The Problem Within Islam

CBS ^ | 3/1/2004 | Soner Cagaptay

[a_Turk]

American efforts towards a democratic Iraq seem to have created some strange bedfellows in the Middle East. The Sunnis of the region -- from Baathist loyalists in Iraq and hardcore Wahhabi zealots in Saudi Arabia to secular-minded elites in Amman, Cairo, and elsewhere -- are now united around a common anxiety: Since the Shiite Muslims constitute more than 60 percent of Iraq's population, a democratic Iraq will likely be a Shiite-dominated Iraq.

This is anathema for most Sunnis in the region, many of whom regard Shiite Islam as a perversion. (The feeling being mutual, the Shiites don't think very highly of the Sunnis either.) Thus, the possibility that another Shiite state may emerge next to Shiite fundamentalist Iran has exposed some raw nerves in the region, awakening ancient religious prejudices and creating modern political fears. Those anxieties, together with festering anti-Americanism, explain the reluctance of the region's Sunni regimes to extend America a sincere hand in transforming Iraq.

To be sure, sectarian divisions are not unique to Islam. Other world religions have their own share of internal prejudices: witness the persecution of the French Huguenots, the Thirty Years War, or the flight of the Puritans from England. Yet, while Christianity has mostly moved beyond intra-religious hatred in the modern times, Islam has not quite done so. There is no Muslim equivalent of the Second Vatican Council, the World Council of Churches or the tradition of intra-religious dialogue that so characterizes the Christian faith today.

Islam remains rooted in its history of deep mistrust between the Shiite and Sunni sects, which, since the 8th century, have been violently feuding over the issue of succession to the Prophet Muhammad. The past 1,300 years of Islamic history have been almost uniformly marked by episodes of strife between these two sects, and political domination by one group has almost always meant persecution of the other.

For example, when the Shiite Safavids came to power in Iran in the 16th century, they brutalized the country's Sunnis. The mullahs who took charge in Iran with the 1979 Islamic revolution gladly continue this tradition today. In Saudi Arabia, the opposite is true: The Sunni fundamentalist Wahhabis have turned the country into a prison camp for its Shiite minority since they ascended to power in the 19th century. In Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the secularist Baath Party, ruled by the Sunni minority, oppressed the country's Shiite majority for three decades.

The legacy of this history of persecution is that Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Middle East view each other with distrust. In most cases, mutual hatred is almost as deeply rooted as any aversion they may have towards non-Muslims.

What does this mean for Operation Iraqi Freedom? With the exception of Iran and Syria (which is ruled by an Alawite minority -- an offshoot of Islam distinct from both Sunni and Shiite orthodoxies, if somewhat closer to Shiism) all Muslim states in the Middle East are run by Sunnis, who view a Shiite-ruled Iraq as a potential threat. (The only exception to such authoritarian regimes, Turkey -- which is democratic -- is also a Sunni majority country.) The Sunni states of the Middle East are unwilling to whole-heartedly support Operation Iraqi Freedom because of what it may produce in the end.

This predicament can also be helpful, however, by showing a way out of sectarian hatred within Islam. It is time now for Muslims -- clerics and secular pundits alike -- to begin a frank debate towards healing sectarian divides through ecumenical dialogue.

Such a process should interest not only the Muslim world, but also the West. There has been much talk since the September 11 attacks about the need for a constructive dialogue between Islam and the West. Before Muslims can extend the courtesy of respect to non-Muslims, however, they will first have to treat each other with compassion. In other words, the path to inter-regional equilibrium between Islam and other faiths is through intra-religious peace within Islam. It is time for Muslims to address the decades-old problem of hatred within Islam, for their sake and for the world's.

[a_Turk]

Soner Cagaptay is the head of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

[expatpat]

Seems to me that the Sunnis in Iraq ought to start cozying up to the US authorities in Iraq real fast, instead of fighting them. The US can't be too crazy about a shi'ite takeover of Iraq either.

[a_Turk]

ping..

[cripplecreek]

The problem with islam in 3 words.


TOO MANY MUSLIMS.

[Monti Cello]

We gotta teach them Shiites and Sunnis how to let 8th century bygones be bygones, and how to pardner up and get rich together.

[Mr. Mojo]

......Sunnis in the region, many of whom regard Shiite Islam as a perversion. (The feeling being mutual)

They're both right.

[Wombat101]

Left unsaid: the issue is Kurds. What scares people more than a unified Shi'ite brotherhood between Iraq and Iran, is the Kurds will demand an independant state, with the resulting bad news for Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.

I wouldn't worry about Shi'ites lining up to shake hands across the Iran/Iraq border. Both have lived under dictatorship (one secular, the other religious) and hate it. Those shi'ites are more likely to build two Western-style democratic republics then they are to join forces to spread Islamic fundamentalism (and we do mean mental).

[Jack Black]

The apparent lack of understanding of the difference between a democracy and a republic are making this more important than it needs to be. It would probably be asking too much to have Paul Brenner and the other genius advisers over there to model the U.S. Constitution with it's wonderful concepts of sovereign states, limited central government, delegated powers, and unalieable rights. But I guess that few in the Bush adminstration really believe in these concepts. We know that the Democrats are actively hostile to them.

[sweneop]

I wouldn't worry about Shi'ites lining up to shake hands across the Iran/Iraq border.

theres also too much of a gap between the persians and the arabs. be they both shiites, they still arent going to be best buddies.

[Redcoat LI]

Given the title,I expected a much longer article.

[Wombat101]

Granted, but after 30 years of Saddam and the Ayhatollahs (sp?), I belive both have had enough of the dream of a world-bestriding,Pan-Islamic Caliphate.

The Kurds are the wild card.

[GeekDejure]

The Problem Within Islam

The Problem is that Islam actually exists in the first instance... considering that it is nothing but a death worshipping cult of brainwashed people who are totally forbidden to think for themselves and then act accordingly !!!

.

[Wombat101]

Agreed. However, I have more faith in human nature, if we'rea talking about people instinctually knowing what's in their best interests. The rest of human nature can take a hike! lol

[Iberian]

You missed a few things bud.
Our soldiers wear uniforms and high tech gear They dress in pajamas.
Our children have calculators and laptops, they have AK 47's.
Our women are nice and show their face, they don't.
We have a Prez, they don't and if they do they are freaks!
We have reality shows and they have reality tragedies.
We use toilet paper. they don't.
We have Chevy Chase and they don't.

Got to go have some more Thin Mints and beer, and they can't.

[Piranha]

Thanks for the ping, a_Turk.

I think it's oversimplification to say that the Arab world won't support Operation Iraqi Freedom because almost all of those countries are Sunni, and Iraq has a Shiite majority.

I also don't think President Bush will -- or should -- delay his push for reform in the Muslim world until Islamic sectarian hatreds are healed through ecumenical dialogue (however positive and valuable that dialogue would be for its own sake).

The fact is that the blood feud between Shiite and Sunni sects is irrelevant to the West, because neither group seems more inclined than the other to advocate peaceful coexistence with the non-Muslim world -- with the apparent exception of Turkish Muslim culture (is this because Turkish Muslims are Hanafi Sunnis and not Wahhabi Sunnis?).

A thought, though: England tried to carve up the land masses of the former Ottoman Empire and failed to bring peace. Perhaps population transfers should have their day in the sun once again.

[Kenny Bunk]

Yet, while Christianity has mostly moved beyond intra-religious hatred in the modern times, Islam has not quite done so. There is no Muslim equivalent of the Second Vatican Council, the World Council of Churches or the tradition of intra-religious dialogue that so characterizes the Christian faith today.

Jeez, what an original thought. This guy definitely desrves a place on the speakers list for the Interfaith Breakfast I am sponsoring in the Parish Hall of Our Lady of Riyadh Church. FARTWAHS permitting, of course.

[Shermy]

Yet, while Christianity has mostly moved beyond intra-religious hatred in the modern times

Obviously this writer is unfamiliar with the Religion Forum at FreeRepublic.com

[Mortimer Snavely]

"Islam remains rooted in its history of deep mistrust between the Shiite and Sunni sects, which, since the 8th century, have been violently feuding over the issue of succession to the Prophet Muhammad. The past 1,300 years of Islamic history have been almost uniformly marked by episodes of strife between these two sects, and political domination by one group has almost always meant persecution of the other."

What this means for the Arab world is that, broadly speaking, the largest part of the the solution is political, not theological. When Arab speakers can provide a viable political alternative to Arab National Socialism (Ba'athism) that can serve as a counterweight to Islamism, I will breathe a lot easier.

I see no other way for an environment amenable to the ecumenical movement promoted by the author to be implemented. Such an environment can only exist in a liberal democracy, where religious purity is not on the political agenda, and the free exchange of ideas is the to-be-expected, the social norm.

[Cronos]

THe Turks carried out a genocide of Armenian and Greek Christians, bringing down their population from 20% of Turkey to 5% and decreasing day by day.

The Brits weren't interested in solving the slammic problem, they just wanted money and they sc***ed up the middle east -- they made a previously unknown state of Irq with 3 different mutually antagonistic groups, they fudged on Israel untilt he Israelis kicked them out and they created the first state created on purely relgious grounds -- Pakisttan -- where the non slammmies were kicked out. what a legacy. Rule BRitannia.

[xJones]

Obviously this writer is unfamiliar with the Religion Forum at FreeRepublic.com

The easiest way to commit web suicide: jump in as a non-Catholic in the middle of an inter-Catholic fight in the Religion Forum.:)