Patel on Religious Authority

For a quick primer on religious authority in Iraq, Sunni and Shiite, from an academic who has been living there for the past year, see David Patel’s piece, just published by the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Patel writes,

“Freed from state control, religious authorities—drawing on their moral authority and extensive mass communication networks, and benefiting from the weakness of secular forces—quickly filled the political void created by the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. A year later, these authorities remain the principal shapers of public opinion among most Iraqi Arabs.”

Patel on Religious Authority

For a quick primer on religious authority in Iraq, Sunni and Shiite, from an academic who has been living there for the past year, see David Patel’s piece, just published by the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Patel writes,

“Freed from state control, religious authorities—drawing on their moral authority and extensive mass communication networks, and benefiting from the weakness of secular forces—quickly filled the political void created by the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. A year later, these authorities remain the principal shapers of public opinion among most Iraqi Arabs.”