Sectarian Relapse: Lessons of the “Shia House”

November 01, 2023

Read in Arabic / اقرأ باللغة العربية

Read in Arabic / اقرأ باللغة العربية

This commentary was published only in Arabic. Click “read in Arabic” above to read the commentary.

Tags: iraq, Iraqi politics

Thanassis Cambanis, Senior Fellow and Director of Century International

Thanassis Cambanis is an author, journalist, and director of Century International. His work focuses on U.S. foreign policy, Arab politics, and social movements in the Middle East.

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 13: (L-R) U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, listen to a question from a reporter during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on March 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. The two leaders met as the Trump administration has once again put the military alliance between the United States and Western Europe in question. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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DAMASCUS, SYRIA - DECEMBER 21: 13-year-old Lana who was born in Syria and her brother 6-year-old Muhammad who was born in Lebanon wait in a truck carrying the family's possessions as their father Ahmed Muhammad Al-Nawa prepares papers to cross the border from Lebanon to Syria to return to his family’s home in the village of Harran for the first time in 10-years on December 21, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. 36-year-old Ahmed, was imprisoned and tortured by the regime for a year and half in the Mezzah Military Prison in 2012-2013, after his release, his wife and daughter were displaced from their home in the village of Harran, Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, during the Assad regime’s siege of the region in 2014. They fled to Lebanon where they have been living in a tent in the Hosh Al-Hareem camp for the past 10-years. Ahmed’s mother Umm Marwan stayed behind in Syria due to a heart condition that stopped her from travelling. While living in Lebanon, Ahmed and his wife had four more children that were born in Lebanon and have never meet their grandmother, other relatives or seen the family home. After the fall of the regime Ahmed decided to return home bringing all his possessions from Lebanon and giving his mother the chance to meet her grandchildren face to face for the first time. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

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BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - NOVEMBER 30: U.S. President Donald Trump looks over at Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud as they line up for the family photo during the opening day of Argentina G20 Leaders' Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero on November 30, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by Daniel Jayo/Getty Images)

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TEHRAN, IRAN - JANUARY 10: Senior commanders of Iran's Basij paramilitary force march in a parade of troops during military exercises on January 10, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij, a paramilitary group that has played a prominent role in suppressing protests, held military exercises in the Iranian capital. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

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The grave of Zain Abideen Hussein Al Ajami, a Syrian fighter for Hezbollah who died in 2015, at the Shia cemetery beside the Sayida Zaynab Shrine outside Damascus. Source: Thanassis Cambanis

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TARTUS, SYRIA - MARCH 7: Fighters with the new Syrian government stand around a fire on March 7, 2025 in the Tartus region of Syria. Dozens of people have been killed in clashes between loyalists of the deposed Assad regime and forces of the country's new rulers. It is the heaviest such fighting since Syrian rebels toppled the Assad regime last December. (Photo by Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)

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Sectarian Relapse: Lessons of the “Shia House”

Thanassis Cambanis, Senior Fellow and Director of Century International

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