ABSTRACT
The final Chapter 9 provides exclusive insights into the personal entanglement of the Baʿth regime and Sufis in Iraq and demonstrates that the state-sponsored revival of Sufism reflected the personal socioreligious background and religious identities of Baʿth leaders themselves—most notably, of Ṣaddām’s second-in-command, ʿIzzat Ibrāhīm al-Dūrī. For the regime’s religious policies, he turned to the Sufi circles that had been familiar to him since his youth and established himself as a powerful patron of Sufis in Iraq. My interviews and newly available video material prove that the state promotion of Sufi Islam further enhanced these relations between Sufis and the state elite including the presidential family, which cultivated close personal ties to Sufi shaykhs from their home region. Benefiting from the new opportunities, these Sufis further expanded their influence and Sufi religiosity among members of the regime, the military, and the security services. Nonetheless, these new opportunities and the growing influence reached their limits as soon as the authoritarian Baʿth regime sensed any potential competition for political power. Even for Sufis, growing success went along with growing state coercion.
