Preface

A month before the January 2005 elections in Iraq, and a few days after gunmen brazenly shot to death election officials in broad daylight at the heart of Baghdad, the Ansar al-Sunna militant group issued a statement denouncing democracy as un-Islamic because it idolized human beings. “Democracy,” the statement read, “is a Greek word indicating the rule of the people, which means that the people do as they see fit. This concept of government is apostasy because it defies the Muslim doctrinal belief that sovereignty rests with God.” The statement was endorsed by two other Sunni insurgent groups. It warned that anyone who participates in the elections will not be safe, and was clearly aimed at countering the rulings of Shi‘i clerics that voting in the elections was the duty of every Iraqi.

Both this statement, and the mounting violence in Iraq in the period before and after the elections, underscore the fierce struggle that is raging today among Muslims for the soul of Islam—a struggle that is taking shape at a time when America is attempting to play an assertive role in the Middle East, and as the geopolitics of the region are shifting. The outcome of this war of ideas within Islam will have a profound impact not only on the people of the Middle East, but also on the relations between Muslim and Western societies.

This book illuminates some of the historical dimensions of this struggle. It focuses on the Shi‘is, who constitute the minority sect within Islam, and who stand today at the center of a U.S. government attempt to remake the Middle East. The history discussed here shows how Shi‘is in the Arab world have responded to the upheaval resulting from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the nation-state in the twentieth century. It introduces us to Shi‘i political communities whose members had to take on a new identity and redefine their relations with newly emerging states, and to non-Shi‘i ruling elites backed by Western powers who were unwilling to accommodate the Shi‘is within the modern state. The repercussions of this upheaval, and of the shortcomings of the nation-state, are in full play today in the Middle East.

The analysis presented here demonstrates the sociopolitical transformation experienced by Arab Shi‘is in the period preceding the rise of the nation-state in the Middle East and continuing through it to the January 2005 elections in Iraq. The book captures the surge of Shi‘ism as a political force since the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1978–79. It draws attention to the pivotal change in Shi‘i attitudes toward the West, most notably the shift of focus among Shi‘is since the 1990s from confrontation to accommoda-tion—a development that stands in stark contrast to the growing militancy among Sunni groups, and which carries implications for the U.S. endeavor in the Middle East. At the same time, the book seeks to alert readers and policymakers to the strong nationalist sentiments of Shi‘is in the Arab world, underscoring the tough challenge that the United States faces in attempting to impose a new order in the region.

The book takes up the cases of Shi‘is in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, and Lebanon. It highlights the reciprocal influences shaping the political development of Shi‘is in these states, and assesses the impact that the revival of Shi‘ism has had on the larger Arab world. The narrative begins with a prologue on the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and the vision of government offered by Shi‘is under the leadership of Grand Ayatollah ‘Ali Sistani for the post-Ba‘th period. The prologue incorporates background information on Shi‘i Islam and on the states discussed in the book, and is intended to introduce the nonspecialist reader to the topic. The purpose of chapter 1 is to illustrate the vicissitudes that Shi‘is experienced before the twentieth century and which affected their position in the modern state. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 illuminate the distinct political experience of Shi‘is in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Iraq before the U.S. invasion and the tensions underlying Shi‘i-govern-ment relations in each country. The attempts of Shi‘is to carve out a political space for themselves in the wake of the Gulf War of 1991 and the recent war in Iraq are the focus of chapter 5. A concluding chapter highlights the risks and possibilities arising from the assertion of Shi‘i power in Iraq and from the declared intention of the United States to bring democracy to the Middle East.

In the ten years of researching and drafting this book, I met scores of Shi‘i writers and activists of different countries and political persuasions; many of them were forced to live and publish their works in exile. The writing of the exiles has often built on and extended the work of Shi‘is inside the Arab world, resulting in a rich literature that has shaped the contemporary aspirations of Saudi, Bahraini, Iraqi, and Lebanese Shi‘is. This literature stands as testimony to the aspiration of people in the Middle East to adapt Islam to modern times and be the masters of their future and their political destiny.