Country: Iraq

Group: Twelver Shi’a

Date Finalized: 11/27/2021

Team: Samantha Bradford (lead), Lacey Hurst, Hunter Blevins


            There is ample evidence available to demonstrate ethnocide of Iranian Shi’ites. The data is rated at a 3 out of 3 due to the high quantity and quality of available scholarly resources.

During the Afghan occupation of Persia (1722-1763), Shi’a clerics took shelter in the Sunni cities of Najaf and Karbala. By the start of the 20th century, Twelver (Ithna’ashari) Shi’ism had become the religious majority throughout central and southern Iraq (Minority Rights Group, 2014).
            Following Iraq’s 1991 loss in the Iran-Iraq War, many Shi’a rebelled against the Saddam Hussein regime. His forces responded with lethal violence and efforts to dismantle institutions supporting Shi’a education in Iraq. In Najaf, regime forces used violence to cut the population of clerics and theological students by over half (Minority Rights Group, 2014). In order to further eradicate Iraqi Shi’ism, Hussein led an ecologically devastating canal project to drain the Najaf water sources.

In 2003, Hussein’s rule ended, causing Shi’a-Sunni Muslim sectarian violence to escalate (Nelson, 2021). That same year, the Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other extremist opposition groups were formed. They religiously persecuted non-Sunni and non-Arab minority groups, through pillaging, kidnapping, mass genocide, forced expulsions, destruction of mosques, and forced religious conversions (Human Rights Watch, 2014). Despite ongoing political repression and ethnically-targeted violence, Shiites continue to make up over 60% of the Iraqi population (Cockburn, 2003).

Sources

  1. Cockburn, A. (2003, December). Iraq’s Oppressed Majority. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ iraqs-oppressed-majority-95250996/
  2. Human Rights Watch. (2014, July). Iraq: ISIS Abducting, Killing, Expelling Minorities. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/19/iraq-isis- abducting-killing-expelling-minorities#
  3. Nelson, A. et al. (2021, September 25). Documenting Global Ethnic Disparities: Ethnocide/Iraq/Twelver Shi’a. Inclusive Human Learning Group. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://inclusivehuman.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ForceAway_Iraq_ TwelverShia.pdf