According to Reuters the US threatened Iraq recently not to allow 58 of these Shia lawmakers into the new coalition government, on pain of cutting Iraq off from the dollar system.
Yeah, they say it's because they're "Iran linked." I'm not sure whether it's credible, but it could be, since Iran helped Iraq a lot fighting ISIS in 2015-2017, when Shia militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, did a lot of the heavy fighting on the ground.
Imo its generally the major issue with democracies that have an array of competing ethnic/religious identities without a strong enough overarching identity to smooth out those fault-lines. It naturally selects for politicians willing to pander their voters based on identitarian issues.
And it isn’t just a non-Western phenomenon. Like Belgium has only one non language based party. The UK, Spain, Canada Romania all have regional parties and the only reason why they aren’t so fractured is because one culture/religion is totally dominant. Iraq like Belgium doesn’t but unlike Belgium it wasn’t purposefully kept stable by outside powers.
Part of the problem is that in countries where corruption is endemic, political parties tend to represent nothing more than patronage networks and these networks are often formed on sectarian or tribal lines.
Most were members of the Ba'ath party who were re-settled from Tikrit and nearby areas and post-2003 the militias targeted them and the map is wrong Basra has a lot of Sunnis they're just part of a coalition dominated by Shia-Muslims
Southern Iraq was where Ali was martyred and has always been the home base, so to speak, of the pro-Ali faction that became Shia Islam. They were spreading their teachings and gathering support for the Alid faction ever since the death of Muhammad. Najaf and Karbala in Southern Iraq are the holiest cities of Shia Islam (aside from Mecca and Medina, obviously).
So this area has always been the Shia stronghold. The death of Ali and his family there shocked the people living around the area and they have been sympathizers ever since who fought for his teachings and lineage of imams. This is a huge oversimplification of something that you could write many books about but that's the most important context to remember; Shi'ism basically started here.
So they don't vote for a political direction but for ethnicity. Imagine the US would have a white party that is full of white people that make politics only for white people... oh well...
Not exactly though. There are 2 major Kurdish parties to choose from. 2 or 3 Sunni and like 6-7 shia parties.
Minorities (mandeans for example) have reserved seats.
Kurds and Turkmen make enough of diyala governorate to get MPs but they are likely divided into sunni and shia parties. And looks like shia Turkmen in mosul supported a Shia based Party
more like.... white part full of white people who do politics only for white people and really hate white people and would kill the white people if they objection..yah its suck...
I’m surprised 6 Shias won in Mosul
Turkmenli Shia-Muslims
The city of Tle'far is Shia I believe
According to Reuters the US threatened Iraq recently not to allow 58 of these Shia lawmakers into the new coalition government, on pain of cutting Iraq off from the dollar system.
That's big, does the US say these 58 are associated with Iran?
Yeah, they say it's because they're "Iran linked." I'm not sure whether it's credible, but it could be, since Iran helped Iraq a lot fighting ISIS in 2015-2017, when Shia militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, did a lot of the heavy fighting on the ground.
All the parties being based on some inborn identity and not ideology looks horrible to be honest.
Imo its generally the major issue with democracies that have an array of competing ethnic/religious identities without a strong enough overarching identity to smooth out those fault-lines. It naturally selects for politicians willing to pander their voters based on identitarian issues.
And it isn’t just a non-Western phenomenon. Like Belgium has only one non language based party. The UK, Spain, Canada Romania all have regional parties and the only reason why they aren’t so fractured is because one culture/religion is totally dominant. Iraq like Belgium doesn’t but unlike Belgium it wasn’t purposefully kept stable by outside powers.
Part of the problem is that in countries where corruption is endemic, political parties tend to represent nothing more than patronage networks and these networks are often formed on sectarian or tribal lines.
There’s no way These are actually the parties right? I thought these were just the ethnicities/religions of the politicians
They are, the first guy is just wrong
"First time?" -early Malaysian democracy.
Btw for those who don't know Mandeans are the of the few gnostic religions left around today which is intresting.
They follow John the Baptist instead of Jesus which is neat.
Most Kurds are Sunnis and they are quite conservative, not as liberal as people think
Conservative compared to Turks, but less conservative compared to Arabs (both Sunni and Shia)
Damn and I thought Arbil is the new Seattle
I mean the Assyrian district in Erbil is known for being trendy and they have many bars, it’s where all the Arabs and Iranians go to party
I had no idea that Iraq's political parties were still mostly arranged around religion and ethnicity. Learned something new today just off that alone
I think Mandeans, Shabaks and some of the Christians just won their seats through specially reserved quotas.
It says distribution by political alignment but actually shows distribution by ethnic/religious alignment.
These are religions
Are you telling me they are voting for religions?
First time?
And ethnicity, this kind of voting is normal in tribal societies.
Why are there so few Sunnis in southern Iraq?
Most were members of the Ba'ath party who were re-settled from Tikrit and nearby areas and post-2003 the militias targeted them and the map is wrong Basra has a lot of Sunnis they're just part of a coalition dominated by Shia-Muslims
Southern Iraq was where Ali was martyred and has always been the home base, so to speak, of the pro-Ali faction that became Shia Islam. They were spreading their teachings and gathering support for the Alid faction ever since the death of Muhammad. Najaf and Karbala in Southern Iraq are the holiest cities of Shia Islam (aside from Mecca and Medina, obviously).
So this area has always been the Shia stronghold. The death of Ali and his family there shocked the people living around the area and they have been sympathizers ever since who fought for his teachings and lineage of imams. This is a huge oversimplification of something that you could write many books about but that's the most important context to remember; Shi'ism basically started here.
Iraq in general has a lot of Shiites, Shiite plurality iirc so less it has few Sunnis and more it has a lot of Shiites
it is kind of diabolical to align politics and ideologies with ethnicities and religion
Feyli are also Kurds. (Shia Kurds)
So they don't vote for a political direction but for ethnicity. Imagine the US would have a white party that is full of white people that make politics only for white people... oh well...
Not exactly though. There are 2 major Kurdish parties to choose from. 2 or 3 Sunni and like 6-7 shia parties.
Minorities (mandeans for example) have reserved seats.
Kurds and Turkmen make enough of diyala governorate to get MPs but they are likely divided into sunni and shia parties. And looks like shia Turkmen in mosul supported a Shia based Party
more like.... white part full of white people who do politics only for white people and really hate white people and would kill the white people if they objection..yah its suck...
Great job, but Nineveh has only one Christian. That second Christian you have labeled is actually a Sunni