Affiliation: In between Kurdish and Islamists

Abstract

Do the Kurdish Islamists in southern Kurdistan affiliate with their nation or religion. This type of affiliation is one of the current problems faced in southern Kurdistan, and it requires more attention in order to clarify its future. This issue must be approached tentatively to prevent assumptions around the conflict between those who are carrying one of these two affiliations. To approach the appropriate answer to this problem, some questions need to be raised: do the followers of the ideology of political Islam belong to Kurdishness, Islamism, both, or none of them? Is the tendency of their purpose to affiliate with their Kurdishness or their Islamism? In order to answer these questions, two different overlapping methods have been used. The first is to monitor the Facebook profiles of a group ofpeople affiliated with Islamic parties or those who sympathise with Islamism. The second method isto send a questionnaire to those whose profile has been monitored. The participants are considered tobe Salafists, members of the Islamic parties in Kurdistan, or Islamist sympathisers. The research willmonitor the proportion of national and religious cohesion, in addition to the attitudes and the levelof involvement and detachment of these people, from the experience of the political authority in theKurdistan region. This will be done through the questionnaire, and through examining the importanceof subjects shared on the Facebook profiles monitored for a period of more than one month. The aimis to show whether they desire to change the political system in the Kurdistan region and, if so, what.methods they are pursuing, and whether they are likely to resort to violence or democratic methods