Sixty-three percent of Iraq’s population is Shia Muslim, thirty-three percent is Sunni Muslim (Lunde, 2002). For the past five centuries the minority, Sunni Muslims, have held political power in Iraq. It was not until recently that the majority, the Shia Muslims, was able to experience political power. The tensions between Sunni and Shia in Iraq are not due to religious differences formed after Muhammad’s death 1,382 years ago and are not inevitable, as proven by the relationships between Sunni and Shia in other countries and in the past (Shuster, 2011). The state of unrest surrounding the Sunni and Shia Muslims of Iraq is due to politics, power, and privilege, caused by the change of attitude in Islamic leaders in government and the discrimination of the Shia by the Sunni minority. This has been partly due to the fact that early in their history Shias were not the majority and therefore lost political power. This unbalance and the differences between the two sects are most unstable and evident during times of political unrest (Hunter, n.d).
Islam was broken into two different sects immediately following Muhammad’s death; this was due to arguments surrounding whether or not he had named a successor. These two sects were the Shia and Sunni. The Shia believed that leadership of the Muslim community should stay with in the prophet’s family and therefore believed Ali, Muhammad’s son in law, to be the rightful leader of the Muslim world. The Sunni believed that this honor and responsibility should be given to someone deemed responsible to lead the community by the community. The Sunni’s large numbers won this debate and they chose the first caliph. This was the first and not the last time the Sunni would be in political power. Ali wo...
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... events that are thought to have caused an expansion of Sunni and Shia tensions (focusing on the 1980's) and the actions that were taken in order to monitor and fix these conflicts.
Shuster, M. (2011, February 12). Chronology: A History of the Shia-Sunni Split. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7280905
Kedar, D. M. (2013, November 21). The Most Deadly Middle East Conflict is Shia vs.Sunni. Retrieved November 21, 2013, from Arutz Sheva: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14132#.UpKiB6UrzWU
MANJI, I. (2006, August 13). Muslim Against Muslim. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/books/review/Manji.t.html?_r=0
Religion Library: Shia Islam. (2008). Retrieved November 7, 2013, from Patheos LIbrary : http://www.patheos.com/Library/Shia-Islam.html
The first man, named Abu Bakr, many people believed he was a good candidate because he was an old friend and was one of the first ones to convert to Islam. Yet others believed that Ali Talib was the best choice because he was a cousin and a son-in-law to the prophet. The disputes between the two groups of people would lead to a split; the followers of Abu Bark became the Sunnis and the followers of Ali became the Shia. In the end, the majority of people decided to choose Abu Bark and he became Islam’s first caliph. Abu Bark was Muhammad’s caliph for only two years until he died; even though it was a short period of time, he accomplished big things.
Rivkin, David B., Jr., and Lee A. Casey. "The New Iraqi Constitution." The Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation, 16 Sept. 2005. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
Have you ever wondered about other religions that are out there and why they are out there? I have and that is why I chose to write my paper on the Sunnis and Shiites. Read on to learn more about a brief history and then I will break each of them into separate religions.
The division between Shia and Sunni dates back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and the question of who was to take over the leadership of the Muslim nation. Sunni Muslims agree with the position taken by many of the Prophet's companions, that the new leader should be elected from among those capable of the job. This is what was done, and the Prophet Muhammad's close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, bec...
In a bid to explain the role of Saddam Hussein in ending the Lebanese civil war that began in 1975 to 1990, this research will explore the role of Lebanese consociationalism political system, the external involvement and interest of nations such as Israel, Iran, and Syria. The interplay between power seekers permeated a room for the civil conflict as opposed to creating political stability in the country. Iraq, under the leadership of President Saddam sought to exercise greater control in the Middle East, an aspect that predisposed it to conflict with its neighbors (Burns 127). On the other end, the position of Arab nations against the Zionist nation influenced Israelis stand against the internal strife in Lebanon. To Israel, the instability in Lebanon was a great threat to its peace because of the infiltration of military invasion from the Lebanese border. Thus, at one end, Israel had to defend its territory by supporting the Maronite faction, which fought against the Shiite and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which were threat to Israel. President Saddam attempted to exert control in Middle East by weakening its arch rivals.
Nasr, Vali. "When the Shiites Rise." JSTOR. JSTOR, 12 Aug. 2006. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
...hrain and Iraq (making up 60% of the population). There are also large communities of Shia Muslims along the east coast of Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. However, Sunni Muslims make up the majority (85%) of Muslims worldwide. Due to the fact that many Shi’a occupied areas in these countries happened to hold large supplies of oil, Sunni Muslims became bitter towards the Shi’as, and due to the differences in their beliefs the divide was widened, causing conflict between the two sects.
Iraq’s history is one of both prosperity and violence, and dates back to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. While dominated by a variety of civilizations, the region enjoyed a relatively stable society. Since the birth of Islam, the religion has been the dominant cultural belief of the region, and has made its way into the laws and ruling of the region. (InDepth Info, 2010)
Robinson, B.A. (2002, October 14). Islam: Is it a religion of violence or of peace.
Sørli, Mirjam, Nils Gleditsch, and Håvard Strand. "Why Is There so Much Conflict in the Middle East? ." The Journal of Conflict Resolution 49.1 (2005): 141-165. JSTOR. Web. 8 June 2011.
Gerner, Deborah J., and Philip A. Schrodt. "Middle Eastern Politics." Understanding the contemporary Middle East. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008. 85 -136. Print.
Throughout the history of Iraq the Shia and Sunni debate has been long and devastating for the Shia community. The Shias repeatedly suffered “indirect and direct persecution from the Iraqi government, Ba’ath Party rule, and during the Saddam Hussein administration.” ("Shia–Sunni relations") During this time it was reported that every Shia family in Iraq had tales of torture and murder to recount. “In 1969 the son of Iraq's highest Shia Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakin was arrested and tortured and from 1979-1983 Saddam's regime executed forty eight major Shia clerics in Iraq.” ("Shia–Sunni relations") Under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni Muslim minority was favored and the religious peace was upheld through terrorization. With the fall of Saddam, the religious conflict came to a head. “The Shia Muslim majority took control of the government and effectively forced the Sunni Muslim population out. The Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki targeted the Sunnis by raiding their towns, arresting their people and banning all Sunnis from government and security positions.
The original split between Sunnis and Shiites occurred soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, in the year 632. According to Augustus Norton, author of Hezbollah: A Short History, There was a dispute in the community of Muslims in present-day Saudi Arabia over the question of succession that is to say, who is the rightful successor to the prophet? The majority of Prophet Muhammad 's followers encouraged the large community of Muslims to determine who would become his successor. Accordingly to Gregory Gause a group of Shia Muslims believed that someone from Muhammad’s family should become the new Prophet. In the early years of Islamic history, the Shia had been just a movement known as the Shiat Ali or the Party of Ali. They claimed that
The Iraqi Kurds make up seventeen percent of Iraq’s population primarily located in northern Iraq. In 1946, Mustafa Barzani established the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Baghdad, a splinter group of the PDKI, which currently maintains influence in both Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan. The KDP seeks to form a system of equal rights and freedom amongst all Kurdish people; however, they exhibit tribal and aristocratic party inclinations controlled by the Barzani tribe (Al-Nuaimi, Politics of Kurdistan, 1). During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980’s, Saddam’s regime worked with the Iranian Kurds to inflict further damage on the advancing Iranian military. Towards the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam shifted focus to the Iraqi Kurds. The Anfal
Iraq was a part of the Persian Empire when the prophet Mohammed died in 632 CE. Soon after his death, the Arabs burst out of Arabia and converted many of the original Kurdish population to Islam. The division of the Muslim faith came about in 656 CE when an argument over who should lead Islam occurred. Two different leaders were chosen, and the Sunni and Shi’ite Islam groups were formed. (King, 2006). The Shi’ites faith is practiced more often in Iraq; with 63% of them are Shi’ite and 20% of them being Sunni. The remaining 17% are the original Kurdish community who consider themselves separate to the Arabs and speak their own language; however, the majority of them practice the Sunni Islam faith. (Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, 2014). For years the different ethnic and religious groups in Iraq have been dysfunctional and unable to unite as a nation in Iraq. The Kurdish community in particular resents the Iraqi government, and longs for their own independent nation known as Kurdistan. These groups found it increasingly difficult to unify during the time when the dictator Saddam Hussein, who was a Sunni Muslim, became the president of Iraq in 1979, and engaged Iraq in several conflicts that forced many people to flee from persecution. (BBC News,