Anti-Sunnism

[9] In response to 9/11 World Trade Centre Bombings, the United States and its allies launched a controversial policy of an unprecedented counter-terrorism effort on an international scale dubbed as the War on Terror.

[20] In a sectarian twist, War on Terror rhetoric has also been weaponised by Shiite rulers of Iran[21][22] who adhere to Khomeinism, even closely cooperating with US frequently.

[24] Even prior to the War on Terror, Iranian leaders like Ayatollah Khomeini and Rafsanjani had invoked the Wahhabi label describing Sunnis as "heretics" to stir up Sunniphobia and Iran's policy of exporting its Khomeinist revolutions.

[27] Omair Anas argues that after the War on Terror, an imagined Wahhabi conspiracy replaced the United States as Iran's "Great Satan".

[53] The De-Ba'athification policy implemented after the toppling of the Baathist regime has mostly been targeting Sunni civil servants, politicians and military officials; leading to anti-Sunni discrimination in the bureaucracy and worsening of the sectarian situation in Iraq.

[56] On 9 July 2006, in the Hay al-Jihad area of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, an estimated 40 Sunni civilians were killed in revenge attacks carried out by Shia militants from the Mahdi Army.

[61][62][63] Iran's first Supreme Leader Khomeini had held anti-Sunni religious views, which was also reflected in the geo-political strategy he outlined in his "Last Will and Testament".

[64] During the events of 1979 Revolution, Sunni-majority cities in Khuzestan, Western Azerbaijan and Golestan provinces were targets of sectarian attacks by Khomeinist militants.

[70] After Khomeini's death in 1989, Iran began publicly exporting Anti-Sunni rhetoric through propaganda and Khomeinist media outlets across the Islamic World, in increasing proportions particularly since the 2000s.

[71] Ethnic minorities that are predominantly Sunni, such as the Kurds, Balochs, and Turkmens suffer the brunt of religious persecutions and numerous Masajid (mosques) of these communities are routinely destroyed by the security forces.

[73] In 2011, Iran imposed restrictions that blocked Sunni Muslims from holding their own separate Eid prayers at the city of Tehran.