The Eclipse of Sectarianism

The sectarian fervor widely associated with the Middle East has recent roots. A chain of political and religious upheavals, beginning in 1979, ignited and fueled sectarian hatred and added an ethnic bent to it. The results were catastrophic: Sectarianism caused deep societal fissures and cost hundreds of thousands of lives over a sustained period of time.

Almost exactly 40 years after this surge in sectarianism began, however, we might finally be witnessing its ebb. Sectarianism today is arguably at a recent low, and a reversal of the main causes that catalyzed and intensified it suggests that the demobilization might continue.

In 1979, the religious and geopolitical landscape was drastically transformed. In February of that year, the Pahlavi dynasty of Iran was overthrown by a popular uprising led by a Shiite religious cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Later in July, Saddam Hussein formally became Iraq’s president, and he consolidated power after a major purge of the Ba’ath Party. In November, messianic hard-liners hijacked the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, and declared their leader Juhayman al-Otaybi as the Mahdi—the Muslim savior—and thus the only legitimate leader. In December, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan,