Iraq was ruled by a Sunni minority despite a Shiite majority

Evidence

It could also be seen as a national conflict. One of the contestants—Iraq—is Arab. The other—Iran—is Persian. Though both Muslim, these are different peoples, speaking different languages, with different cultures. There is a Persian minority in Iraq; there is a much larger Arab minority in southwestern Iran, and the war could be, and sometimes was, perceived or presented as a national, or even ethnic conflict between Arabs and Persians. It also had a religious dimension in that Iran is Shi‘a and is indeed ruled by a militant Shiite hierocracy while Iraq, though inhabited by a Shi‘a majority both in the country and in the capital, is ruled by a Sunni ascendancy. This was an important theme in the propaganda of the Iranians against Iraq during the war, and one naturally avoided by the Iraqis. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1602

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to current analyses of Iraq’s Sunni-Shiite sectarian imbalance that continued through the post-2003 era and today. — connects to: Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy rules a Shia majority it systematically privileges against — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 249