Terrorist crimes against national religious minorities in Iraq: the Shia Shabaks as a case study

Author: Dr. Qais Nasir RAHAI et Dr. Abbas Atiyah Abbed AL KARAISHI

Download the article as PDF

Abstract

This research aims to study the crimes committed by terrorists against national and religious minorities in Iraq, using the Shia Shabak community as a case study. The crimes committed against them are generally based on their religious beliefs and include forced displacement, genocide, ethnocide, kidnappings, murders, and hostage-taking. The research focuses on a subject that has not received sufficient attention in terms of documentation and study, namely a national and religious minority divided between Shia Muslims, who constitute the majority, and a small number of Sunni Muslims. The Shabak people are found only in Iraq, particularly in the Mosul province in northern Iraq. Furthermore, the research addresses these crimes using a descriptive and analytical method, while focusing on the historical context of the violence suffered by this group, whether it be structural violence, embodied in cultural violence, or violence based on nationality and religious affiliation, perpetrated by the Ba’ath regime before 2003, and then transformed into sectarian violence after 2003.

Keywords: Terrorist crimes, Shiite Shabaks, Iraq, National religious minorities, History, Political sciences, Terrorism, Human rights