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The Problem Within Islam

(Weekly Standard) Soner Cagaptay - American efforts towards a democratic Iraq seem to have created some strange bedfellows in the Middle East. The Sunnis of the region - from Baathist loyalists in Iraq and hardcore Wahhabi zealots in Saudi Arabia to secular-minded elites in Amman, Cairo, and elsewhere - are now united around a common anxiety: Since the Shiite Muslims constitute more than 60% of Iraq's population, a democratic Iraq will likely be a Shiite-dominated Iraq. With the exception of Iran and Syria (which is ruled by an Alawite minority - an offshoot of Islam distinct from both Sunni and Shiite orthodoxies, if somewhat closer to Shiism), all Muslim states in the Middle East are run by Sunnis, who view a Shiite-ruled Iraq as a potential threat. (The only exception to such authoritarian regimes, Turkey - which is democratic - is also a Sunni majority country.) The Sunni states of the Middle East are unwilling to whole-heartedly support Operation Iraqi Freedom because of what it may produce in the end. The writer heads the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2004-03-01 00:00:00
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