Mission impossible: Iraqi community reconciliation in the wake of ISIS

Mohamed Shaat

The crises faced by the Iraqi street, especially after the dominance of the militias in many areas for years, have led to the escalation of crises and societal problems in recent times due to the ideas and customs left by these militias.

Community reconciliation

There have been frequent calls for community reconciliation in Iraq’s tribal and regional conflict areas, especially those under the control of militias. Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi called for community reconciliation in the province of Salah al-Din to resolve tribal and regional conflicts that resulted from their division regarding ISIS, which invaded the western regions of Iraq in 2014. Some tribes had fought ISIS, while others embraced and supported the terrorist organization, even providing members to the terrorist ranks.

There have been reports of campaigns against ISIS members’ families carried out by the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and some tribes, expelling them from their homes. Campaigns were launched in the southern province of Nineveh to deport the families of ISIS members following the violence that affected civilians after an ISIS attack on a tribal official and his family.

Observers believe the need for community reconciliation is at a peak, among both Shiites and Sunnis. Since more than three years ago, more than 900 civilians have disappeared from Sunni areas that were occupied by ISIS, and their fate is unknown. Accusations are being directed at factions of the Shiite PMF.

Mission impossible

Iraqi analyst Ziad al-Sheikhly said that, unfortunately, in post-2003 Iraq, the so-called community reconciliation, which was also preceded by many calls for national reconciliation as well as political, cannot be applied for many reasons, including political, social and regional. Now the Iraqi citizen in general, not only Sunni, is entrenched in partisan, regional or sectarian divisions, as well as divided agendas and interests.

The leadership of the Sunni segment has been fragmented, Sheikhly pointed out. Many Sunni politicians are trying hard to bring this community together under a unified leadership, but there are many parties trying to fight such calls, because it is not in their interest to have a strong and unified Sunni leadership, especially since this community is different from other communities that take the religion as the sole leader.

Sheikhly explained that all these reasons led to the fact that members of the Sunni community fall under more than one religious leadership, which differs from one region to another, between Salafi, Brotherhood, those belonging to the school of political leadership, and those belonging to the military leadership. Therefore, it is difficult for any Sunni Iraqi politician to bring all of these people under a unified leadership.

Tribal enmities

Iraqi political analyst Anmar al-Darubi said that community reconciliation by some Sunni tribes is not a new issue, as it has previously been raised repeatedly but did not succeed for several reasons – most prominently the emergence of animosities between the Sunni tribes after ISIS entered the Sunni provinces.

Darubi pointed out that the issues and ambiguities among the tribes of these provinces must be settled first. He stressed that another important aspect to achieve successful community reconciliation is for the state to provide political solutions before security in dealing with serious issues in the Sunni provinces, particularly releasing youth and men, as well as Sunni women who were kidnapped by the Shiite PMF militias during the battles against ISIS.