The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future

by Vali Nasr

Book Overview

To most Western eyes, all Islamic movements look alike, and the central conflict in the Middle East is one between religion and secularism. Shockingly little has been written about the bitter divide between Shia and Sunni. Yet without understanding their ancient conflict - and its modern embodiment in the power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for political and spiritual leadership of the Muslim world - it is impossible to comprehend events across the so-called Shia Crescent, from East Africa through Iraq and Pakistan to India. In The Shia Revival Vali, Nasr explains the provocative rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Saudi pressure on the United States not to unseat Saddam Hussein in 1991, the critical role of the Ayatollah Sistani and the religious establishment in Najaf, the volatility of Pakistan today, and the consequences of the shift toward Shia power through American intervention.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393062112
• ISBN13: 9780393062113
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book - Opens your eyes to the real intricacies of conflicts

Read this for an academic class. Wasn't sure I'd understand let alone like it. I LOVED it! Well written, interesting, entertaining and basically an eye opening book. I love it when a professor is able to take a complicated and convoluted topic and make it interesting and clear. Learned more than I thought from it plus had my eyes open on some points that I believed based on US news. Highly recommended!

Origins of the civil war in Iraq . . .

This is an illuminating perspective on current Middle East politics by an Iranian-born and U.S. educated writer, who has credentials as a member of the faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School and associate chair of research at the Department of National Security Affairs. The overall argument of his book is that the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the war in Iraq have set in motion the reversal of an age-old balance of power between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East. After a millennium or more of sometimes brutal suppression by Sunni Arabs, Shias are experiencing a "revival" that will fundamentally change the political structure of the Muslim world. Written chiefly for the lay reader, the book helps non-Muslims understand both the historical and cultural differences that separate these two branches of Muslim faith. It charts the existence of the divide between them over the centuries, finally focusing on the years since WWI, and the deepening animosities that have found expression in the bloody excesses of Islamist fundamentalism, which Nazr attributes primarily to Sunni rage at losing political power and influence to Shias, whose center of power in the region is now Iran. Meanwhile, the American-led invasion of Iraq and its resulting democratization is seen as a handing over of that formerly Sunni-dominated country to its Shia plurality. Civil war in Iraq, as the situation is described by Nazr, seems not to have been the effect of American bungling, but an inevitable outcome of regime change. Nazr describes the scenario being played out at the time of writing as that of democracy-embracing Shias being targeted by various terrorist groups committed to murder and mayhem in the effort to not only return ascendancy to Sunnis, but wipe out Shia Muslims once and for all. There is a Shia-Persian bias throughout the book, and Sunni Arab political analysts would no doubt offer another view of the people and events Nazr discusses. However, they may be in agreement on one subject - the character and aspirations of Ayatollah Khomeini, whom Nazr characterizes as a political opportunist with a self-aggrandizing agenda that put him briefly near the center of the world stage but left him finally as something of a walk-on in a very different kind of unfolding Shia drama. Nazr's prognosis for the future is not encouraging. He sees continued bloodletting and violence and the potential for armed conflict to emerge elsewhere, notably in Saudi Arabia, but he believes that a Shia world view will eventually triumph in the Middle East. As an introduction to the subject, this book may be heavy-going for some readers. Though highly readable, it is packed with information and analysis. With such a large cast of characters and political groups, it's sometimes necessary to flip back to the index for help. But the book is definitely worth reading for its insight and perspective on the complexities of the Middle East.

All you need to know about sectarian violence in Iraq!

This little book is beautifully written, solid history, and as clear an understanding of the shia-sunni divide in Islam that you will ever read. It has the advantage of being short, but complete, so it doesn't take long to read. The information is critically important to an American citizen's understanding why it is so unlikely that we will ever be able to orchestrate a resolution to the sectarian violence in Iraq.

Fantastic overview of the history and importance of the Shia

_The Shia Revival_ by Vali Nasr is a well-written and timely analysis of the history and nature of the greatest division within the Muslim world, that of the 1,400 year old split between Sunnis and Shiites, a division existing from practically the beginning of the faith, each sect viewing itself as the "original orthodoxy." Though stressing that the Shias (like the Sunnis) are hardly monolithic, varying in degrees of piety and because of different cultural and economic backgrounds, Nasr listed a number of key characteristics of Shias worldwide. Though Shias are a minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims (comprising 130 to 195 million people or about 10 to 15% of the total Muslims in the world), they are as nearly numerous as the Sunnis in the Islamic heartland from Lebanon to Pakistan and around the Persian Gulf comprise 80% of the population. The Shia-Sunni split dates back to the succession crises after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Sunnis came to accept the notion that successor caliphs to the Prophet (perhaps individuals chosen by the community) need not possess exceptional spiritual qualities but merely be exemplary Muslims who could direct the religious and political affairs of the community and still later accepted future rulers so long as they maintained order, protected Islam, and left religious matters to the ulama (religious scholars). What became the Shiites disagreed with this, feeling that the true leaders of the community should not be "ordinary mortals" but should instead be Muhammad's family - popularly known as the ahl al-Bayt or people of the household - as the blood of the Prophet ran in their veins along with the spiritual qualities invested in him by God. Similarly, Sunnis and Shiites differed widely on matters of religious interpretation. Sunnis came to believe that all believers are capable of understanding religious truth in a way and to a degree that makes special intermediaries between God and man unneeded, while Shiites came to feel that there were outer and inner, hidden truths in religion, and that without the right leadership the true meaning and intent of Islam will be lost. Shiites believed that there is hidden and esoteric knowledge, inaccessible to the average believer without help. The Shiites placed a great deal of emphasis on the history of the early rightful successors to the Prophet and on Shia saints and consequently also have a great love for visual imagery depicting these individuals and their struggles (most of which ended in martyrdom). This love of imagery grates on Sunni sensibilities, who often view it as "possible inducements to, if not outright expressions of, idol worship." Related to this is the great Shia festival of mourning, remembrance, and atonement known as Ashoura, a religious festival and drama akin in many ways to Christian festivals such as Good Friday "Way of the Cross" processions. As Nasr put it, while Sunnism "is about the law and the "thou shalts" and "thou s

A Must Read

I picked up this book after a friend recommended it. I went through it quickly. It is not only very informative but also very-well written. It changed my view of the Middle East. There is a lot of history here, but also Nasr describes current events very well. Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia are all treated from a new angle. It qualifies as a must read.

Unintended Consequences

Every once in a while an author writes a book that challenges the foundation of all of one's thinking. Vali Nasr is such an author. "The Shia Revival" is such a book. Reading it will leave you questioning the value taxpayers have reaped from the billions invested in diplomacy and intelligence. His thesis is clear and obvious; yet, it pales one's imagination that it never exposed before this. Nasr, a professor at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA argues convincingly that Saddam Hussein's removal from power in Iraq has changed the Mid-east, but in ways never conceived by President Bush and his neo-con advisors. By removing Iraq's Sunni dominated dictatorship, he argues, and replacing it with the Shiite majority, the United States has destroyed the buffer that has held the Shia in Iran in check. This will play out, he argues, with increasing confrontations between Sunnis and Shiites throughout the region starting in Iraq and then spreading from Lebanon, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. This divide will have serious consequences for United States' foreign policy. By creating the first Shiite-led state in the Arab world since the rise of Islam, we have ignited hopes among the region's 150 million Shiites. Yet, our policy still operates under the old assumptions of Sunni dominance. It never fails that actions often lead to unintended consequences. In this case, however, Nasr clearly lays out a case that there will be no quick fixes. This is a book you owe it to yourself to read. Individuals who can look at the same set of facts and come up with a unique insight and analysis of them are to be celebrated. Too bad no one in the diplomatic and intelligence bureaucracy had heard of him before 2001.