ABSTRACT
The issue of the de facto Kurdistan Region and the rise of religious nationalism is dealt with in this chapter. It will first focus on the Kurdish revolutions until the emergence of the regional government within the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It then covers the emergence of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) during a civil war that provided a kind of raison d’être for its manifestation and survival within during a chaotic period in the region. The success of the KIU as a political party and indications of its growth will be studied by looking at some primary data.
