Development of Political Shii Islam in Post-Saddam Hussein Iraq

This thesis is preoccupied with the development of Iraqi political Shi'a after the fall of Ṣaddām Ḥusayn. Its main area of interest is the comparison of three Shi'i political movements - Dac wa Party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq and the movement of Muqtadā aṣ-Ṣadr on the background of broader historical development of Shi'i community in Iraq. Although this thesis is written in English, it uses both English and Arabic sources and literature with occasional excursions into French and Persian sources. The thesis deals with the ideological transformation of the parties, formation of alliances, utilization of militias for political goals and the relations with the USA and Iran. The conclusion of the thesis is that the Iraqi Shi'i political scene is deeply fragmented, strongly influenced by Iran and its parties are often vehicles for personal political ambitions of its leaders which effectively prevents any unification of Shi'i political position and creation of strong central Iraqi government