The only sign that Sunni-majority Mosul's newest and busiest marketplace is...
MOSUL, Iraq - The only sign that Sunni-majority Mosul’s newest and busiest marketplace is in Shi’ite Muslim hands is a small plaque in the office of its leaseholder from Baghdad.
Iraq’s second city, once a recruitment center for Sunni officers in Saddam Hussein’s army, became an al Qaeda hotbed after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled the dictator, and later the base from where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in 2014. Shi’ite paramilitary groups deny accusations by local officials that they provide at least the implied threat of force to back up Shi’ite claims of land ownership.
It comes at a time when Iran has been expanding its influence in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, while asserting its readiness to take on its Saudi and U.S. enemies. Iraq’s Shi’ite endowment office - a government body that administers religious sites and real estate - is using legal recourse, incentives and influence to invest in several areas of Mosul, according to local authorities, business owners, investors and documents seen by Reuters.“We sometimes worry that armed force will be used, by either side,” said Mosul Mayor Zuheir al-Araji.
The Sunni endowment says it owns all state religious land in Mosul including sites claimed by Shi’ites. But the battle over legal ownership of areas claimed by both sects is intractable. A complex legal process for solving disputes favors those with power, analysts say.In the past year, the Shi’ite endowment issued notices asserting ownership of several sites in Mosul that it had long claimed, handing leases for attached commercial areas to investors.
Last year, Muhsin began leasing the deserted site opposite the tomb of Nabi Yunis , which was destroyed by IS. He rents it out to local traders, and showed papers from city authorities letting him do so. But behind paperwork and lower rent there is the implied threat of force, said Kanaan and shopowners in another area the Shi’ite endowment claimed last month.
Harith Hasan, an Iraq expert at the Carnegie Middle East Centre, said the Shi’ite endowment “often reinforces its guardianship not only through the legal process but also by allying with groups that are present on the ground.” The ministry disbanded after 2003, replaced by separate Shi’ite and Sunni endowment offices. When a mosque or shrine is claimed by both, a committee with representatives from both sides must decide. It often cannot, leaving decisions pending and benefiting whoever has sway in courts or on the ground.
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