Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The 1979–1980 Shia uprising in Iraq, also known as the First Sadr Uprising, took place as a followup to the Iranian Revolution (1978–1979) in neighbouring Iran, as the Shia Iraqi clerics vowed to overthrow Ba'athist Iraq, dominated by (secular) Sunni Muslims - specifically the Saddam Hussein family.
Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, a Shia Muslim, was Saddam's minister of foreign affairs from 1991 to 2001 and later information minister, until 2003. [99] Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's deputy was from the Shabak community —a small, quasi-Shiite sect. [ 79 ] In 1991, Saddam appointed Saadun Hammadi as the prime minister, a Shi'ite. [ 100 ]
One Sunni belief shared by Jordan's King Abdullah as well as his then Defense Minister Shaalan is that Shia numbers in Iraq were inflated by Iranian Shia crossing the border. [123] Shia scholar Vali Nasr believes the election turnout in summer and December 2005 confirmed a strong Shia majority in Iraq. [124]
Although Saddam initially promoted secularism and non-sectarianism, his rule saw sectarian violence. Iraq was ruled by a Sunni Arab elite, although Shias and Kurds were permitted to help build the nation provided that they made no trouble. [48] Saddam banned and suppressed Shia public displays of Tatbir, Ashura, and mourning of Muharram.
A national census has not been held since 1987. [4] In the 2020s, the country is overwhelmingly Muslim, who are split into two distinct sects, Shia and Sunni.Approximately 95% to 98% of the population are Muslims, with Shia Muslims constituting around 55%, and Sunnis around 40%.
As with other Shia rituals of Karbala, [31] the Arba'in pilgrimage was banned by Saddam Hussein, [32] who favored the Sunni minority in Iraq, [31] and viewed Shia rituals as a political threat. [32] The pilgrimage was revived immediately after his deposal in 2003 and that year's march to Karbala thus symbolized Shia defiance of Sunni regional ...
Iraqi Sunni Arabs were also the backbone of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist Iraq regime. [6] Nouri al-Maliki's Shia-led government repressed Sunnis, stressing the Sunni Arab tribes' favourable disposition towards the Islamic State, although they did not share the Salafist beliefs.
In 1980, when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, leading to the Iran-Iraq war, the Syrian Ba'ath chose to ally with Iran. This began a Syrian Ba'athist alliance with Shia Islamists, and an Iraqi Ba'athist alliance with the West and Sunni Islamists.