The Islamic State versus the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq: An Ethnic Challenge and Its Consequences for the Country’s Christian Minority

Abstract

This thesis stakes the claim that the ethnic project of the Islamic State (IS) has been ineffectually countered by Iraqi branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), especially with regards to Iraq’s Christian minority. IS and the IIP have competing ethnic projects, a key marker of which is their fundamentalist rationalizations. While there is an ideological overlap between the IS and IIP, the two organizations appeal to different categories of authority. Another critical aspect of IS and IIP’s competing ethnicities is their contending state-building projects. The failures of the IIP’s attempts to construct a polity paved the way for IS’s alternative. This thesis also examines how Iraq’s Christian minority perceived and reacted to the ethnic identities of IS and the IIP. Both IS and IIP have imposed an exclusively religious identity on different ethnicities, superseding other identity markers characterizing them. This thesis concludes with an appraisal of the future of IS, IIP, and Iraq’s Christian minority.