Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 09/2014

The Shi'ites of the Middle East: An Iranian fifth column?

Michael Rubin, Ahmad K. Majidyar

July 2014

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

Shi'ite Muslims attend Friday prayers at the Imam Hussein shrine in the holy city of Kerbala July 18, 2014. Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric has criticized the government and international agencies for failing to do enough to help hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by fighting between government forces and Sunni Islamist insurgents.