The Bitter War Within Islam

[Poetess]

For a nice change, one lot of uncivilized, fanatical Muslims are slaughtering with complete abandon another. A bitter (sweet?) civil and sectarian war is raging within Islam. So argues that fine polemicist and master of prose Christopher Hitchens. The big question is, whose side in this splendid orgy of bloodletting, if any, do we take?

by Christopher Hitchens, Slate

"See how the Christians love each other!" This used to be the secular response to the fratricide between Catholics and Protestants, let alone the schisms within the Catholic Church and the vicious quarrels between different schools of Calvinism. (When the Baptists of Danbury, Conn., wrote to Thomas Jefferson, asking for his assurance against persecution and generating his famous "wall of separation" response, it was the Congregationalists of Connecticut of whose intolerance they were apprehensive.)

Within Islam, these lines of division are many times more acute. Ahmadi Muslims are considered impossibly heretical by most other followers of the Prophet, and Ismaili Muslims are looked upon askance in many quarters as well, but the rivalry between Sunnis and Shiites (which also conceals numerous poisonous rifts between different interpretations and leaderships in both camps) has become one of the most toxic phenomena in the world today. On Web sites that offer advice to the devout, Sunnis and Shiites ask their imams and ayatollahs whether it is permitted to take the life of a member of the other sect. On American campuses, Muslim student groups now shun one another on a confessional basis. Throughout the Arab and Persian media, moods of excommunication and denunciation are vocally expressed. Almost every day in Iraq, as has been well-reported, a mosque is blown up or a religious procession shredded by other Muslims. As is less well-reported, the same thing happens in Pakistan almost every week. And it is waiting to happen in other countries, too, as the Alawite sect that runs Syria (Alawism being a splinter of Shiism) gets ready for another confrontation with the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, and as Sunni minorities in Iran become restive at the increasingly sectarian character of the Shiite dictatorship.

The schism may not appear to be doctrinal, since it arises from a dynastic squabble of the seventh century over the disposition of the Prophet Mohammed's inheritance. (Christianity spared itself this kind of earthly split by making it impossible for anyone but Dan Brown to believe that Jesus had a sexual nature, let alone any offspring. It went on to split about matters like the Trinity, which raised the awkward question of monotheism.) But Sunni and Shiite disagreements, in effect, do the same thing. Those who worship at the shrines of any of the 12 imams or who foresee the return of the "occluded" 12th one are idolators in Sunni eyes. While those who do not recognize the martyrdom of the prophet's grandson Hussein, according to Shiites, are following worldly caliphs whose rule is destined to pass away. This might seem quaint if it did not involve the quailing of many Sunni-dominated states at the prospect of an Iranian thermonuclear capacity.

Thus, the extreme forces of Sunni Wahhabism and the takfir school that form the hard core of al-Qaida may have been brilliant in the short term in their declaration of war against Shiism. They have certainly made Iraqi life very nearly unlivable and helped to wreck the prospects of a federal democracy there. But there is evidence that even Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri told their late brother Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to rein it in a bit. Delicious though it is to send heretics to hell, they murmured, the long-term cost of inter-Islamic bloodshed might be a trifle high. It is too late for that afterthought now; the war is on in earnest. After the savage demolition of the golden dome in Samarra, only a very few Shiite demagogues tried to blame the atrocity on the Jews. They knew very well who had done this terrible thing, and they acted, and continue to act, accordingly.

I have met a few very hard-line right-wingers who say: So what? If one lot of Islamists wants to slaughter another, who cares? It's very important to repudiate this kind of "thinking." Religious warfare is the worst thing that can happen to any society, and it now has the potential to spread to societies that are not directly involved. For the most part, official U.S. policy in Iraq has been sound in this respect, always working for a compromise and recently losing American lives to rescue the moderate Shiite leadership from a murder plot hatched by a messianic Shiite militia. Even where this policy fell short—as in the appalling execution of Saddam Hussein—the American Embassy urged the Maliki government not to conduct the hanging on the day of the Eid ul-Adha holiday that would most humiliate the Sunnis. We cannot flirt, either morally or politically, with divide and rule.

However, the self-generated Islamic civil war does have significance in the wider cultural struggle. All over the non-Muslim world, we hear incessant demands that those who believe in the literal truth of the Quran be granted "respect." We are supposed to watch what we say about Islam, lest by any chance we be considered "offensive." A fair number of authors and academics in the West now have to live under police protection or endure prosecution in the courts for not observing this taboo with sufficient care. A stupid term—Islamophobia—has been put into circulation to try and suggest that a foul prejudice lurks behind any misgivings about Islam's infallible "message."

Well, this idiotic masochism has to be dropped. There may have been a handful of ugly incidents, provoked by lumpen elements, after certain episodes of Muslim terrorism. But no true secularist or even Christian has been involved in anything like the torching of a mosque. (The last time that such a thing did happen on any scale—in Bosnia—the United States and Britain intervened militarily to put a stop to it. We also overthrew the Taliban, which was slaughtering the Hazara Shiite minority in Afghanistan.) But where are the denunciations from centers of Sunni and Shiite authority of the daily murder and torture of Islamic co-religionists? Of the regular desecration of holy sites and holy books? Of the paranoid insults thrown so carelessly and callously by one Muslim group at another? This mounting ghastliness is a bit more worthy of condemnation, surely, than a few Danish cartoons or a false rumor about a profaned copy of the Quran in Guantanamo. The civilized world—yes I do mean to say that—should find its own voice and state firmly to Muslim leaders and citizens that respect is something to be earned and not demanded with menace. A short way of phrasing this would be to say, "See how the Muslims respect each other!"

******

[Advocatar]

blah blah blah..................I havent read a word of your copied and paste article but I can guess what the defecating story is about--so with all do respect, go fuk yourself.

[Camel_herder]

This sick bytch called "poetess" is in the wrong AREA

This site is 100% MUSLIM SOMALIS


All that garbage you wrote is just KKK propaganda to us, and gives us more rage and dislike towards your kind.

Stop spreading hate you twisted Jewish Fanatic!

[Poetess]

Dildos as you know only too well Advocater dearest, do nothing for girls/guys like us. Much rather prefer my hot Irish boyfriend's well hung cock to back up against. On a side note, it doesn't make you look terribly smart responding to posts about which you claim you've read nothing. Still less when "blah" is all you can summon. Never mind- next time eh? Meanwhile be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro-lZGy743E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2D9FT9bKDA

Camel Herder sweetheart, why insult me? I'm neither Jewish, nor the fact Islam is seeing a fratricidal sectarian war evidenced by the daily bloodshed propaganda. Cease your fulminations, rendezvous and proclaim with me Allah Akbar! (maybe makeout too). So what say ye wise one?

[Salah Al-Din]

Assalaamu Alaikum,

If you know he's a polemist, how can you take what he says seriously?

Wassalaam Wabilaahi Towfiiq

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

Is there any doubt that there is massive conflict within Islam, that Islam panders to absolutist thought, and that this is leading to ever increasing amounts of violence in the Islamic world???

[Grant]

It's a sad day when someone with Poetess' reputation posts something like this. It's actually a pretty good article, and more balanced than a first reading might suggest. There are certainly folks in the Middle East who are weighing the implications.
--------------------------------

" Ahmadi Muslims are considered impossibly heretical by most other followers of the Prophet, and Ismaili Muslims are looked upon askance in many quarters as well, but the rivalry between Sunnis and Shiites (which also conceals numerous poisonous rifts between different interpretations and leaderships in both camps) has become one of the most toxic phenomena in the world today. On Web sites that offer advice to the devout, Sunnis and Shiites ask their imams and ayatollahs whether it is permitted to take the life of a member of the other sect. On American campuses, Muslim student groups now shun one another on a confessional basis. Throughout the Arab and Persian media, moods of excommunication and denunciation are vocally expressed. Almost every day in Iraq, as has been well-reported, a mosque is blown up or a religious procession shredded by other Muslims. As is less well-reported, the same thing happens in Pakistan almost every week. And it is waiting to happen in other countries, too, as the Alawite sect that runs Syria (Alawism being a splinter of Shiism) gets ready for another confrontation with the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, and as Sunni minorities in Iran become restive at the increasingly sectarian character of the Shiite dictatorship."

[kambuli]

Although this character Poetes tries to defame Islam in every way possible and because of this I have no respect for her, but the artcile she/he posted has some truth in it... So admit it... Do not look any further:

1. look at how you hate each other.
2. Look at how you guys become happy when a Somali is killed when he is your clan.
3. Look at how Muslims around the world are killing each other.
4. Look at all the Fitna you guys are doing.
5. Look at how our beautiful country is destroyed by your greed.
6. Look at the babies gang raped by men!
7. Look at how you have no respect for each other!
8. Look at how our history is destroyed!
9. Look at how all the trees are burned down!
10. look at how tooxic waste is buried in our country.



Look and look and look at your selves just busy on each other and even those claiming to be wadaads are not even better than the others... Everyone full of hate and qabyaalad......

He has a point and shame on you....

[Salah Al-Din]

Assalaamu Alaikum,

The article's objective was to absolve the west from any "Islamaphobia", since Muslims themselves are killing one another.

"This mounting ghastliness is a bit more worthy of condemnation, surely, than a few Danish cartoons or a false rumor about a profaned copy of the Quran in Guantanamo."

Now where is the truth in that?

That Muslims today are not practicing their faith is no Eureka moment? One has to bear in mind, how Muslims practice or do not practice Islam has nothing to do with Islam itself.

The polemist himself understands this is a political struggle:

"The schism may not appear to be doctrinal, since it arises from a dynastic squabble of the seventh century over the disposition of the Prophet Mohammed's inheritance. (Christianity spared itself this kind of earthly split by making it impossible for anyone but Dan Brown to believe that Jesus had a sexual nature, let alone any offspring. It went on to split about matters like the Trinity, which raised the awkward question of monotheism.) But Sunni and Shiite disagreements, in effect, do the same thing."

So what exactly is true about the religion? That its adherents are being used as pawns in the United States of America's hegemonic struggle to rule the world? What exactly is true?

Wassalaam Wabilaahi Towfiiq

[kambuli]

Salah.

I honestly read only few sentences which was " civil and sectarian war is raging within Islam.

And this is where I am coming from.... Why are we killing each other?

Some muslims say that all these conflicts are orchestered by the powerful nations and those thats sell weapons... But still why are we letting them? Are we a herd of sheep?

Every where in the world muslims are killing each other...

[Salah Al-Din]

Assalaamu Alaikum,

Apparently we are a herd of sheep, but that bears no significance on Islam. Now, considering the West is at war with Islam not Muslims; it gives them the pretext - if we agree with them - that since Muslims are killing one another, then its fair game in lambasting Islam.

Wassalaam Wabilaahi Towfiiq.

[kambuli]

Walaal,

Of course Islam is not the problem but the so called muslims are the problem and they need to change their ways..I personaly I am not happy into what they reduced to us... That is all I can say...It has nothing to do with giving a green light to Islam bashing etc... But we need to prove that they are wrong and we are not on the right track for that matter...

And BTW this is the kind of language that harms Islaam that I was talking about , quote' [quote="Salah Al-Din"]Assalaamu Alaikum,

Two people who care about their country discuss the best way foreword, and who crashes the party? A bunch of quisling parasites, who cannot stand the audacity of Somaliland to restore its sovereignty. If I was from Somalia Proper I wouldn't even mention Somaliland while I am under occupation. So lets, not side track this discussion with your insistent howling. Frankly, you do not matter.

Wassalaam Wabilaahi Towfiiq[/quote

When you are Ok with the fragmentation of a small country like Somalia...What Islam unity etc are we talking about? Walaal Charity begins at home... First we must recoincile and bring our people together than we can talk about other issues... This is exactly what weakens Islamic Countries...

[Poetess]

Grant dearest, rather American-hating Muslims murder one another in their frantic quest to beat the other to the reward of celestial virgins, than be taking aim at our men and women in uniform- who paradoxically are there trying to stamp out this mass fratricide.

If the American high command had any sense left, they would fully exploit this new window of opportunity that's presented itself by strategically pulling our troops back to their secure base, but within proximity enough to respond to our coalition allies (the Kurds included), wait for the Wahhabi Sunni insurgents and Iranian allied Shiite militias- both sworn enemies of America- to ethnically (religiously?) cleanse one another, before bringing our full military might to bear on whatever little of Allah's warring boys are still milling around.

Leave it to communists and liberals to take just the opposite view.

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

Actually Kambuli, Islam is the problem.

[FAH1223]

[quote="MAD MAC"]Actually Kambuli, Islam is the problem.[/quote]

No, the people are.