For the Shi’ite majority and its senior religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani, the January elections played out against the background of a longing for justice that has deep spiritual and historical sources as well as more recent sociopolitical roots.
About the Author
Ahmed H. al-Rahim has taught Arabic and Islamic studies at Harvard University. In 2003, he served in Iraq as an advisor on political Islam in the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
Representatives of the Iraqi democratic opposition to Saddam Hussein assess what must be done to overcome the legacy of dictatorship and pave the way toward a free and democratic future…
Read the full essay here. Political Islam is often cited as the key challenge to democratization in Muslim nations, but deep currents of authoritarianism may prove more of an obstacle.…
After almost ten years of complex and costly efforts to build democracy in these two countries, where do things stand? What lay behind the critical choices that shaped events in…
