The civil war in Iraq is a struggle for the soul of the country.
There are two Muslim parties vying for control: the Shiites, also called Shi'a, who are the in the vast majority, and the Sunni, whose dictatorship brutally ruled the country for many years.
The Sunni arrested imprisoned and sometimes killed members of the Shiite's Al Da'wa Party, sometimes closing religious institutions and shutting down journals. This party was for many years aligned with the United States in a war to destroy Iran's Islamic Republic.
The Sunni are Muslims, but are nonetheless secular Arabs - opposed to rule by the tennets of Islam. But the Shiites believe if the Constitution and laws are not based on Islam, their economy, culture and political life will be easy prey for the Western imperialists.
Arab Nationalists believe Arabs from the Gulf should be tied into one political entity since they are united by their interests, blood, history, language and interests. They are left wing and once professed unity with the European left, the Soviet Union and the satellite states.
The Shiites also believe in being united with other Arabs, but they feel Islam is the defining element of nationalism. The Shiites see Arab Nationalism as a Trojan Horse that will bring in Westernization. You may remember that soldiers hid inside the big wooden Trojan Horse so they could get inside the gates.
The Arab nationalists see Palestine as the central cause of Arabs and the Jewish state as a plot by imperialists to drain away their resources and hinder the efforts of Arabs to unify.
The Shi'a see Palestine as an attack against the Islamic Republic.
The Economic system of the Islamic Republic was explained by Mohammad Baquir Al-Sadr, who was killed leading a movement Against the Ba'th regime.
In Iraq an essay on the web, he wrote: 'The Shiites believe the sole owner of land and raw materials is the Islamic state. People may gain special rights of ownership if they invest labor to develop these natural resources, such as cultivating land or mining minerals. The rights of ownership can only be gained through labor invested in developing that land or raw material, and such right ends as soon as that development ends.'
The views are neither capitalist nor socialist.
See more of Sadr's explanation of the Islamic Republic at:
http://al-islam.org/al-tawhid/politicaleconomy/
It is important to realize that the United Staes fears a crescent of Islamic Republic's will take root, from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
So keep watch in the news to see what happens in Lebanon and Iraq.
