Sunni-Shiite slaughter: who provokes it?
Recently, the Middle East has witnessed the exacerbation of Sunni-Shiite conflicts, which have already acquired the character of a fratricidal civil war in Syria, large-scale terrorist attacks in Iraq, Lebanon, uprisings, popular unrest and protests accompanied by brutal reprisals of the authorities in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia over the protesters. What is behind the next wave of violence in the region and who provokes hostility between Muslims? A little excursion into history The relationship between the two main currents of Islam shows that today there are no visible reasons and objective prerequisites for a war between them.Disagreements between Sunnis and Shiites are rooted in the distant past. After the death of the Prophet Mohammed in 632, a controversy broke out between his followers about who should inherit political and spiritual power over Arab tribes. Most supported the candidacy of the comrade-in-arms of the prophet and his wife’s father, Abu Bakr. They later formed the camp of the Sunnis, who today make up 85% of all Muslims. Others, supported the candidacy of a cousin and son-in-law of the prophet - Ali, saying that the prophet himself appointed him as his successor. Subsequently, they began to be called Shiites, which in Arabic means literally "followers of Ali." In this dispute, the supporters of Abu Bakr, who received the title of Caliph, won. The subsequent power struggle led to the Sunni assassination of Ali in 661, his sons Hassan and Hussein were also killed, and Hussein’s death in 680 in the city of Karbala (Iraq) is still perceived by Shiites as a tragedy of historical proportions. The Sunnis continued to remain in power in the Arab (Islamic) caliphate for hundreds of years, while the Shiites were constantly in the shadows, recognizing the descendants of Ali as the true leaders.
In the subsequent history of the relationship between the Sunnis and the Shiites, there were no serious armed clashes.
Today, Shiites together with their closest smaller sects (Ahmadiye, Alawites, Alevis, Druze, Ibadites, Ismailis, etc.) make up 15% percent of the number of Muslims. The followers of this branch of Islam are the absolute majority of the population of Iran, two-thirds of Bahrain, more than half of Iraq, a significant part of the Muslims of Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Yemen. In most areas of Shi'ism, the central element is believed to be the belief that the twelfth and last of the Imams is hidden by Allah and one day will appear to the world in order to fulfill its sacred will.
Sunnis, in addition to the Koran, are guided by the "Sunna" - a set of rules and principles based on examples from the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Sunnah is based on Hadith: legends about the words and deeds of the prophet. Traditional followers of Islam consider following the Sunnah as the main content of the life of every true Muslim. Moreover, it is often about the literal perception of the precepts of the holy book, without any modifications. In some currents of Islam, this takes on extreme forms. For example, during the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, special attention was paid to the nature of clothing and the size of the beard in men; every detail of life was strictly regulated in accordance with the requirements of the Sunnah.
Shiites consider their ayatollahs (Shiite religious title) to be the envoys of Allah on earth. Because of this, Sunnis often blame Shiites for heresy, and they, in turn, point to the excessive dogmatism of the Sunni teachings, which gives rise to various extremist movements, such as Wahhabism.
It has long been no caliphate, because of the power in which the division of Muslims into Shiites and Sunnis began, therefore there is already no subject of dispute. And the theological differences of the currents of Islam are so insignificant that they can be easily leveled for the sake of unity and tranquility of Muslims. The Prophet Mohammed, shortly before his death, told Muslims gathered in the mosque: “Look, do not become lost after me, who cut each other's heads! ..”. Today, all Muslims unanimously recognize that Allah is the only god, and Muhammad is his messenger. All of them follow the five basic tenets of Islam, including the observance of fasting during the month of Ramadan, the main holy book for all is the Quran. During the Hajj - the pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca and Medina - Sunnis and Shiites together worship the holy stone Kaaba in the Forbidden Mosque. Shiites also make pilgrimages in the mosque of their shrines in the years. Karbala and Negef (Iraq).
Western media are trying to assure us that the blood that is now shedding in the Middle East is a consequence of the Sunni-Shiite conflict. Allegedly, Muslims kill Muslims solely because of their religious differences. This version relieves the United States and its allies of responsibility for interfering in the internal affairs of the region's countries, for double standards and dubious alliances with the most reactionary regimes and radical groups, including extremists and international terrorists. The conflict between the Sunnis and Shiites, fueled from the outside, creates a real threat of "somalization of the region", the imposition of chaos and violence in the region for many years. It becomes more and more obvious that there is no Sunni-Shiite confrontation as such - there is only the desire of external players in the blood of Muslims to realize their own national and corporate goals and objectives (control over resources, militarization of the region, enrichment "armory barons ", etc.).
It is not simple Sunnis who oppose Shiites, but political elites associated with the West by dozens of economic, political, military, financial and other threads, who received guarantees that the Shiite massacre will not cause outrage of the “world community” will not be subject to consideration by the international tribunal in The Hague and congressional hearings. Moreover, for propaganda purposes, myths about Shiite fanaticism, the Iranian nuclear threat, the “bloody dictatorship of the Ayatollahs”, the anti-people regime of Bashar Assad were fabricated in the corridors of the State Department and the CIA. The ideological base of the new “witch hunt” was created. The immediate goals of artificially stirring up the Sunni-Shiite conflict are very transparent: the destruction or weakening of Iran’s strategic partners in the region, that is, the B. Assad government in Syria and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, increased pressure on the Shiite majority government in Iraq, further isolation of Iran in The Gulf and the region as a whole. Another founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, rightly stated: “The enmity between Sunnis and Shiites is a conspiracy of the West. The discord between us is beneficial only to the enemies of Islam. Anyone who does not understand this - he is not Sunni and Shiite ... ".
It should be noted that the “Sunni Front” of the fight against Shiites is led by the regional allies of the United States - Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but less actively, but also Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are involved in this “Sabbath”. Somewhat alone is only one Arab state of the Persian Gulf - Oman, where the wise sultan Qaboos did not let his country be drawn into interfaith strife. What is the reason for the readiness of Riyadh and its partners in the Gulf to follow in the wake of the traditional policies of Western countries "divide and rule"?
First, Riyadh and its allies are not satisfied with the growing prestige and influence of Iran in the region and the Islamic world (the Shiite regime in Iraq, the Alawite in Syria, the role and importance of the Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon), in general, the growing popularity of ideas Shiism, as a more equitable way of life of ordinary Muslims.
Secondly, the monarchs of the Persian Gulf are frightened by the events of the “Arab Spring”, which shook the entire Arab world and caused a wave of protest actions directly in the Gulf countries. The most large-scale spontaneous demonstrations of the population were observed in Eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, where Shiites live compactly. The rulers of the Gulf countries relying on their Sunni tops did not want to share power and revenues with representatives of the Shiite population and again resorted to force methods to disperse demonstrations and suppress the uprisings. Moreover, the Saudis even sent their punitive contingent of troops to Bahrain for these purposes.
Thirdly, the kings, sultans, emirs, sheikhs of the Persian Gulf countries, decrepit morally and physically, increasingly understand their historical doom and want to prolong the period of their undivided rule as much as possible. The expression “caliphs for an hour” is very suitable for them; they believe that turning Syria, Lebanon and Iraq into the arena of open armed confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites will not only help them to stay in power, but also lead them to the leaders of the Arab and Islamic world. At the same time, the monarchs do not stop at the billions of dollars spent on this war, recruiting militants around the world, working with well-known terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida, Jabga al-Nusra and the like.
The flywheel of violence and Sunni-Shiite hostility at the suggestion of Washington and its satellites in the region is spun and is unlikely to be stopped by Geneva-2, Geneva-3 or any other formal international meeting that serves as a cover for international crimes. in Syria. The death of the Syrians and Iraqis could be stopped only by convening an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and adopting a resolution banning any foreign interference in these conflicts. At the same time, the UN Security Council must decide to conduct a peacekeeping operation (humanitarian intervention) in order to establish control over the borders of Syria and Iraq and prevent the penetration of new detachments of jihadist militants into these countries. Countries sponsoring international terrorists should be subject to UN sanctions of the type that have so far been applied only to Iran.
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