Abdel Adhim Jabr Hafedh – Professor of Political Systems and Public Policy at the Faculty of Political Science / Al-Nahrien University.
Introduction:
National identity is an advanced awareness of sub-affiliation, which is an awareness associated with the emergence of the state, as identity from the political perspective represents a central axis in the process of building the state and the nation. After each time cycle in history, the need for societies to confirm themselves or review their affiliation arises. This need is embodied in the form of belonging, and framed by human, social, and cultural features or commons, reflected at the political level. This affiliation is called (identity) as a content of citizenship.
The concept of (identity) is one of the controversial political concepts, that emerged within the frameworks of common ties and interests. We find that there is an identity (national), (religious) identity, an identity (ethnic) or (sectarian) identity, which represents examples of narrow (sub-sub-identities, but there is a broader model when the identity is a university identity of more than one nationality, religion and a sect, and thus the identity goes beyond its sub-frame to express the broader common part of belonging, which is (national identity) that belongs to geography, history, connections, communications and common interests. As far as Iraq is concerned, what has happened (since its establishment in 1921) is the construction of its modern state before the establishment of its national identity. The era of the establishment of the Iraqi state was punctuated by the absence or weakness of political, social, and cultural awareness of the concept of national identity. Sub-affiliation has remained in control of the obsession of the Iraqi components, and this has been clear in the Iraqi constitutions since (Basic Law/1925) until the Constitution of 2005. Iraq has not succeeded in establishing a rational political system that confronts and finds solutions to its problems, especially at the level of national identity. The ruling political elites have pursued a policy of (ethnic discrimination) and the practice of persecution of various kinds, which has killed Iraqi components and other minorities, which is reflected in the development of the soul Local in the Iraqi political/cultural consciousness instead of forming (the state/nation / Iraqi identity), which formed a crisis; because of the weight of the inherited (social political) cultural that was embodied in the directions (national, religious, sectarian or monotheistic) as it did not hesitate to use violence, which led to social, political, cultural divisions, as a reaction to these trends, which led to the notification of Iraqi groups.
Other than the Arabs by not being Iraqi and then alienated from the Iraqi identity. Since the constitution is an essential document of the modern state; because it represents a reflection of the political, social, cultural, and economic reality, the Iraqi national identity has remained a controversial issue as the modern state was built before the establishment of the national identity; because the process of building the state began from above, the crisis of the Iraqi state is due to not being associated with the project of building the Iraqi national identity, and it is still looking for an identity!! The Arab (national state) has dominated the Iraqi identity, and Iraq is part of the Arab nation. Here are several questions raised, the most important of which are:
First: If Iraq is part of the Arab nation, where is the field of Iraqi identity?
Second: Does the Arab region constitute a nation?
Third: And if the Arab national identity prevails over the Iraqi identity, who are we?
So we will discuss this under the following headings:
First: The concept of political change.
Second: The concept of Iraqi national identity.
Third: The conditions of the establishment of Iraqi constitutions and national identity.
Fourth: The permanent and effective Iraqi Constitution of 2005 and the national identity.
