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This page is archived; some links may not work. Clicking on home will bring you back to the active site. A plague on all your houses Sunnis and Shias in the Middle East By © Martin Foreman Word Count: 793 words Publication date: June 17, 2007 Last week two minarets of the al-Askari shrine in Iraq, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, were destroyed by explosions. Some fear that this act will lead to another surge in sectarian violence across the war-torn country. That was the case last year following the bombing of the dome of the shrine. Both attacks, it is assumed, were carried out by Sunnis. A quick review of Muslim theology reminds us that Shias believe that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet’s family after Mohammed’s death and each leader should nominate his successor. Sunnis, on the other hand, believe that leaders should be elected by and among anyone capable of the task. Over the fourteen centuries since Mohammed died, the split has led to various doctrinal differences, such as the raising of Shia imams to a status similar to saints in Christianity. The theology of Islam may be no more relevant than Klingon dialects but the political implications are profound. Much of the conflict in Iraq stems from the fact that after three decades of Sunni rule, the majority Shias are reasserting themselves. Here’s a rough overview of the crowded field of Middle East politics, with apologies for errors and over-simplification. (A) is the government of Saudi Arabia, a Sunni fundmentalist state, US ally and birthplace of fifteeen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. The Saudi government reportedly (Seymour Hersh, New Yorker, March 5, 2007) supports clandestine operations against (B) Hezbollah, the Shiite political / military movement in Lebanon, which is funded by (C) the government of Iran, a Shia fundamentalist state which also supports insurgency against American operations in Iraq, which are directed at shoring up (D) the Shia-dominated Iraqi government which is nominally a US ally, but members of which are deemed to be supporters of (E) Moqtada Sadr, Shia cleric, whose Mahdi Army is seen as hostile to US forces, which are also fighting in Afghanistan against (F) fundamentalist Sunni Taleban forces which were supported by the US when they fought the Russian occupation in the 1980s, but who are now seen as America’s enemy for having hosted (F) Osama bin Laden, figurehead of the fundamentalist Sunni Al Qaeda, who is rumoured to be hiding in (G) predominantly Sunni Pakistan which is proving an unreliable US ally. Others in the field include (H) nominally Sunni Syria (US enemy), (I) Sunni Egypt (ally) and (J) Sunni Jordan (ally), (K) Jewish-secular Israel and, in Palestine (L) Sunni Hamas and (M) secular Fatah, whose rivalry threatens to further destabilise that failed non-state. Tiring, isn’t it… Note that US allies include both Sunnis and Shias, as does the list of its enemies. According to Hersh, a respected analyst of both Middle Eastern and Washington politics, the administration is, at least theoretically, trying to support moderate Muslims of either sectarian stripe rather than fundamentalists. This goal, however, conflicts with realpolitik. One of America’s staunchest allies in the region is the government of Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that many of its laws and customs are antithetical to the US ideals of individual freedom and democracy. Nor does it offer unconditional loyalty to the US. In November 2006, Hersh reports, the Saudi king warned Vice Cheney that if the US withdrew from Iraq, the Saudis would aggressively support its fellow Sunnis against any Shia aggression. Sounds like blackmail to me… As the various players maneuver for supremacy, different strategies come to light, such as the American desire for the Israelis to bomb Iran in the event the latter country came close to building nuclear weapons – which would conveniently deflect any blame aimed at the US. To a visiting Martian, all these competing interests and machinations are the stuff of farce. To those caught up in the violence that sweeps the region from Beirut to Basra, it is nothing less than tragedy. At the end of the day, of course, none of this is about religion. On a macro scale, religion is rationale used by political leaders seeking to preserve and enhance their power at the expense of internal and external enemies that appear to threaten them. On the micro scale, conflict is the inevitable offspring when youth and alienation mate. As the young seek meaning in their lives and find it in the illusion of religion, young men in particular are drawn towards violence and aggression. That same religion is a blindfold which prevents them from seeing how their minds are exploited and abused by older men as insidiously as the victims are abused by sex offenders. The conflict in the Middle East will not end when religion finally disappears but it will lose much of its fuel. Those who long for peace must wait until Allah-Yahweh dies; such a day, unfortunately, seems many years away. The Blog began again on an intermittent basis in August 2008.
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If God existed, he would... admire the beauty of a universe that he did not create recognize that eternity is meaningless deny both heaven and hell disown all men and women who speak in his name denounce the harm caused by religious "morality" help the human race to thrive without him If God existed, he would be an atheist. What is the difference between science and faith? science is certain of nothing and requires proof of everything faith is certain of everything and requires proof of nothing Which do you trust? "I know there is no God" or "I believe there is no God" ??? Check the answer 
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