SUNNIS AND SHI’A

The sectarian divide in Islam between Sunni and Shi[i Muslims began attracting public attention and renewed policy and scholarly attention in the lead-up to and the immediate aftermath of the U.S. and British-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq in 2003 which toppled the Ba[th Party regime of the late Saddam Hussein. Previously much ink had been spilt on the Sunni-Shi[i split following the Iranian Revolution of 1978–1979 and its takeover by the late Ayatullah Ruhullah Khomeini and his supporters. Coverage of sects and sectarianism in the public sphere and even in some scholarly work has often been shallow and sensationalistic, for example claiming that Sunni and Shi[i Muslims have been ‘fighting’ for ‘thousands of years.’ This, of course, is not the case despite periods of sectarian tension in Islamic history.