What is the significance of Iraq in the Muslim world?
Iraq sits on ancient Mesopotamia and also the ancient Persian capital. It has very great historical significance, going back several thousand years, even before the rise of Islam. It’s a great archaeological center that has cognizance in the minds of Muslims, wherever they are. Baghdad was the golden capital of the Abassad caliphate, where the Thousand and One Nights took place, where Islamic science flourished, where some of the greatest philosophers and thinkers and writers and men of letters, poets and scientists lived. It occupies a very important position in Islamic civilization’s memory of its own past. It would be something like, let’s say, Oxford in the consciousness of English-speaking people, for 700 years the seat of learning in England. And then in addition to its historical role as the center of Islamic civilization for many centuries (although much of that was destroyed by the Mongol invasion), nevertheless, some of Baghdad remained. Baghdad is also a very important relig
