Continuity in Wahhabi Thinking in ISIS's Attack on Holy Shrines in the Iraqi History

Hostility to and destruction of the holy shrines including those in Iraq has been one of the tenets of Wahhabism, turning into one of the most important issues in Iraq’s history. It has been conducted previously by the Wahhabi tribes residing in Saudi Arabia called "Akhawan" and currently by their fellow-thinkers including the Al-Qaeda and ISIS. This has worsened after the fall of Saddam’s regime in 2003 and then the departure of U.S. forces from Iraq. The main question of the article is whether ISIS’s attacks have been inspired by the Wahhabi thinking or they conduct them without any ideological resemblance and simply due to their enmity towards the Shia, while being indirectly supported by the Wahhabis. The hypothesis is that ISIS’s attacks on the Iraqi holy shrines are consistent with the thinking of traditional or Jihadist Wahhabis as both groups have an antagonistic attitude towards the Shia manifestations and symbols, viewing them as symbols of paganism. The author seeks to investigate the ideational correlation between Wahhabism and ISIS and how it turned into an instrument to counter the expansion of Shiism in the region.