due to its affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood - an Egyptian political organization and Islamist group that has long been dealt with by the United Arab Emirates as a threat to its hereditary rulers' grip on power.
Turkey and Qatar are the main backers of the IUMS.
The IUMS describes itself as “a legitimate, independent scientific institution that works to convey the message of Islam and guide Muslims to properly understand the provisions of their religion, by preserving the identity of the Muslim nation, spreading the philosophy of moderation away from extremism and sacrificing the principles of the nation.”
Qaradaghi has often been criticized for failing to use his position in the union to defend the rights of Kurds.
The scholar, who sometimes appears in traditional Kurdish clothing, was born in 1949 in Sulaimani province’s Qaradagh area.
“He descends from a religious and patriotic family,” according to his Facebook page.
In 1988, he and a group of other Kurdish scholars established the Islamic Kurdish League, a humanitarian organization based in the Kurdistan Region.
