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Iraq
Impact of the Iranian Revolution on Iraqi Shias
In 1964 Ayatollah Khomeini was expelled from Iran to Turkey,
and he was then granted asylum by Iraq (see The Iran-Iraq Conflict
, ch. 1). His theological erudition and idealism earned him a
significant following in An Najaf, where ulama (religious leaders)
and students from throughout the Shia world formed an important
circle of learned men. The Baath socialist regime, however, with
its secular, anticlerical stance, was never comfortable with Shia
religious leaders and their followers.
Relations between the Iraqi regime and the Shia clerics deteriorated
during the Imam Husayn celebrations in February 1977, when police
interference in religious processions resulted in massive antigovernment
demonstrations in An Najaf and in Karbala. Several thousand participants
were arrested, and eight Shia dignitaries, including five members
of the clergy, were sentenced to death and were executed. In 1978,
in an effort to quell the Shia unrest and to satisfy the shah's
request, Baghdad expelled Ayatollah Khomeini, who sought refuge
in France.
In another attempt to minimize Shia dissent, the Iraqi government
had deported to Iran 60,000 Shias of Iranian origin in 1974. In
the months following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the
Iraqi government deported nearly 35,000 more ethnic Iranians.
Deportations, the suppression of the Shia ulama, and the death
under suspicious circumstances of Shia leader Imam Musa as Sadr
all contributed to the deterioration of relations between Baathist
Iraq and Islamic Iran. The ranking Shia religious leader, Sayyid
Abu al Qasim al Khoi, refrained from either sanctioning or opposing
the Baath government, but the government feared Sadr because of
his leadership qualities and because of his close association
with Khomeini.
Beginning in 1980, Iran actively promoted its own revolutionary
vision for Iraq. All anti-Iraqi Islamic organizations, including
Ad Dawah al Islamiyah, commonly called Ad Dawah (see Political
Opposition , ch. 4) and the Organization of Islamic Action were
based in Tehran, where they came under the political, religious,
and financial influence of the ruling clergy. To control rivalry
and infighting among the different groups, Iran helped to set
up the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI)
on November 17, 1982. It was headed by Iraqi cleric Hujjat al
Islam Muhammad Baqir al Hakim. Establishing SAIRI was viewed as
a step toward unifying the political and military work of all
groups and as an attempt to unite them under a single command
directly supervised by their Iranian counterparts. In return,
SAIRI acknowledged the leadership of Khomeini as the supreme commander
of the Islamic nation. Nevertheless, the majority of Iraqi Shias
resisted Tehran's control and remained loyal to Iraq.
Data as of May 1988
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