The Role of the Islamic Dawa Party in the Discourse over the Iraqi Shiite Movement

The new Shiite political/social movement in Iraq got formed in the discoursal community prevalent in Iraq since 1940s onward and it is closely related to the social and historical ground in Iraq in intellectual and political terms. Such events as the expansion of communist and nationalist thoughts and later the dominance of the Bath Party in 1968 and its organized aggression and evident injustice against the Shiites forced the Iraqi Shiite discourse and the seminary schools to produce innovative political thoughts and ideas, which embodied in martyr Sadr's ideas, the organizations of the Islamic Dawa Party and its more-than four decades of contests as a resisting discourse against the discourses of power. This article deals with the Islamic Shiite movement discourse of Iraq and the social and political movement resulted from it during three major discoursal periods: first, the idea of universality and fighting against the Marxist and nationalist discourse; second, the idea of localism; and third, the idea of radicalization.