[3] When the Americans attacked extremists of the Ansar al-Islam group in March 2003, approximately two dozen soldiers loyal to Bapir were killed as well.

In 2016, Bapir participated in a discussion panel in Turkey and stated that “Turkey must stop oppressing the Kurds in the North” and that “the issue of the Muslim world is that they have let go of Islam and tradition to play by the rules of the Sykes Picot agreement in 1916 which has divided the nations along illegitimate borders.”[4] Shortly after the emergence of ISIS, Bapir released a series of books named "Denunciation of Extremism and Refutation of Extremist Ideas" in which he wrote that the teachings of Quran encourage tolerance and coexistence.

[5] When ISIS attacked the Kurdistan in 2015, Ali Bapir released a statement urging the people to defend the region, saying “Defending religious life, people, and land, is a religious obligation, for that reason I urge all of you to be completely prepared and to do whatever it takes to protect the [Kurdistan] region,”[6] On April 5, 2014, the Garmian Center for Referendum awarded Bapir a medal for his efforts in promoting reform and re-conciliation between the political parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

[11] Regardless of this public statement, in 2016, Mala Khidir Mustafa Younis, Chairman of the Fatwa Committee of the Union of Islamic Religious Scholars of Kurdistan, said that Ali Bapir had engaged in radicalizing numerous youth to join ISIS and fight against the Peshmerga.

[13] Ali Bapir and some of the members of Kurdistan Justice Group have refused to stand to the Kurdish national anthem on numerous occasions, which caused fierce debate and criticism against him and the political faction he represents.