Shi'a Muslims in The Arab World - Iraq

Iraq

Iraqi Shī‘as are predominately situated in the southern part of Iraq, in Baghdad (the capital), Karbala, Najaf, Hilla, al Diwaniyah, all throughout the south until Basra.

Saddam Hussein and his 15 former aides, including Ali Hassan al-Majid, were held responsible for their alleged role in the suppression of a Shia uprising and the deaths of 60,000 to 100,000 people. The trial took place in Baghdad in August 2007. Al-Majid had been already sentenced to death in June 2007 for genocide against the Kurds.

Unlike other sects of Islam, the Shī‘as of Iraq have been treated horrifically under the regime of Saddam Hussein—many Iraqi Shī‘as of Persian descent were expelled from the country in the 1980s, despite being the majority of the country at 75%. Reports indicated that no neighborhood was left intact after the 1991 uprising in Karbala. In the vicinity of the shrines of Husayn ibn Ali and Abbas ibn Ali, most of the buildings surrounding the shrines were completely reduced to rubble. The shrines themselves were scarred from bullet marks and tank fire. They were, however, quickly restored by the Shiite Donations.

In December 2005, workers maintaining water pipes 500 meters from the Imam Hussein Shrine unearthed a mass grave containing dozens of bodies, apparently those of Shiites killed after the uprising.