Shia Islam in Iraq

Iraqi Shias

الشيعة العراقيون
Imam Ali Mosque, Najaf. One of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
Total population
~24,000,000[1]
Languages
Arabic (majority), Feyli Kurdish and Iraqi Turkmen (minority)
Religion
Shia Islam (Twelver)
Related ethnic groups
Arabs, Feyli Kurds and Turkmen

Shia Islam in Iraq (Arabic: الشيعة في العراق) has a history going back to the times of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first imam of Shia Islam and fourth caliph of Sunni Islam who moved the capital of the early caliphate from Medina to Kufa (or Najaf) two decades after the death of Muhammad. Today, Shia Muslims make up around 55% of the Iraqi population.^[2] Iraq is the location of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, pilgrimage sites for millions of Shia Muslims.

Najaf is the site of Ali's tomb, and Karbala is the site of the tomb of Muhammad's grandson, third Shia imam Husayn ibn Ali. Najaf is also a center of Shia learning and seminaries. Two other holy sites for Twelver Shia in Iraq are the Al-Kadhimiya Mosque in Baghdad, which contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Shia Imams (Mūsā al-Kādhim and Muhammad al-Taqī) and the Al-Askari Mosque in Sāmarrā, which contains the tombs of the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams (Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-‘Askarī).

After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, there has been widespread sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq, which became high-intensity in the wars in 2006–2008 and 2013–2017, which involved the Islamic State terror group.