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MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THE IRAQ. WAR, EMPHASIZING NOT only the failure of US policies but also the internecine fighting among the varied groups, including Al Qaeda and Shia and Sunni militias, all of which have contributed to the carnage in a country with deep historical Islamic roots. Iraq's important place in Islamic history as the birthplace of fitna (anarchy) has important implications and consequences to the conflict today.1 According to Islamic doctrine, the word "fitna" has been translated as chaos, "time of temptation," war, as well as anarchy. A scholar of religious history, Karen Armstrong, further notes that the concept of fitna is "symbolic"; thus, battles between Muslims today have compelled some Muslims to seek a return to early Islam during the time of Prophet Muhammad (570 to 680 AD) (Armstrong, 2000: 37).
Furthermore, fitna originated from the early struggles Muslims faced after the Prophet Muhammad died in 680 AD, leaving a political vacuum for the newly established Muslim community. After his death, four caliphs were selected to lead the Islamic community, which then soon spread across different countries to include Iraq, Egypt, and Syria. In Iraq, the fourth imam and caliph, Ali ibn Talib, established his kingdom. There, he was poisoned by a dissenting party known as the Kharijites.
Iraq is famously known by both Sunni and Shia Muslims as the location where Ali's son. Imam Hussein, was brutally killed by a Sunni caliph, Muawiyyah, in a place called Karbala, known as "a battlefield among battlefields." The murder of Imam Hussein is viewed as one of the most important martyrdoms in Islamic history.
Unlike his brother Hassan, Hussein refused to accept the rule of the new Muslim leader based in Syria. His refusal to give him allegiance resulted in Hussein's murder. Enraged over the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, Muslims in Kufa, Iraq formed their own party, which became the "Partisans of Ali" or Shia. Today, Shias reenact the martyrdom of Imam Hussein on the day when he was killed, known as the Day of Ashura (the tenth day of the first month of the Islamic calendar, Muharram). Thus, for Shias, the meaning of shahadat (martyrdom) is understood hi the context of the school of thought that embodies the struggle and death (that...