Abstrak
Religion and Politics in Iraq features four chapters that outline the major political developments faced by Iraq's Muslim clerics from the end of the 19th century, under the ailing Ottoman empire, to the 1980s. This crucial period saw fierce internal struggles, foreign intervention and bloody persecution of the political opposition, as well as the emergence of a totalitarian one-party system with absolute control over all sectors of social and religious life. During this period, Baathist Iraq attacked its Muslim neighbours Kuwait and Iran and used poison gas in its "ethnic cleansing" campaign against the Kurds. This book focuses on the dilemma of Iraq's clerics within this setting, caught between political activism and quietism. It addresses also major developments in neighbouring Iran insofar as they had a bearing on Iraq.