Iraq
Over its long history, Iraq has been both a center of cosmopolitan civilization and a site of sectarian conflict. Baghdad was the intellectual capital of the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age between the 8th and 13th centuries. During much of its history, it hosted a vibrant and religiously diverse population, including substantial numbers of Jews and Christians. By the late 18th century, the majority of the population had converted from Sunni to Shi’a Islam, creating a sectarian divide that persists to this day. The Arab Sunni minority exerted political dominance under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein (1979-2003), with Hussein persecuting Shi’as and the Kurds of northern Iraq. Since U.S.-led forces ousted Hussein in a 2003 invasion, Shi’as and Sunnis have vied for control through both electoral competition and violence. Iraq’s Constitution establishes Islam as the official religion of the democratic state and requires that no law contradict Islam. Religious freedom is also guaranteed, though sectarian violence effectively restricts its exercise, particularly for minority faiths.
ESSAYS ON IRAQ
Early Mesopotamian and Islamic Civilizations
Mesopotamia was home to some of humanity’s earliest great civilizations, including the Chaldeans, whose King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BCE and sent the Jews into the Babylonian Captivity. The religious practices of these early empires included pantheons of gods and local cults devoted to individual deities. Rulers frequently held both political and religious authority. Rule by foreigners began in the fifth century BCE, leaving the area with a diverse cultural heritage from the Persians, Greeks, Parthians, Romans, and Sassanids. When Muslim Arabs invaded Mesopotamia in 634 CE, they quickly routed Sassanid forces. Formative events in Islam’s development took place in Iraq when Ali, the fourth caliph and the Prophet’s nephew, was murdered at Kufa in 661, and his son Hussein was defeated by Umayyad forces at Karbala in 680. The burial places of the two remain important pilgrimage sites for Shi’a Muslims. During the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258), Baghdad was the center of Islamic power and civilization. The Sunni Abbasid caliphs gradually lost power to Turkic invaders, first the Buyids and then the Seljuks, who maintained the caliphate for the legitimacy it gave them. Baghdad, Basra, and other centers declined in influence after the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258, and Baghdad was decimated under another sack in 1401 by Timur. Iraq was then caught between the two great powers on either side of it: the Shi’a Safavids and the Sunni Ottomans fought a series of conflicts over Baghdad and Iraq’s holy sites until the region ultimately came under Ottoman control in the seventeenth century.
British Control and the Monarchy
When Mamluk governors gained autonomy from the Ottoman throne in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an organic, widespread conversion of Sunnis to Shi’ism began under the cultural and economic influence of Iraq’s Shi’a holy cities. Though the central Ottoman government managed to reassert its authority by 1831, the conversions continued through the early 20th century, creating a Shi’a-majority state. The rise of Turkish nationalism around the turn of the twentienth century stoked the development of Iraqi nationalism and demands for autonomy. During World War I (1914-1918), Britain invaded Iraq to protect its interests in Iran and India. At the war’s end, Iraq was made a British mandate despite previous assurances that the British intended to hand control back to the Arabs. Shi’a and Sunni nationalists formed secret societies to oppose foreign rule, and, in 1920, the Great Iraqi Rebellion led to months of violence against the British. The British quelled the uprising and installed a monarchy under the Sunni King Faisal (1921-1933), who sought to improve Shi’a-Sunni relations and secured Iraq’s nominal independence from Britain in 1932, though the UK would continue its support of and influence upon the Iraqi monarchy. Iraq’s involvement in the 1948 war with Israel led to the emigration of most Iraqi Jews to the new country. In 1958, King Faisal II (1939-1958) agreed to join with his cousin, King Hussein of Jordan, to form the Arab Union as a counterweight to the Egyptian-Syrian United Arab Republic.
Saddam Hussein and Recent Developments
In July 1958, the monarchy was ousted and Iraq was declared a republic. A series of coups and struggles for power among communists, nationalists, and pan-Arabists dominated the next two decades. The secular Ba’ath party rose to prominence in a 1963 coup. Despite being an avowedly secular party, the Ba’ath party’s population-reflective Shi’a majority dwindled to 6 percent within five years of taking power as Shi’as increasingly turned to the ulema for leadership. By 1979, Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Ba’athist, had consolidated power as president. The same year, Iran’s Islamic Revolution disrupted Hussein’s attempts to stabilize the country by heightening tensions between Shi’a and Sunni Iraqis. Hussein’s subsequent 1980 invasion of Iran launched the Iran-Iraq War, which lasted until 1988 and cost half a million lives on both sides. Defying Sunni fears, Iraq’s Shi’as supported their country against the Iranians during the war. In 1990, Hussein invaded Kuwait, which prompted U.S. involvement in what became the Persian Gulf War. After its defeat, Iraq spent the next thirteen years under crippling UN sanctions. In March 2003, operating under the belief that Hussein was acquiring weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. invaded Iraq and quickly toppled the Ba’athist regime. Since 2003, Iraq has struggled with overlapping conflicts between Shi’as and Sunnis, Arabs and Kurds, and a guerilla insurgency against the occupying US troops. Religious leaders have been central both to promoting and condemning violence and to the establishment of a new Iraqi government that includes representation for all of Iraq’s religious and ethnic groups.
Contemporary Affairs
Iraq’s fledgling democracy remains plagued by political divisions and insurgent groups, including both Sunni and Shi’a militant organizations. The country held elections in 2010, reappointing Shi’a Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq’s Prime Minister after months of political conflict and violence over electoral results. U.S. combat troops, present since the 2003 invasion, completed their withdrawal from Iraq on August 19, 2010. The U.S. military declared an official end to its mission in Iraq in December 2011, though the U.S. still operates two bases and maintains a 4,000-member force in the country. Violence and sectarian political conflict have increased following the U.S. withdrawal, potentially setting the country on a course toward a full-blown civil war. In December 2011, Shi’a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded new elections for Parliament, signaling divisions within Iraq’s Shi’a population. In early 2012, Sunni leaders temporarily boycotted Parliament after al-Maliki ousted Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, on charges of terrorism. In February 2012, an Iraqi court asserted that al-Hashimi had led a death squad that conducted 150 attacks over six years. Al-Hashimi has fled to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq and maintains his innocence. Iraq’s relationship with Iran remains a source of concern for American policymakers, as al-Maliki’s government maintains ties with Iranian leaders.
Religious Freedom in Iraq
Iraq’s constitutional guarantee of religious freedom has done little to control sectarian violence, with the government and military lacking the capacity to thwart attacks by sectarian insurgents. Islam is the state religion and no legislation may contradict its tenets, though the Iraqi Constitution grants all citizens the right to freedom of belief. However, while these freedoms exist on paper, they have been difficult to exercise in practice. Shi’a living in Sunni neighborhoods, Sunni living in Shi’a neighborhoods, and non-Muslims living across the country regularly receive death threats forcing them to leave their homes. The vast majority of people killed in sectarian attacks are Shi’a, who are targeted by Sunni extremist groups like al-Qaeda in Iraq. In 2006, Sunni militants bombed the al-Askari Mosque, one of Shi’a Islam’s most sacred sites, leading to an extended period of Shi’a-Sunni violence. In early 2012, 132 Shi’a pilgrims died in separate bombings during the Shi’a holiday of Arbaeen. Non-Muslims report systematic discrimination, especially regarding employment opportunities, and are frequently victims of sectarian violence. The resulting emigration has halved Iraq’s Christian population since 2003. In October 2010, terrorists killed 53 people in an attack on Sayidat al-Najat, a Syriac Catholic Church. The Sabean-Mandaean community has dwindled to 10 percent of its 2003 population, and many Yazidi and Shabaks have also fled. A 2007 attack that killed over 300 Yazidi was among the worst acts of violence against civilians since 2003. Minority groups complain that authorities rarely arrest or prosecute the perpetrators of attacks on non-Muslims.
Religion in the Iraqi Constitution
On October 15, 2005, 79 percent of Iraqis who voted in their country’s constitutional referendum supported the constitution, allowing it to be accepted as law. The constitution begins with a traditional acknowledgement of God, and Article 2 declares Islam as the religion of the state and the fundamental source of legislation that no other law can contradict. Article 2 also provides for freedom of religion, and Article 41 allows for the unrestricted practice of religion and management of religious affairs. Additionally, Article 29 states that the family is the foundation of society and that the state will protect its moral and religious values. The United States and Great Britain praised the landmark demonstration of democracy, yet observers note that the constitution fails to address key issues such as federalism, the role of Islam in the state, and how oil revenues will be distributed. Iraqi Sunnis have criticized the constitution the most passionately, as they have accused the government of election fraud and have rejected the constitution entirely.
Article 2: Religion and State
First: Islam is the official religion of the State and it is a fundamental source of legislation:
A. No law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established.
B. No law that contradicts the principles of democracy may be established.
C. No law that contradicts the rights and basic freedoms stipulated in this constitution may be established.
Second: This Constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and guarantees the full religious rights of all individuals to freedom of religious belief and practice such as Christians, Yazedis, and Mandi Sabeans.
Article 3: Arab and Islamic Identity of Iraq
Iraq is a country of many nationalities, religions and sects and is a founding and active member of the Arab League and is committed to its covenant. Iraq is a part of the Islamic world.
Article 10: Religious Places
The holy shrines and religious places in Iraq are religious and cultural entities. The State is committed to confirming and safeguarding their sanctity, and guaranteeing the free practice of rituals in them.
Article 14: Equality Before the Law
Iraqis are equal before the law without discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, origin, color, religion, creed, belief or opinion, or economic and social status.
Article 29: The Family
A. The family is the foundation of society; the State preserves its entity and its religious, moral and patriotic values.
B. The State guarantees the protection of motherhood, childhood and old age and shall care for children and youth and provides them with the appropriate conditions to further their talents and abilities. ...
Article 35: The Liberty and Dignity of Man
First:
A. The liberty and dignity of man are safeguarded.
B. No person may be kept in custody or interrogated except in the context of a judicial decision.
C. All forms of psychological and physical torture and inhumane treatment shall be prohibited. Any confession coerced by force, threat, or torture shall not be relied on. The victim shall have the right to compensation in accordance with the law for material and moral damages incurred.
Second: The State guarantees the protection of the individual from intellectual, political and religious coercion. ...
Article 39: Freedom of Religion
Iraqis are free in their commitment to their personal status according to their religions, sects, beliefs, or choices. This shall be regulated by law.
Article 41: Freedom of Worship
First: The followers of all religions and sects are free in the:
A. Practice of religious rites, including the Husseini ceremonies (Shiite religious ceremonies)
B. Management of the endowments, its affairs and its religious institutions. The law shall regulate this.
Second: The state guarantees freedom of worship and the protection of the places of worship.
