During the PUK insurgency in the late 1970s, Sheikh al-Kasnazani organised a militia that fought on the side of the Iraqi government against the Kurdish peshmerga.
[1][2] He established the order in Baghdad, becoming involved in the oil trade and close to senior Baath Party leader (and fellow Sufi) Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.
In advance of the 2003 invasion of Iraq led by the United States, Sheikh Kasnazani was reported to have been paid millions of US Dollars by the CIA for information and was nicknamed by then "the pope".
Most Sunni Arabs boycotted the election, but Nehru Kasnazani led a list called the Coalition for Iraqi National Unity.
[7] Prior to the 2010 general election, the Accountability and Justice Committee barred the CINU from running due to links to the Baath Party of former president Saddam Hussein.