Paper short abstract:

This paper traces the transformation of Sunni-Shi'a discourses since the 1970s. It argues that the Iranian Revolution constitued a watershed that gave a new spin to doctrinal debates and led to the portrayal of Pakistan's Shīʿa as blocking the country from being molded into its true political form.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I argue that the rise of Sunnī-Shīʿī sectarian polemics and violence in the 1980s and 1990s in Pakistan has to be located first of all within the realm of politics and clashing visions of how the "God-given state of Pakistan" could realize her potential. Often-repeated arguments about the importance of local economic grievances or clear-cut Saudi Arabian agendas are not reflected in the literature produced by the sectarian actors themselves. Drawing on Naveeda Khan's observation about Pakistan being suspended in a "striving" relationship with Islam, I contend that for the ʿulamā of Pakistan's virulent anti-Shīʿa group, the Sipāh-i Ṣaḥābah (Army of the Prophet's Companions), the Iranian Revolution constituted a particular moment of threatening closure to this open-ended process of envisioning their country. In doing so, they stand in stark contrast to sectarian discourses of the 1970s. Even though the Sipāh-i Ṣaḥābah still highlights doctrinal incompatibilities between "real" and Shīʿī Islam, the Shīʿa are primarily framed as blocking Pakistan from being molded into its true form, namely a Sunnī entity with a claim to global leadership. By denouncing and simultaneously drawing on the example of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Sipāh-i Ṣahābah also demonstrates a dialectical relationship with the Iranian Revolution.