Publication

This report addresses two critical political questions as the new Iraq emerges. First, the author examines whether the numerically dominant Shi'ite majority will be open to full political collaboration with the Sunni and Christian minorities. Then, he identifies the strengths and ideologies of Islamist political movements, particularly Shi'ite, that have asserted themselves since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The author provides insight into three major Islamist trends that operate within Iraq, arguing that political Islam in its existing organizational forms has not managed to seriously cross sectarian/ethnic lines.