Iraqi Shi'ites and Identity Conflict
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Iraqi Shi’ites and Identity Conflict: A Study in the Developments of their Religious-Political Identities From 1920-2003 Waleed K. Almasaedi Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In Political Science THESIS COMMITTEE: BETTINA KOCH, CHAIR ILJA LUCIAK ARIEL AHRAM December 16, 2020 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: (Shi’ite, Iraq, Identity, Nationalism, Religion) Copyright (©) Iraqi Shi’ites and Identity Conflict: A Study in the Developments of their Religious-Political Identities from 1920-2003 Waleed K. Almasaedi ABSTRACT The Iraqi Shi’ites’ revival post-2003 and the rise of communal identity make an increasing need to study the roots of their political identities. This study surveys literature written about the political behavior of Shi’ites at different historical eras in the 20th century (to be specific, from the 1920s to 2003). In this study, my aim is to evaluate, based on the collected evidence, the Shi’ites’ sense of identity during these historical eras, how they viewed themselves, and with whom they affiliated? Particularly, I delve into these research questions: Did the Shi’ites behave as a homogenous group? Did they have a single dominant identity that defines them as Shi’ite political identity? Did the political behavior of different Shi’ite Islamic groups originate from their religious and communal identities, or did it come from their national aspiration as Iraqis? I apply a history of political thought/ ideology approach, implementing critical historical hermeneutics. The analysis of the evidence indicates that Shi’ites show different senses of belonging at different historical eras and political events. The findings suggest that the communal and political identity was developed at a later stage of Iraq’s 20th-century history. It also shows the diverse identities Shi’ites have and how their political behavior differs according to these diverse identities. Iraqi Shi’ites and Identity Conflict: A Study in the Developments of their Religious-Political Identities from 1920-2003 Waleed K. Almasaedi GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT This thesis discusses the development of the Iraqi Shi’ites’ political and religious identities since the founding of the modern state in Iraq in 1921. It tackles three overlapping historical periods in which the Iraqi Shi’ites’ political identity crystallized and formed during these periods. The findings reveal that the Iraqi Shi’ites did not have a unified sectarian political identity, but they affiliated with multiple political entities and ideologies. The research suggests the absence of a unifying term to embrace Shi’ites’ political behavior, and the terminology “Shi’ite” or “Shi’ites” should not be generalized to encompass all Iraqi Shi’ites’ political behavior. Therefore, the sectarian Shi’ite political parties and groups that claim to represent the Shi’ites after 2003 still do not represent a broad spectrum of the Shi’ite society. IN MEMORY OF MY MOTHER iv v Table of Contents GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................. VIII INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... X CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................... 1 IRAQI SHI’ITES AND THE STRUGGLE TO FOUND THE INDEPENDENT IRAQ’S STATE ................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 HAWZA AND SOCIOPOLITICAL ROLE ................................................................................ 4 THE MUJTAHIDS AND THE STATE FOUNDING ................................................................... 7 THE SHI’ITES’ REACTION TO THE PLEBISCITE ................................................................ 10 THE SHI’ITES LEAD A REVOLUTION ............................................................................... 12 SHI’ITES, EDUCATION, AND FORGING NATIONAL IDENTITY ........................................... 17 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................ 27 THE SHI’ITE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT: GENESIS AND EVOLUTION ............... 27 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 27 THE SEARCH FOR A NATIONAL IDENTITY ...................................................................... 30 THE HAWZA AND SOCIAL PROTEST ............................................................................... 34 QASSIM’S SOCIAL REFORMS AND THE MUJTAHIDS’ OPPOSITION ................................... 38 THE CRUSADE AGAINST ATHEISM ................................................................................. 42 THE EMERGENCE OF AL-DA’WA ISLAMIC PARTY AND DEFENDING THE FAITH .............. 46 THE MAJA’ISM UNDER ‘ARIF’S PAN-ARABISM ............................................................. 49 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................................ 55 THE SHI’ITES UNDER BA’TH PARTY AND THE FORMATION OF THEIR POLITICAL IDENTITY ............................................................................................... 55 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 55 THE HAWZA UNDER THE FIRST BA’TH REGIME ............................................................. 57 TESTING POWER AND ESCALATION ................................................................................ 63 ONE NATION, MULTIPLE IDENTITIES ............................................................................. 69 RADICALIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT ............................................................. 70 THE ONE-WAY ROAD AND THE CONFRONTATION ......................................................... 72 ONE RELIGIOUS IDENTITY, ONE POLITICAL DESTINY .................................................... 77 ARABISM AND THE IRAQ-IRAN WAR ............................................................................. 80 ACROSS THE BORDERS ISLAMIST OPPOSITION ............................................................... 84 WITHERING ARABISM AND REVIVING SHI’ISM .............................................................. 85 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 89 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 91 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 96 vi Iraq map No. 3835, July 2014 Courtesy of United Nations Cartographic Section vii Glossary Awqaf: pious endowments Ayatollah: Sign of God,” title of a high-ranking Shi’ite cleric. Bint al-Huda: “Daughter of the Righteous Path,” public name of the Amina al-Sadr, Islamic scholar and sister of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr. Al-Da’wa: the call or invitation to believe in and defend Islam. Faqih: Muslim jurisprudent, expert in Islamic law. Fatwa: authoritative opinion based on religious law; religious injunction. Fayli Kurds: Kurds who are Shi’ite Muslims. Fellahin: Sharecroppers, peasant farmers. Hawza: center of Shi’ite religious education Hussainyya: a hole is essentially where Shi’ites commemorate the death of Imam Hussain. imam: in the root sense, “religious leader:” prayers leader in charge of mosque; (capitalized) religious leader invested with political authority. Intifada: an unarmed uprising or large public protest. Islamists: advocates of Islamic government. Khums: “one-fifth,” the annual portion of an individual’s increase in wealth that the Quran stipulates must be assigned to God and the needy. Mamluks: freed slaves (mainly Georgian, Circassian) in the Ottoman Empire who converted to Islam. Their elite officers succeeded asserting autonomy and ruled over Iraq in the 18th and the 19th centuries. Marja’: a religious authority consulted by other mujtahids, viii Mujtahid: cleric authorized to issue authoritative opinions on Islamic law: doctor of Islamic law (Wiley, 168-70). Sufar: the second month of the lunar year in the Islamic calendar. Wali (pl. Walis): governors ix Introduction The rise of Islamist Shi’ism and the revival of the Shi’ite identity/s in Iraq received wide attention and intrigued many researchers in the last few decades; a respectable amount of research has explored the Iraqi Shi’ites’ identity/s. Researchers have generally viewed Shi’ism as a unified political or communal identity. A noticeable portion of the literature inaccurately used Shi’ism as a political identity and addressed the Iraqi Shi’ites as a homogenous or monolithic entity (Yitzhak Nakash and Sherko Kirmanj). This thesis intends to study the developments of Iraqi Shi’ites’ communal and political identities from the early founding years of Iraq’s state to the fall of the Ba’th regime in 2003.