Iraq’s Identity Crisis in Symbols - Al-Monitor
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/iraq-identity-crisis-symbols.html
Iraqi groups try to exploit the public sphere to establish a presence and identity that distinguishes it from other parties. Therefore, neither side cares about common symbols that do not polarize. They focus instead on what provokes and makes others surrender before their symbolic authority. In this context, one can understand why some Shiites have chosen the photographs of Khomeini and Khamenei instead of Iraqi Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani, and why some Sunnis opted for photographs of former President Saddam Hussein and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan instead of moderate Sunni Iraqi figures.