Sunni Islam in Iraq

In 2003, the United States-based Institute of Peace estimated that around 95% of the total population of Iraq were Muslim, of which Sunnis made up around 35-40%.

[4] In the early Islamic period, Iraq was a key center of the Abbasid Caliphate, with the city of Baghdad serving as its capital from the 8th to the 13th century.

During his reign, King Faisal I was keenly aware that his power-base was with the Sunni Arabs of Iraq, who comprised a minority.

[4] In a survey in 2015, only 13 percent of Iraqi Sunni Arabs believed that their central government in Baghdad was heading in the right direction.

This led to the 2013 Anbar campaign and beginning of the War in Iraq against the Islamic State which lasted until December 2017.

[15] The religious and tribal factors and tensions inherent in Iraq’s political culture do not significantly affect the Iraqi Turkmen.