Baghdad, when it fell in April 2003, was the first domino to tumble in the religious conflict that has spread throughout the entire Middle East. This was followed by the rise of a religious identity that is at odds with its counterparts on the one hand, and with other partial identities of other Middle Eastern communities on the other.

The fall of Baghdad set in motion the enormous momentum of fundamentalist projects that had gathered force over more than a century in the Middle East. These projects were critical of the liberal Western model, describing it as blasphemous from a religious perspective, imperialist from a leftist perspective or as both from the perspective of revolutionary Islam, which combines religious fundamentalism with a left-wing approach. The fronts of the conflict between those forces soon opened, and the destruction of the world came at the hands of the new gods, according to the Lebanese philosopher Ali Harb.

Iraq was and still is the most prominent model of religious conflict in the Middle East, predicating the expectation that it will be reproduced in other societies, especially in light of the circumstances witnessed in both Lebanon and Syria. After 2003, Iraqis suddenly discovered that they, as a people, do not form a single nation, but are rather composed of different identities. Religion plays a major role in these identities’ structure, self-awareness and perception of other identities in the country. This is what is happening in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt in very similar forms or with very insignificant differences.

This religious-identity conflict has led to the fragmentation of Iraqi society, which has been broken down into separate components. Individuals have resorted to their religious identities in order to protect themselves from the oppression of others. People are killed based on the information listed on their identity cards, which includes their sectarian affiliation. In this way, people have resorted to sectarian affiliation as a social identity that preserves and protects people, especially in the absence of a civil state or rule of law.