Al-Nahda

Al-Nahda (the Islamic Renaissance Movement) was founded in 1993 by Sadiq Abdul Aziz, brother of Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) leaders Uthman and Ali Abdul Aziz. Like his brother Uthman, Sadiq Abdul Aziz was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood and Union of Muslim Scholars of Kurdistan throughout the 1980s. However, unlike Uthman, Sadiq Abdul Aziz maintained close ties between his organization and the Brotherhood throughout the 1990s. Furthermore, he focused al-Nahda on Islamic activism and education rather than on the political and militant activities pursued by Uthman Abdul Aziz and the IMK. In 1999 Sadiq and Ali Abdul Aziz, who succeeded Uthman as the leader of the IMK, merged their two organizations with Omar Barziani’s Kurdish Hamas to form the Islamic Unity Movement of Kurdistan (IUMK). The IUMK union only lasted until 2001, when it fragmented into several splinter groups. Although Sadiq and Ali reformed the IMK, many of the former al-Nahda members joined Ali Bapir’s new organization, the Kurdistan Islamic Group.