ABSTRACT
The AQ-backed takfiri genocide of Muslims taking place in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan was first strategized and executed by AQ's first local affiliate in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Zarqawi's brand of takfir shaped the sectarian politics of Iraq. The anti-Western sentiments in modern-day Iraq are rooted in British imperial and U.S. military initiatives in Iraq since the early twentieth century. British imperial policies in the Iraqi Mandate after World War I fostered the sectarian violence plaguing the nation today. The disingenuous military interests of the U.S. in Iraq during the Gulf War have fanned the flames of sectarianism. The violence pervading Iraq at the time was also impacted by British imperial efforts to transform the Iraqi Mandate into a nation-state. Sunni hegemony prevailed in Iraq despite Shia attempts to challenge it, as evidenced in the Shia association with communism. Zarqawi's tactics prior to 2004 were not obviously sectarian in nature.
