A Century of the Iraqi Hawza: How Clerics Shaped Protests and Politics in Modern Day Iraq
Wednesday, January 31, 2024 12pm to 1pm
About this Event
Boston College, 24 Quincy Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA
https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/boisi-center/events/archive/spring-2024-events/a-century-of-the-iraqi-hawza--how-clerics-shaped-protests-and-po.html?appId=aemshellA luncheon colloquium with BC Political Science faculty member, Marsin Alshamary
There are not many beliefs that are shared jointly by Saddam Hussein, by the British occupiers of Iraq in the 1920s, and by later American policymakers. One of these beliefs is the fear that the Shi’a religious establishment in Iraq would mount a revolution and seek political leadership in the state. In this presentation, Alshamary will rely on years of fieldwork in Iraq (including interviews with political elites, protestors, and clerics) as well as archival research in the Ba’ath Party Archives, to first explain why political elites feared the power of Shi’a clerics and, secondly, to document the interactions between political elites, clerics, and protestors in Iraqi history. She will demonstrate that despite the fears of government elites, Shi’a clerics are not driven by an ideological inclination to protest nor a hunger for power, but rather are invested in protecting their centuries-old religious establishment.