Reaching for Power

Reaching for Power PDF

Author: Yitzhak Nakash

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-10-30

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1400841461

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As the world focuses on the conflict in Iraq, the most important political players in that country today are not the Sunni insurgents. Instead, they are Iraq's Shi'I majority--part of the Middle East's ninety million Shi'I Muslims who hold the key to the future of the region and the relations between Muslim and Western societies. So contends Yitzhak Nakash, one of the world's foremost experts on Shi'ism. With his characteristic verve and style, Nakash traces the role of the Shi'is in the struggle that is raging today among Muslims for the soul of Islam. He shows that in contrast to the growing militancy among Sunni groups since the 1990s, Shi'is have shifted their focus from confrontation to accommodation with the West. Constituting sixty percent of the population of Iraq, they stand squarely at the center of the U.S government's attempt to remake the Middle East and bring democracy to the region. This groundbreaking book addresses the crucial importance of Shi'is to the U.S. endeavor. Yet it also alerts readers to the strong nationalist sentiments of Shi'is, underscoring the difficult challenge that the United States faces in attempting to impose a new order in the Middle East. The book provides a comprehensive historical perspective on Shi'ism, beginning with the emergence of the movement during the seventh century, continuing through its rise as a political force since the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1978-79, and leading up to the Iraqi elections of January 2005. Drawing extensively on Arabic sources, this comparative study highlights the reciprocal influences shaping the political development of Shi'is in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Lebanon, as well as the impact of the revival of Shi'ism on the larger Arab world. The narrative concludes with an assessment of the risks and possibilities arising from the assertion of Shi'I power in Iraq and from America's attempt to play an increasingly forceful role in the Middle East. A landmark book and a work of remarkable scholarship, Reaching for Power illuminates the Shi'a resurgence amid the shifting geopolitics of the Middle East.

Shia Power

Shia Power PDF

Author: Michel Korinman

Publisher: Vallentine Mitchell

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13:

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What is its energy policy and how does the world's need for hydrocarbons bolster the country's geopolitical position?"

Shia Islam and Politics

Shia Islam and Politics PDF

Author: Jon Armajani

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-05-20

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1793621365

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This book argues that ever since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, which established a Shia Islamic government in Iran, that country’s religious and political leaders have used Shia Islam as a crucial way of expanding Iran’s objectives in the Middle East and beyond. Since 1979, Iran’s religious and political leaders have been concerned about Iran’s security in the face of the hostility and expansionism of the United States and other western countries, and the threats from powerful neighboring Sunni leaders and countries. While Iran’s government has attempted to align itself with Shia Muslims in various countries, such as Iraq and Lebanon, against American and Sunni expansionism, the Iranian government has attempted to religiously nourish and politically mobilize those Shias as a matter of principle, not only because of the Iranian government’s desires to protect Iran from external threats. The book analyzes Shia Islam and politics in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon which have among the largest proportional Shia populations in the Middle East and are vibrant centers of Shia intellectual life. The book's clear and jargon-free approach make it especially accessible for students and general readers who would like an introduction to the book's topics.

Transnational Shia Politics

Transnational Shia Politics PDF

Author: Laurence Louër

Publisher: Hurst Publishers

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1849042144

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This book illuminates the historical origins and present situation of militant Shia transnational networks by focusing on three key countries in the Gulf, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, whose Shia Islamic groups are the offspring of Iraqi movements. The reshaping of the area's geopolitics after the Gulf War and the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 have had a profound impact on transnational Shiite networks, pushing them to focus on national issues in the context of new political opportunities. For example, from being fierce opponents of the Saudi monarchy, Saudi Shiite militants have tended to become upholders of the Al-Sa'ud dynasty.The question remains, however, how deeply in society have these new beliefs taken root? Can Shiites be Saudi or Bahraini patriots? Louer concludes her book by analysing the transformation of the Shia' movements' relation to central religious authority, the marja', who reside either in Iraq and Iran. This is all the more problematic when the marja' is also the head of a state, as with Ali Khamenei of Iran, who has many followers in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Beyond Sunni and Shia

Beyond Sunni and Shia PDF

Author: Frederic M. Wehrey

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 0190876050

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This collection seeks to advance our understanding of intra-Islamic identity conflict during a period of upheaval in the Middle East. Instead of treating distinctions between and within Sunni and Shia Islam as primordial and immutable, it examines how political economy, geopolitics, domestic governance, social media, non- and sub-state groups, and clerical elites have affected the transformation and diffusion of sectarian identities. Particular attention is paid to how conflicts over distribution of political and economic power have taken on a sectarian quality, and how a variety of actors have instrumentalized sectarianism. The volume, covering Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, Iran, and Egypt, includes contributors from a broad array of disciplines including political science, history, sociology, and Islamic studies. Beyond Sunni and Shia draws on extensive fieldwork and primary sources to offer insights that are empirically rich and theoretically grounded, but also accessible for policy audiences and the informed public.

Iran and the Shia

Iran and the Shia PDF

Author: Janey Levy

Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

Published: 2009-08-15

Total Pages: 83

ISBN-13: 1615311149

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The history of Iran is a long, rich, multi-layered one. Iran was once known as Persia and was devoted to an ancient religion known as Zoroastrianism. The Persian people converted to Islam following the Arab conquest. Persia contributed as much to Islam as it received. Indeed, it eventually developed along a separate path from most Arab Muslims, as it adopted the Shia branch of the faith. Though the Shia would always be a minority within Islam, the Shia would nevertheless develop a complex and powerful faith, and Persia would experience several periods as a mighty and sophisticated empire. In the modern age, Iran came to be ruled by secular shahs, or kings, who tried to remove religion from the public sphere. Yet with the overthrow of the last Shah in 1979, Iran became a Shia state, ruled by conservative religious clerics. It has since come to occupy a central role in Middle Eastern and world affairs, and its Shia government exerts a tight grip on its citizens and their lives. This book introduces readers to the vast sweep of Iranian history and religion. Shi'ism and Iran cannot be separated—they are so tightly entwined. The role Iran comes to play in world affairs in the 21st century will have everything to do with religion and its government's use of it. The consequences for the Middle East and the world at large could be dramatic.

Sunnis and Shi'a

Sunnis and Shi'a PDF

Author: Laurence Louër

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2022-05-03

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 0691234507

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A compelling history of the ancient schism that continues to divide the Islamic world When Muhammad died in 632 without a male heir, Sunnis contended that the choice of a successor should fall to his closest companions, but Shi'a believed that God had inspired the Prophet to appoint his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as leader. So began a schism that is nearly as old as Islam itself. Laurence Louër tells the story of this ancient rivalry, taking readers from the last days of Muhammad to the political and doctrinal clashes of Sunnis and Shi'a today. In a sweeping historical narrative spanning the Islamic world, Louër shows how the Sunni-Shi'a divide was never just a dispute over succession—at issue are questions about the very nature of Islamic political authority. She challenges the widespread perception of Sunnis and Shi'a as bitter enemies who are perpetually at war with each other, demonstrating how they have coexisted peacefully at various periods throughout the history of Islam. Louër traces how sectarian tensions have been inflamed or calmed depending on the political contingencies of the moment, whether to consolidate the rule of elites, assert clerical control over the state, or defy the powers that be. Timely and provocative, Sunnis and Shi'a provides needed perspective on the historical roots of today's conflicts and reveals how both branches of Islam have influenced and emulated each other in unexpected ways. This compelling and accessible book also examines the diverse regional contexts of the Sunni-Shi'a divide, examining how it has shaped societies and politics in countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon.

The Persian Puzzle

The Persian Puzzle PDF

Author: Kenneth Pollack

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2005-08-09

Total Pages: 571

ISBN-13: 0812973364

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In his highly influential book The Threatening Storm, bestselling author Kenneth Pollack both informed and defined the national debate about Iraq. Now, in The Persian Puzzle, published to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis, he examines the behind-the-scenes story of the tumultuous relationship between Iran and the United States, and weighs options for the future. Here Pollack, a former CIA analyst and National Security Council official, brings his keen analysis and insider perspective to the long and ongoing clash between the United States and Iran, beginning with the fall of the shah and the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. Pollack examines all the major events in U.S.-Iran relations–including the hostage crisis, the U.S. tilt toward Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, the Iran-Contra scandal, American-Iranian military tensions in 1987 and 1988, the covert Iranian war against U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf that culminated in the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, and recent U.S.-Iran skirmishes over Afghanistan and Iraq. He explains the strategies and motives from American and Iranian perspectives and tells how each crisis colored the thinking of both countries’ leadership as they shaped and reshaped their policies over time. Pollack also describes efforts by moderates of various stripes to try to find some way past animosities to create a new dynamic in Iranian-American relations, only to find that when one side was ready for such a step, the other side fell short. With balanced tone and insight, Pollack explains how the United States and Iran reached this impasse; why this relationship is critical to regional, global, and U.S. interests; and what basic political choices are available as we deal with this important but deeply troubled country.

The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future

The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future PDF

Author: Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2007-03-27

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0393329682

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Considers the ways in which struggles between the Shia and Sunni in the Middle East will affect the region's future, offering insight into the power conflicts between Iran and Saudi Arabia for political and spiritual leadership of the Muslim world.

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