Sunni vs Shi’ite

 

This is more for my edification than anything. Just wanted to make sure I had the facts right.

• 632 AD, Muhammad dies and a schism is formed (not too dissimilar to the one that caused the break up of the Catholic church and the Orthodox church)
  • Who should the title of Caliph be passed onto:
    • The majority believed it should pass to Abu Bakr, a friend of Muhammad and thus Bakr did become the first Caliph.
    • The minority believed it should pass through Muhammad’s bloodline, starting with his cousin and son-in-law: Ali ibn Abi Talib
  • Eventually the title made it’s way to Ali ibn Abi Talib or “Ali” as he became the fourth Caliph. However it was short lived as he was murdered in 661 AD.
    • Once again the title of Caliph was, as Jeff Probst on Survivor might say, “Up for Grabs”
      • The majority supported the ruler of Syria: Mu’awiyah and his son Yazid. (notice a more secular/political/wealthy type leader) These people would be known as Sunnis, meaning followers of the Sunnah, or Way, of the prophet.
      • The minority (who originally backed Ali) wanted Ali’s son Hussein (bloodline again), these folks would come to be known as “Shi’at Ali”
        • This lead to a battle between the two sides and Hussein was decapitated near Karbala on Oct 10, 680 AD.
• Following the majority or Sunni way, the Caliph was typically both the religious and political leader of the Islamic movement and thus was a much more popular sect. Today roughly 90% of all Muslims are Sunnis.
  • Since the Sunni’s were the politicians as well as the religious leaders they used religion as a way to keep the Shi’ites oppressed. They felt like they were lesser human beings and thus they oppressed the hell out of them.
• The Shi’ite majority ended up setting up shop in what we know as modern day Iran. In Iraq there is a large Shi’ite population in the south east (along the Iranian border) but everywhere else is Sunni.
• Under the rule of a Sunni – Saddam – the Shi’ite’s were oppressed and Saddam killed off many of the Shi’ite religious leaders; two of them were relatives of Muqtada al’Sadr (Uncle & Father) [When Saddam was hanged someone yelled a vengeful comment relating to the death of al’Sadr]
  • Muqtada al’Sadr is the leader of a large Shi’ite militia that has been, from time to time, a thorn in the side of the US Army. It is believed that he has fled to Iran at this point, biding his time when he can come back in and exert his full power. (Possibly after the US has withdrawn many of our troops, as he believes it is better to have us gone when he starts his campaign)
• Jordanian al-Qaeda leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi was a Sunni and he and his ilk targeted Shi’ite specific targets eventually destroying a very holy Shi’ite site located in Samarra. [al-Zarqawi was eliminated by US forces last year]
• Everything went south once the elections were held. For some strange reason the Sunni’s boycotted the elections, this was stupid. This lead to a sweep of power by the Shi’ites (minority) and then many of the Shi’ite militia used their new found governmental authority / protection to avenge former grudges, they also did things on days that traditionally were Sunni holidays but not necessarily Shi’ite. (executing Saddam on a holy Sunni holiday) This Shi’ite power play was more than the Sunnis could handle so they formed militia for defense from Shi’ite death squads, additionally the militia started offensive attacks against Shi’ite .
• Now we have Iran, Iran is the only country in the world where Shi’ite is the majority. It behooves Iran to see a Shi’ite majority ruling Iraq although they would prefer it to be true Islamic government as opposed to a Shi’ite Democracy.
  • With the US backing and supporting a Shi’ite government in Iraq we are inadvertently playing right into the hands of the Iranians.
• Many of the leaders of the Middle East believe Ahmadinejad’s nuclear goals are more than just a power play against the USA and the West, but possibly about Iran spreading the Shi’ite religion throughout the region.
  • Iran is a big time backer of Shi’ite Hizballah as well as Hamas, two organizations that have set up shop rather nicely in Lebanon and Israel/Palestine, respectively.
  • Hizballah was blamed for assassinating a former Sunni Prime Minister of Lebanon which has caused contention between Muslims in that part of the region, especially towards Shi’ite governed Syria.

Anyhow, the above is a really high level overview of the current state of affairs. So in brief summary, we have Shi’ites for the first time ruling Iraq through a democratic process, which is vehemently opposed by the majority of the population, Sunnis. We have Sunni terrorists, like al-Qaeda, flooding into the country to fight the US as well as the Shi’ite government. We have a Shi’ite government too weak to currently defend itself so it is being propped up by both the USA and most likely Iran, albeit Iran denies supporting the Shi’ite militia / insurgency. The last thing the Sunni’s want is for the Shi’ite government to be strong and stable and then the Americans leave because then Iran will be a real power player in the country so they continue to bomb the Shi’ite because they want Islamic law to rule Iraq not democracy. So, needless to say it is a real hornet’s nest over their right now.

It is easy to see that we sure got ourselves into a mess by attacking Iraq, but at the same time Iran is going to need to be dealt with sooner or later. Right now we have a very strong base of operations to launch an attack against Iran should the need arise. If we were to pull out of Iraq I think it would be disastrous. Right now the only thing keeping Israel from bombing Ahmadinejad back to the stone age is our presence in Iraq. If we were to leave Israel would have no choice but to attack Iran. I mean it would be really nice if we could pull out of their and let them all figure it out for themselves but let’s not kid ourselves about what this has always been about: it’s really simple, it’s the oil. I know it’s nice and PC to say no war for oil, etc etc, but we need that oil because without it our economy comes to a screeching halt and thus does every economy in the world get turned upside down. It is better to deal with Iran now, or we will be forced to deal with them later…

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