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Dr. Rodger Shanahan is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and Visiting Fellow at the National Security College, Australian National University (ANU). A former army officer, Dr. Shanahan had extensive service within the Parachute Battalion Group (PBG) and has had operational service with the UN in South Lebanon and Syria, with the PBG in East Timor, in Beirut as the Military Liaison Officer during the 2006 war and in Afghanistan several times since 2008 conducting operational inquiries. He has also been posted to the Australian Embassies in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Dr. Shanahan has MAs in International Relations and Middle East Studies from the ANU, and a PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies from the University of Sydney. He is a part-time member of the Refugee Review Tribunal and has written numerous journal, media and policy articles and is the author of Clans, Parties and Clerics: the Shi’a of Lebanon.
The primacy of ethnic Malays (and by association their adherence to Sunni Islam) has meant that Shi‘i Islam is considered a “deviant” sect in the country. Although official spokespeople regularly claim that the state has no concerns about Shi’a practicing their faith as long as they refrain from proselytizing, adherents face both social and legal restrictions.
