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
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.
...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.
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
Andersen, Roy, Robert F. Seibert, and Jon G. Wagner. Politics and change in the Middle East: sources of conflict and accommodation. 9th ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1982. Print.
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.
...hort period of ‘peace’ where tensions were rising. It was a stressful time in the history of the Middle East, yet there were no true wars during this time, and sadly, the area has not had much respite since.
The Sunni Shia conflict can trace its roots back to 632 C.E. when Muhammad died without clearly naming a successor to his budding Islamic empire (Egger 2004). The one group of Muslims felt that following the traditional path of election by consensus was the correct method. The only stipulation was it had to be a member from Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh. Another group of Muslims thought that Muhammad had designated Ali, his son-in-law, as his successor. In the end the tribes elected Abu-Bakr as the first caliph and his first act was to make sure the Arab empire stated intact following tribal revolts. Upon Abu-Bakr death Umar was appointed as caliph and once again Ali was passed over. When Umar died Uthman was elected as caliph furthering the resentment felt by those that felt Ali should be caliph. When Uthman was killed Ali was finally named caliph but he would n...
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 historical foundation of the split between the two sects of Islam happened in the 7th century on who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad. The Sunnis believed it should be the best-qualified leader. On the other hand, the Shiites believed Muhammad’s blood descendants were his rightful successors.
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.
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...
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
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.
Robinson, B.A. (2002, October 14). Islam: Is it a religion of violence or of peace.
“There is still no Iraqi people, only masses lacking any patriotic ideal, connected by no common tie, prone to anarchy and always ready to rise up against any government whatsoever”. This is how Emir Faisal, the King of Iraq in 1921 explained to people the difficulties of ruling the Middle Eastern country of Iraq. For thousands of years, Iraq has been engaged in an ongoing conflict with its neighbouring countries, western nations, or within its own society. The division of the Islamic faith to create the Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims has caused tension and oppression between the two religious groups. Paired with the pressure from the original Kurdish minority group to receive their own independence; Iraq is continuously struggling to unite its