Shia Islam in Iraq

Iraqi Shias

شيعة العراق
Imam Ali Mosque, Najaf. One of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
Total population
Varies, 50–55% or 64–69% of the population
Languages
Majority: Arabic Minority: Kurdish, Iraqi Turkmen, Persian
Religion
Twelver Shia Islam (Usuli majority, small Akhbari minority)

Shia Islam in Iraq (Arabic: الشيعة في العراق) has a history going back to the times of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first imam of Shia Islam and fourth caliph of Sunni Islam who moved the capital of the early caliphate from Medina to Kufa (or Najaf) two decades after the death of Muhammad. Shia Muslims are generally considered to constitute the majority of the Iraqi population with varying estimates over their percentages, such as a lower estimate reporting it to be between 55% and 60%,^[a] and a higher estimate ranging between 64% and 69% of the population of Iraq.^[b] Iraq is the location of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, pilgrimage sites for millions of Shia Muslims. Iraqi Shia Muslims belong to various ethnicities, although they all follow the Twelver sect, with the vast majority being Usuli and a small minority being Akhbari. Historically, there were practices of Isma'ilism among Musha'sha' Arabs, Zaydism among Kurds, and Ibrahimiyya among Turkmen, which all declined. The Twelver sect had always been dominant over the Shia Muslims of Iraq.

Najaf is the site of Ali's tomb, and Karbala is the site of the tomb of Muhammad's grandson, third Shia Imam Husayn ibn Ali. Najaf is also a center of Shia learning and seminaries. Two other holy sites for Twelver Shia in Iraq are the Al-Kadhimiya Mosque in Baghdad, which contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Shia Imams (Mūsā al-Kādhim and Muhammad al-Jawad) and the Al-Askari Mosque in Sāmarrā, which contains the tombs of the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams (Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-‘Askarī).

After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, widespread sectarian violence erupted between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq, which led to the Iraqi civil war and the 2013–2017 war, which involved the Islamic State terror group.

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