Beyond Sunni and Shia

A New Cold War

Since the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003, many explanations of the cause of ongoing conflict in the Middle East have focused on the Sunni-Shia split. According to these sectarian interpretations, a new Cold War has emerged – one that pits the Shias of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah against the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, along with rebel groups in Iraq and Syria. But those who place the blame for the chaos in the Muslim world on sectarianism exclusively, often overlook a number of other important details underlying the ongoing conflict. The original divide between Sunnis and Shias dates to the seventh century: Sunnis believed religious authority should follow the closest advisers of the Prophet Muhammad, while Shia Muslims thought authority should pass to the prophet’s descendants. In recent decades, however, the rift has taken on new dimensions and has expanded into many other aspects of life in the Muslim world.

Two popular subsets of the sectarian narrative of Middle Eastern conflict – the Primordialist and Ethnonationalist...