An Overview of the Shia Population of the Muslim World with an Emphasis on the Arab World

An Overview of the Shia Population of the Muslim World with an Emphasis on the Arab World

Most Shia are in the Arab World, but there are also good numbers in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Pakistan. There are few Shia in North Africa. In general, nations that had a lot of experience with the Shia during the Persian Safavid invasion and colonization of Sunni Arab lands centuries ago are the ones that hate the Shia, although there is serious Shia-hatred in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey too, but that is because there are a lot of Shia around to hate.

There are also a lot of Shia in Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Hatred of the Shia coincides with a couple of things - the number of Shia in the country and the extent to which the local population was subject to the deprivations of the Safavids 400 years ago.

More Shia, more hatred. On the contrary, absence of any significant Shia population as in North Africa usually means the Sunnis don’t care …