The Clash of Identities in Iraq

Abstract

Many scholars (and other critics) suggest that the ethnic and sectarian strife in Iraq is a direct result of the U.S. invasion.1 At the same time, there are some who blame the British for failing in the process of state building and nation building in Iraq in the early 1920s.2 Others claim it was the Ba’th regime (1968–2003) that shattered Iraq’s national identity.3 Some even go further to argue that “Iraq has long been a secular country, where a majority of citizens identify with their national identity, rather than their ethnic or religious identity.”4 They state that “Iraq does not naturally, historically, ethnically, religiously divide into three separate parts… Iraq has a national identity that cannot be dismissed.”5 Yet others believe that Iraq is not composed of just one people, instead asserting that it is a conceptual flaw to assume that Iraq’s three main communities, the Shi’is, the Sunnis, and the Kurds, share a common sense of being a nation.6