understanding the behavior of shi'a and sunni muslims

AnthroNotes Volume 30 No.

1

Spring 2009

UNDERSTANDING THE BEHAVIOR OF SHI'A AND SUNNI MUSLIMS

IN IRAQ IS COMPLICATED

by

William

0.

Beeman

The

American

news

media

oftenshowsthecause

of

^{conflictinIraqas theresult}

of

^{tensionbetweenShia}

andSunni Muslim

communities. This ideaisfar^toosimpletoexplain thefightingbetweenthevariouscommunitiesinIraq.Both communities

—

Shia

and

theSunni

—

aredividedintoregionalpolitical

and

historicalsub-groups.Onlyby understanding

how

theseindividualgroupsview

and

interactwith eachothercantherealsource

of

theinternalIraqiconflictbeseen.

Introduction: Mythologies about

Iraqi

Ethnicity

M

^"any

Americans have come

toseeethnicconflict as largely self-explanatory,

needing no

further analysis. Ethnic

groups

co-existing in

any

given statearefrequentlyseenasnaturallyadversarial.

This

ises- peciallytrue in Iraq,

where

the conflict

between

various groupsisfrequentlyportrayedasnaturalorinevitable.

Iraqis

an

artificialnationcreated

by

the Britishat the

end of World War

I out

of

three

former Ottoman Empire

Provinces

—

^Basra,

Baghdad and Mosul. The

na- tion

was

held together

by

the British

Army under

a British installed

monarchy. The monarchs were

non-Iraqi

Arabian Kings —

descendants

of

theSharif(chief religiousauthor-

ity)

of Mecca —

^until

^both

^the

^{King and}

the British

were overthrown

in1958.

The

nation^is a

patchwork of

ethnicgroups.Ar- abs, Kurds, Assyrian

(sometimes

called

Chaldean)

Chris-

tians,

Turkmen, and

Iranians constitutethelargest

commu-

nities.Cross cutting thesegroups area

number of

reli- giousfaithgroups:

Sunni and

Shi'a

Muslim,

Christian,

Druze, Mandean

(also

known

as

Sabean

orSabian)

and

a

former

large

Jewish commu-

nity.

Combin-

ing ethnicity

and

religiousaffiliation,

we

see

many

dif-

'---.

-•

Border of modern Iraq

ferentpossiblegroups. Inactualfact,however,the

domi- nant groups

in Iraq

today

are

Sunni

Kurds,

Sunni Arabs and

Shi'aArabs,

some of whom

are

of

Iranian ancestry.

The Kurds

are

not

Arabs.

They

speak

an Indo-European

languagerelated to Persian.

Though most Kurds

are

Sunni Muslims,

a minority

of Kurds

are Shi'a.

This makes

the Sunni/Shi'asplitinthestateparticularly

important

asIraq

works

outitsdifferences interms

of power and

authority.

IntheU.S. Pressthesegroupsareoftenportrayed insimplistic,monolithicterms. Infact,thereisconsider- able divisionwithineach

of

these

communities. This

divi- sionis

one of

theprincipalreasons thatIraqileaders

have had

adifficulttime forgingaunified

governmental

system sincethefall

of Saddam

Hussein.

Shi'a

and Sunni

Both

Shi'a

and Sunni communities

have complicated

com-

positionswith sub-groupsthathavedifferenthistories

and

cultural

makeup.

The

Shi'a

com- munity has been

present in Iraq since theearliestdays

of

Is- lam.

The

earliestShi'a believers

were

thus Arabs.

The term

Shi'a derives

from

theAra- bicphrase:shidtAli

—

partisans

of

Ali.

This

reflects the belief in the

community

that the leadership

of Islam should

pass

through

Basra

•

h

\

'~x-..-

Page 13

AnthroNotes Volume 30 No.

1

Spring 2009

thebloodline

of

the

Prophet Mohammad. Because

the largelyorganizedinto tribal

groups and occupy

a largegeo-

Prophet had no

sons,the Shi'a believe thatAli, hisson- graphical area south

and

west

of Baghdad.

in-law

and

cousin,

should

be considered hissuccessor.

The Ottoman

Empire,

founded by

Turks

from Cen- The

Sunni,

by

contrast,accept the leadershipof

Abu

Bakr, tralAsiain 1499,

was

thoroughly Sunni.

The Ottomans

ruled

Omar and 'Uthman

as the first three "caliphs"

of

the over present

day

Iraq,

and

generally repressed the

Arabs

liv- faith. Aliisaccepted

by

Sunnisasthefourthcaliph, but ingthere.Originally thesetribes

were

Sunni.

afterAli's death, the

communities

diverge again.

The At some

pointinthe 19^th Century, theindigenous Sunnis recognizedthe

Umayyid

line,basedin

Damascus, Arabs

in the southern Basra Province

began

to convert in

and

the Shi'athedescendants

of

Ali. large

numbers

to Shi'ism.

The

reasons are

somewhat

ob- AfterAli'sdeath, the conflict

between

the

two

scure,butashistorian

Juan Cole

writes:

communities

resulted in the

martyrdom of

Ali's son, "In theeighteenth

and

nineteenthcenturies,

many

Hossein.

He was

killed

by Umayyid

forces at Kerbala tribespeople

of

thesouth convertedto theShi'ite

branch of

nearpresent-day

Baghdad. The

shrine

of Hossein

^is in Islam,

under

theinfluenceofmissionaries sentout

from

the Kerbala.

His

father, Ali, is buriedin Najaf,

and

hisde- shrinecities

of Najaf and

Karbala....

This

tribalconversion scendants

—

^the

^{Imams of}

^Shi'ism

—

^{areburiedinother}

^movement

^{appears to}

^{have been}

^{a protest}

^of

^the

^weak,

^a

sacredcities

throughout

present

day

Iraq(exceptforthe

way of

usingreligion toresistthe

power of

the

Sunni Otto-

seventh

Imam,

Reza,

who

^is buriedin

Mashhad,

Iran),

man

bureaucracy.

Over

^{time, it}created aShi'itemajorityin All of these cities are pilgrimage sites for

members of what was

to

become

Iraq(Cole 2003:544-45. Seealso

Nakash

theShi'a

community.

2003:312)."

Shi'ismspread

throughout

the Islamic

world

to

Many of

thetribal

and

ruralconvertstoShi'ismare

many

ethnic groups

—

^{otherArabs, Iranians}

^(who

^{are not}particularlyfervent intheirbeliefs,

and

theyare definitely

Indo-European, and

not Arab), Turks,

and Muslims

in differentin their political

and

socialorientation

from

the ur- India.In theseventeenthcentury,therulers

of

the Safavid banizedShi'ainthe shrinecities.

Empire

in Iran

made

Shi'ismthestatereligion.

This

is

Shi'a Diversity

why

today there are

more

Iranian Shi'a believers than

from any

other ethnicgroup.

Over

the years

many

Iranians settled inthe shrine cities

of

Iraq,

and eventually spoke Arabic

as their

mother

tongue.

The

shrinecities,particu- larlyNajaf,havebe-

come centers of

Shi'alearningaswell aspilgrimage.

However,

there has

been an

indigenouspopula- tion

of Sunni Arabs

in

the region of

southern Iraq since the

beginnings of

Islam

.

They

are _i

man

AliShrineinNajaf.Photocourtesy William

Beeman

There

are

important

divisions

among

the Iraqi Shi'athat

have been hard

for

Americans —

^espe-

cially

American

poli- ticians

and

military leaders

—

^tounder-

stand.

Some of

the

main

divisionsare:

1.

Non-Religious

Shi'a

These

are Shi'a

community mem-

bers

who worked

closely

with mem-

ber

of

the

Bush

ad- ministrationinthe

invasion of

Iraq.

(Council on

For-

eign Relations

2003).

This group

Page 14

AnthroNotes Volume 30 No.

1

Spring 2009

ishighlyeducated

and

feelstheyshould beleading the nation,but they havelim- itedpublicsupport.

2. Religious Shi'a

Shi'a

Muslims

chooseareligious leader, calledanAyatollah,

which means

"reflec- tion

of God,"

tobetheirpersonalspiri- tualleader.

There

arevery

few of

these

men

inthe Shi'aworld,

and

theyarevery learned.

The

principalShi'aleaderinIraq todayisAyatollahAlial-Sistani.

3. Revolutionaryreligiousforces

These

individuals areanxioustoestab- lishShi'a rule

throughout

Iraq,

and

are willing to

confront Sunni Muslims, Kurds and

other

more moderate

Shi'a toachievetheiraims.

The

principalfig-

ureis

Muqtada

al-Sadr,virtuallythelast

remaining mem-

berof anhistorically

prominent

clericalfamily

whose

leaders havelargely

been

assassinated.

This group

^ispolitically ac- tive,nottied toreligious leaders,

and

difficulttocontrol.

4.RuralShi'a

These

are peopleliving in ruralvillages.

These were

the

former

S unnis

mentioned above who

convertedto Shi'a Islaminthe1

9

thCentury.

They

arenotactive politically

and

arenotespecially religious.

Sunni Diversity

The Sunni community

isequallydivided.

Some of

thedi- visionsare:

KurdishmerchantsinthecityofDahuk,Iraq.Photocourtesy William

Beeman.

try,

such

as

Anbar

Province.

They

believe they

have

the right to rulethe country.

They were

in

power from

1

979

until

Saddam Hussein was

deposed.

They

livein

poor

ar- eas

of

thecountry

where

thereis

no

oil.

They

foughtagainst the

United

States after

Saddam Hussein was removed from power

because they^feltthat

Americans wanted

Shi'a

Mus-

lims to ruleIraq.

3.Non-Religious Sunnis

This group mostly

livesin

Baghdad and

otherlargecities.

These were

the old rulers

of

the

country from 1920

to 1958.

The

Britishfeltcomfortablewiththem,

and saw

that they

were

installedin

government

posts.

They

largelyoc-

cupy

the

few

non-Shi'a offices in the

new

Iraqi govern-

ment. Many were

active in the non-religiousBa'athpoliti- cal party,

which encompassed

Christiansaswell as

Mus-

lims.

1.

The Kurds

The Kurds

in the

North, who

are, as

mentioned

above,

not Arabs, are

now

almost

independent from

therest

of

_4.Tribal

Groups

Iraq,

and have

littleor

no

interest intheother

Sunni com- _There

_{arestilldozens}

_of

_active

_Sunni

_{tribesin Iraq,}

_headed

munities.

As mentioned

above,

some

areeven Shi'a,

and _by

_{hereditarysheikhs}

and

livinginrural areas.

Accommo-

theyarenotparticularlyreligious.

They

willresistfiercely

d

ati

ng

t

h

ese

groups was

seen

by

the Britishasthe

key

fac- being ruled

by any

factionofthe

Arab

population. _tor

j

n

ruli

ng

iraq^.

Some

Britishadministratorsreportedly

knew

everytribe

and

every

Sheikh by name.

2.TheTakritis

These

are the

Sunni Arabs who had

ruled Iraq

under Saddam

Hussein,

and who came from

the

town of

Takrit, Saddam'sbirthplace,

and

other

Western

areas

of

the

coun-

Poge 15

AnthroNotes Volume 30 No.

1

Spring 2009

Internal Differences

When we

^lookatthese "religious"

groups and

their inter- ests, it is easy to seethat thebasis forthemotivations

of

theiractions isnot uniform.

Some groups

are

motivated by

personal familyhistory.

Others

are

motivated by

the idea thattheyshould continuetorulebecause they

were

in

power

inthepast.Stillothers are

motivated by

religion.

Politicians frequentlybelieve that

members of

a

group

^willall

behave

inthe

same

way.

Many Middle

East- ern people

do

notlike this belief.

They

callthis attitude

"Orientalist."

They

are right to feel thatthis

view

istoo simple.

The

U.S.militaryinIraqhas

had

greatdifficulty in dealingwithbothShi'a

and Sunni communities

largelybe- cause they have not

looked

closelyat the different sub-

communities

within each group.Itis

important

tounder- standthat there is alot

of

difference in behavior within Shi'a

and Sunni

groups.

An

anthropological

approach

is very helpful in

making

clear

why

peoplehavethe attitudes

and

behaviors theydo,based

on

thenature

of

their

community and

their pasthistories.Anthropologists

examine

individual

commu-

nitiesinnationslikeIraqwithcare,usingethnographictech- niquesthat

make

the actions of these different

communi-

ties

and sub-communities more

understandable.

References

Cole,JuanRicardo.2003.

The

UnitedStatesandShi'iteReligious FactionsinPost-Ba'thistIraq. TheMiddleEastJournal57^{A):

543-566.

CouncilonForeignRelations.2003.

A

Conversationwith

Ahmad

Chalabi.CouncilonForeign Relations.

Dodge,Toby.2003.Inventing Iraq:TheFailureofNation-Building

and

aHistoryDenied.ColumbiaUniversityPress.

Dodge,Toby, StevenSimon,andInternationalInstitute for Stra- tegicStudies.2003.Iraq attheCrossroads:State

and

Society in theShadow ofRegime Change.Vol. 354. OxfordUniversity Pressforthe InternationalInstituteforStrategic Studies.

Fuller,

Graham

E.,and

Rend Rahim

Francke. 1999. TheArabShi'a:

TheForgottenMuslims.St.Martins^Press.

Marr, Phebe.2004. The

Modern

Historyof^Iraq.

2nd

ed.Westview

Press.

Nakash,Yitzhak.2003. TheShi'isof^Iraq: With a

New

Introduction bytheAuthor. PrincetonUniversityPress.

Polk,William Roe. 2005. UnderstandingIraq:The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History,fromGenghis Khan'sMongolstotheOttomanTurks to the British

Mandate

totheAmerican Occupation. 1sted.

HarperCollins.

William

O.

Beeman

isprofessor

of

anthropology atthe

Uni-

versity

of

^Minnesota.

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