The brief uprising they crushed was not the first time Shias had attacked the Baathist regime.
But outside pressure on Hizbullah to disarm has recently coincided with growing dissent among Shias themselves.
Many Shias, not just Sunnis, suspect federalism of being an American-Kurdish plot to break up Iraq.
Iraq's Shias, who make up 60% of the population, have clamoured for direct elections.
Balochistan is plagued by both a separatist rebellion and sectarian infighting between Sunnis and Shias.
But most Arab Shias abandoned terrorist tactics in favour of more measured pressure for reform.
Minority Shias in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia complain of increasingly vicious sectarian baiting by Sunni radicals.
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Many non-Shias admire the party and take pride in the courage and skill of its fighters.
Mr Sadr's followers, by contrast, are shanty-town Shias who have never enjoyed any kind of power.
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In their opposition to the constitution, the Sunnis believe they have allies among the Shias.
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In tiny Bahrain, Shias are 60% of the population and have long wanted a fairer share of power.
The outrage among Shias might be uncontrollable if, say, an American shell were to damage the mosque.
But, not trusting the Shias, it imports Pakistanis and Syrians to serve in the army and police.
What may matter most is whether Shias conclude that it was sectarian and whether they decide to react.
This angered many Iraqi Sunnis and increased sectarian tensions, even though more Shias are on the list.
Sunnis, Shias and Kurds alike still see their respective militias as a hedge against an uncertain future.
She wished that Sunnis and Shias could live side by side, as they do during the Hajj.
Like the Kurds, many Shias rose up after the Gulf war, and were crushed with the same brutality.
Most Lebanese, including a growing number of Shias, are tired of being held hostage to outmoded heroic notions.
As a punishment, the hauza, the Shias' religious establishment, has deprived him of a share of shrine donations.
Hizbullah claims the loyalty of most of Lebanon's Shias, who make up around a third of the population.
Both Sunnis and Shias are killing each other, and Shias are reacting to the killing of their people.
Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shia leader, strongly opposes federalism: in Najaf this week, his men fought fellow Shias.
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The Shias might turn on the Sunnis or the religious on the secular.
Last year more than 400 Shias were killed in Pakistan by Sunni hardliners.
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In Saudi Arabia, the Shias have mobilised in advance of municipal elections to be held over the coming months.
For years afterwards many Shias believed that Saddam Hussein was an American agent.
And repression against the Kurds, the Shias, the Syrians, has continued since 1991.
The Shias' other big compromise was to drop their demand for sharia Islamic law to be Iraq's main source of legislation.
The Shias' five recalcitrants say they backed down only because Mr Sistani changed his mind to avoid a crisis.
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