Iran as an “Alien” in Iraq's National Identity

Despite the origins of its ancient civilization, Iraq is a newly established country which has been founded in the early 1930s. The formation of "National Identity" has been faced many difficulties and challenges since the founding of this country. Ethnic recitation is one of those challenges has affected Iraq's national identity throughout the years before the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003, and even after the collapse of his regime, it has experienced a change only in its mode. This ethnic recitation of the Iraqi national identity is discursively divergent and alien-maker in terms of discourse, and culminated besides other conventional "aliens" such as Colonialism, Imperialism, Zionism and Iran in pan-Arabist discourse during the imposed Iraqi – Iranian war. Iran was highlighted as an outstanding alien under the title of "Eastern Gate of Arab World", the policy through which a large portion of Iranians living in Iraq were expelled by considering Shiite and Iranian the same. This divergent Pan-Arabist discourse in alien-making of Iran has undergone different changes since the beginning of Iraq and forced a large part of Iraqi inhabitants rejected from Iraqi identity by using terms such as Shu'ubi, 'Ajami, Magus (fire worshiper) and Safavid. The issue of Iran has gotten a new dimension after the fall of Saddam and is in a situation that has still the capacity to return due to the evolution of Iraqi identity.