Da?wa, Al- (Al-Da?wa Al-Islamiyya, "Islamic Call")
DAEWA, AL- (al-Daʿwa al-Islamiyya, "Islamic Call")
An Iraqi Shiʿite party, al-Daʿwa was founded in 1957 by Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and Monteza al-Askar, with the semi-official financial support of Iran. In 1958, after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy, al-Daʿwa opposed the Communist forces present in Iraq, while dissociating itself from other Islamic parties. In 1963, after the Baʿth Party came to power, al-Daʿwa went underground. The leaders of the movement sent many Lebanese, who had come to study at Najaf, back to their homeland with the mission of propagating the ideas of al-Daʿwa there.
In 1974, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr issued a fatwa forbidding religious students to adhere to any political party, accentuating the isolation of the movement. In 1979 the Iranian Islamic Revolution caused al-Daʿwa to come forward and recognize Imam Ruhollah Khomeini as the sole head of the "Islamic nation." The following year, when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, the headquarters of the movement was transferred to Teheran. Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was arrested by the Iraqi authorities and executed. Al-Daʿwa joined the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a gathering of the Iraqi opposition. In 1982 a Lebanese branch of the movement was created under the impetus of Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah.
SEE ALSO Fadlallah, Shaykh Muhammad Husayn;Hizb al-Daʿwa al-Islamiyya;Iran-Iraq War.