BROADCASTS.com

On this episode of the Order From Ashes podcast, Ali Al-Mawlawi traces the long history of anti-Shia prejudice in Iraq. That prejudice, he argues, distorts contemporary debates over whether Shia factions are undermining the state when they compete for power.\n\xa0\nThis episode of Order From Ashes is the fourth and final episode in \u201cShia Power,\u201d a series about the transformation of Shia politics in Iraq, and what Iraq\u2019s experience teaches us about the role of religion in politics everywhere.\xa0\n\xa0\nIn episode 1 of \u201cShia Power,\u201d Sajad Jiyad and host Thanassis Cambanis chart the powerful role of religion and the Shia clergy in the creation of a new Iraqi order after Saddam Hussein. In episode 2, Marsin Alshammary draws on her fieldwork in the seminaries of Najaf to argue that clerical authority has not diminished, despite setbacks over the last twenty years. In episode 3, Taif Alkhudary chronicles the revolutionary efforts of the Tishreen protest movement to establish an alternative to religious politics. In episode 4, the final in this series, Ali Al-Mawlawi connects some of today\u2019s sectarian rhetoric to Iraq\u2019s long history of anti-Shia prejudice.\n\xa0\nParticipants:\nAli Al-Mawlawi,\xa0\nThanassis Cambanis, director, Century International\n\xa0\nRead:\nReport: \u201cIraqi Shia Factions Are Supposedly \u2018Anti-state.\u2019 But State Power Is What They Want,\u201d by Ali Al-Mawlawi\n Book: Shia Power Comes of Age\n Project: Shia Politics