... more recent military involvement in the Syrian conflict. The essay argues that Hezbollah exhibits five different identities: Islamic, Shiite, Lebanese, Arab, and resistance. Each has played a significant role in the group's legitimizing of its war decisions, which in turn has provided Hezbollah...

... of Sunni Muslims in Shiite-dominated states and Shiites in Sunni-dominated states need a different frame of reference. Misplaced Focus Contemporary discussion by Islamic scholars on the treatment of minorities tend to focus on the teachings of the Prophet and the Quran...

... security.” Both history and the present affirm this claim. Indeed, just as Washington sought to spread liberal democracy and capital- ism at multiple levels throughout the third world during the Cold War, Tehran today is promoting the values of Shiite Islamism in the Middle East. Hass believes...

... sought to spread liberal democracy and capital- ism at multiple levels throughout the third world during the Cold War, Tehran today is promoting the values of Shiite Islamism in the Middle East. Hass believes Washington should increase its utilization of ideological exportation as a tool...

... Persian. Iraq also has a different vision of the relationship between religion and the state. Iraqi religious leaders are predominantly of the “quietist” school, which believes that Shiite Islam should have an influence on the country but that clerics should not run it, with a clear separation...

.... Not only did the Shiite Islamic group retain its guerrillas in southern Lebanon, but Hezbollah continued to increase and improve its weapons arsenal as if it were still fighting an occupying Israeli force. Its guer- rilla tactics are believed to be largely responsible for the Israelis’ departure...

...Anthony N. Celso This essay studies the rise, decline, and rebirth of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and its transformation into the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). It first examines AQI’s distinctive vision and its defiance of al Qaeda central. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s anti-Shiite jihadist...

... with him.”11 Second, while Saudi Arabia is a leading Sunni state, the birthplace of Islam, and the site of Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cit- ies in Islam, Iran claims the leadership of Shiite Islam. During most of the 1980s, leaders on both sides questioned each other’s religious credentials...

..., 9 February 2015, www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/turkey/2015-­02-­09/turkeys-­evolving-­syria-­strategy. 15. Pro-­Iranian Shiite parties currently exercise control over four Arab capitals (Damascus, Bagh- dad, Beirut, and Sanaa) and ally themselves with Iran (the champion of Shiite Islam...

... from the Shiite movement. The Shiites consider themselves to be the real natives of the island. These native Arab inhabitants (or Baharna, as they are sometimes called) adopted Shiism from the first days of the schism in the Islamic community, following...

..., Inc. 20 Mediterranean Quarterly: March 2018 ing Sunni Arab elites and the US presence in the region.3 In any case, it is generally uncertain whether there exists a bloc of Sunni powers that are sup- posed to stand against the supposed Shiite Crescent. Recently, the formation of the Islamic...

... movement that evolved from a Shiite branch of Islam that believes that the twelfth imam will liberate the world from injustice. Given the Alawi reverence for the twelfth imam, the Sunni Brothers con- sidered the Alawi to be polytheists. Relying on the medieval Sunni legal scholar Ibn...

... current conditions and needs. Most of the opposition came from the largest Shiite group, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution, which refused to participate in a process that was organized and controlled by a US general. The council’s leader, Abdul Aziz Hakim, insisted that “Iraq needs...

... under Islamic sharia law, which many Shiites favor. Trying to balance power equitably among the three groups would deprive the Shiites control of the government, which they believe they rightfully deserve. This problem is clearly demonstrated by the question of how a new Iraqi govern- ment...

... differences. At one end of the spectrum is the sultanate of Oman, where the state religion is Ibadism, a form of Islam distinct from Sunni and Shiite denominations.31 The religious credentials of the sultanate, however, were never emphasized, and the authority of the current sultan’s father was even...

... population can be found in Vali Nasr, “When Shiites Rise,” Foreign Affairs (July/August 2006). An even more detailed account can be found in Nasr’s recent The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future (New York: Norton, 2006). Some of Nasr’s population figures may seem high...

... of tonic needed to boost business-as-usual confidence in Beirut once again. Of course, in its period of civic calamity the Lebanese capital saw new economic rivals arise: Cyprus, Dubai, Bahrain, and even a London eager to cash in on Islamic banking and finance and on other Arab riches based on ever...

... as varied as Libya and Russia to join an antiterror coalition and assist in waging international war against the proponents and foot soldiers of terrorism. Syria has permitted the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to use Syrian territory for safe haven—and operational planning for terror operations in Israel...

... Pacific Center for Security Studies or any other department or agency of the US government. The Post-9/11 American Conundrum: How to Win the War of Ideas in the World of Islam Ehsan Ahrari In America’s global war on terrorism, phrases like “the war of ideas...

... in these societies, accordingly, has given al Qaeda a strategic opening to mobilize. The Syrian civil war, moreover, and the emergence of al Qaeda affiliates Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the war-­ravaged country is offered as further 3. James Jay Carfano, “Replace...