Some contemporary politico-religious issues in Iraq

Abstract

Historically, politically and theologically speaking the Muslims were united when their leader was the Prophet Muhammad. After the prophetic leadership was over with the death of Prophet Muhammad in 11 A.H. or 632 A.C., the Muslims started to have differences among themselves regarding the political and theological matters. A type of schism or sectarianism emerged among the Muslims during the caliphate of Ali bin Abu Talib, murdered in 40 or 661. During his reign, two Muslim minority sects emerged known as the Shiites and the Kharijites. While the former highly admired and strongly supported Ali, the latter adamantly opposed Ali. Later on the majority Muslim sect known as the Sunnites emerged in Muslim political and theological history. They are different from both the Shiites and the Kharijites in their political and theological doctrines and approaches. Some of the Sunnites and Shiites have lived in Iraq since their early days. This paper is about the contemporary Sunnite and Shiite problems in Iraq. There have been evidently many factors contributed to their contemporary problems; one of them has been the American occupation in Iraq. Based on the library research method, this paper intends to present some of their problems originating from their different theological and political doctrines and approaches. Since they are Muslims, and some of the Malaysians are Muslims, the Muslims in Malaysia should take heed of their problems in order not to face or confront the problems that are analogous to their problems.