Wednesday, February 06, 2008

The Shia Arab Question

"Shia Arab", a paradox?

NOTE: This article references the following books.
[1] The Social History of Iraq, Ali al-Wardi *Shiite*
[2] Preachers of Sultans, Ali al-Wardi *Shiite*
[3] Story of Shia in Iraq: The Complex and the Dogma, Saif al-Khayatt *Shiite*
[4] States Without Foundations, Abbas Kelidar *Shiite*
[5] When The Shiites Rise, Vali Nasr *Shiite*
[6] Sunni Ambition and Shia Fears, Mohammed Baqir Juwad *Shiite*


A beautiful Iraqi girl sent me a message on Facebook yesterday: "Where in Baghdad are you from?" After I told her I am from al-Adhamiya, she brazenly retored: "A Sunni, at last!" Because she was such a hot babe, I decided to shed a blind eye to her racism, but after a few minutes of conversation, I called it quits, the word "Sunni" was virtually the start of every line, and her hatred of Shias was quite simply more than I could stomach.
This conforms to the behavior of many Iraqis I have met, it is the norm, not the exception, I only know of Sunnis because sectarianism is quite evidently a members-only club, but I'm sure Shias are just as lovely ; what is interesting is that many, far many secular and atheist people that I have met hate, or at least are very suspicious, of Shias not out of religious differences, but simply just so.
And so here is the question that had haunted me for many months now, a question that I ask myself virtually every day, who are the 'real' Iraqis? Doesn't the Iraq that I knew before the war, the inter-marriage and the friendships, mean anything? Isn't this just an unfortunate phase, encouraged by foreign intrusions, before we bounce back someday to our uniform Iraqiness?

The only really good thing about life under Saddam Hussein for me is that the presence of a brutal tyrant violently suppressed all those schisms, many people, including sadly, myself, would rather content themselves with living that miserable lie than realize the bitter and horrible truth of our disunity. A truth that had revealed itself slowly, but surely, that the kinship of sects is enormously more than just a religious banner or because of the brutal acts of Saddam Hussein ; it is who we really are, far back before the modern state of Iraq was created, it explains many things that were amazing to me when I saw them first unfold: how virtually all Sunnis, both Iraqi and Arab, ignored Saddam's brutality and rallied to turn him into a champion-martyr overnight, Because in the end, he is one of 'us.' The secular identification with Iraq, for instance, the one that I talked about loving here, isn't real ; it's what I want it to be, but it isn't real, that country tried hard to bring itself into being, but it failed, there is no such country, we might as well be talking about France or the Waq Waq Islands ; Yes, all Iraqis shed a big wet one about the vague idea of a "One Iraq," but when it comes to details, we all differ quite irrationally. This level of cultural identification slowly reveals itself to people who didn't even realize they have it, like my late atheist Shia friend from Kerbala, whom both him and I cushioned our increasing awareness of our sectarian identity with jokes back in 2006, it is the reason why many good Iraqis who believed that the issue was quite a simple one of human rights and democracy vs tyranny would find themselves surprisingly but inescapably subscribing to those 'tribal' emotions, it is the difference between your people and their people, you can find that sort of thing in many Iraqis, while most are careful not to show it but it comes out in one way or another in the end, good examples about this are Zeyad, Iraqi Mojo and, to a hopefully lesser extent, myself.

So now that we have established that the Sunni-Shia relation is not a common-ground-to-build-upon , it's rather an eat-or-be-eaten kind of thing.

Why?


"If pro-Iran parties or politicians dominate the new Iraqi government, a new "crescent" of dominant Shiite movements or governments stretching from Iran into Iraq, Syria and Lebanon could emerge, If Iraq goes Islamic republic, then we've opened ourselves to a whole set of new problems that will not be limited to the borders of Iraq." "Most of the Shiites are loyal to Iran, and not the countries they are living in."

Those quotes did not come from rabid Saudi Wahabbis or vengeful Iraqi Baathists, they are actually the direct quotes of two of the region's most-valued US secular allies, Jordanian King Abdullah and Egyptian president Mubarak, respectively.
These two quotes echo the sentiment of suspicion and outright repulsion that most of the Sunni Arab world views Shiism with, they are not just limited to religious differences, but is quite common among many seculars, like I have talked about earlier. So why exactly are the Sunnis have their panties so up in a bunch because of the Shia ascendancy? Doesn't the Shia have enough commonalities with us not to worry too much about this fuss?!

Sunnis accuse Shiites as being nothing but fifth columnists working for Iranian interests, as articulated by the brazen dismissal in Mubarak's quote. Why are Shias mercilessly insulted as being "Persian Saffavid agents" all the time from virtually all the Sunni Arab world?

Sunnis have a very self-centered explanation of how Shiism evolved, they bring out the usual soliloquy of the conspiracy theory and the evil jew, Abdullah bin Saba'a, to explain how the world was united against us from the beginning in a beautiful anti-semitic tapestry. Ali al-Wardi, who dismissed this ridiculous view, suggests an even more ridiculous one, perhaps affected by the Shiite version of conspiracy theory, he says that the Umayyad Caliph Muawiya tried to sow the seeds of discord between Umar and Ali. While Muawiya was a political genius, no man could quite set up such a devious plan and expect it to be carried out in such macabre detail long after he died, and why make up those cartoon-themed evil megaplots when there is a more rational, logical explanation to all this hoopla that agrees with the way human beings act facing an invasion that destroys their very civilization.

The only point I tried to make in my previous jittery post was the fact that Iranians, once rulers of a great civilization and domain, could not stand by just to see it all go away at the hands of people they held with the utmost inferiority. So when Shiism, a purely Arab resistance movement rose against the oppression of Umayyad monarchy, the Iranians leaped upon the chance to join the ranks of anything that opposed the rule of the invading Arabs, in the same way that the Ba'athists (and Sunnis in general) view the demolition of Saddam Hussein's regime, unjust and brutal as it was, as the end of their "rightful" dominance, even if they do not admit that ; in a sense, orthodox rule of the Caliphate was always attached to Sunnism, and opposition, whether rightful or mischievous, always moved under the guise of Shiism. There is no greater testimony to the statement than the fact that the Abbasids, after successfully assuming the mantle of the Caliphate, turned back on their Shia allies and became Sunnis themselves.

An important fact to notice that virtually all the fringe, gnostic and esoteric sects considered as extremist inventions by both Sunnis and Shias, including the Alawite present-day rulers of Syria, and the Carmathians, who hailed from what is today Saudi Shia regions, raided Mecca and adopted Persian customs of worship, all came from the womb of Shiism.

Another important detail is the fact that almost all the Shia areas in the world were part of the Persian kingdom at one point or another, such as Iran, Iraq, the Gulf, and Yemen. Even though Iran remained largely Sunni for centuries past until the rise of the Saffavids [x], Iran was the place most influenced and ripe for the ideas of Shiism more than any other place in the world, as Ayatollah al-Muntazeri says.

Perhaps an even important problem of being a Shia Arab is that you will view the entire history of the Arab-Muslim state not through pride, but oppression and injustice: every single prominent Arab Muslim is reviled by Shiism, from Umar bin al-Khattab (#51 on William Hart's The 100), to Harun al-Rashid and Saladdin.


It is in my belief then that the Shia-Sunni struggle is influenced in no small detail to the ethnic struggle between the Arabs and the Persians, the Persians, unlike other conquered nations, were a proud and mighty race, who were suddenly treated with inferiority they were not accustomed with, they worked their best to shape the religion that had been imposed upon them, and came out with a distinct identity that separated them from the rest of the Islamic world, allowing it to retain its uniqueness in one shape or another.

The Shias of today are oblivious to all that I have just said, they examine it with a heavy sense of spirituality and holiness that overrules any room for social or political explanations. And leaving all that aside and looking at the current affairs, the question that we must ask is: why SHOULDN'T the Shiites be loyal to Iran?

It is an understatement to say that the Sunnis have fought the Shiites in all the manners that they could, even their participation in the government is quite simply to obstruct political progress almost in all possible ways. Since the rise of the modern Arab nation-states, the Shias have been largely oppressed in the name of the Arab nation, with the identity of "Arab" and "Sunni" closely bonded together, not to mention, of course, the Shias own ideological stance which discourages political action until Imam Mahdi appears, a theory recently challenged by the rise of Vilayet al-Faqih (Deputy of Mahdi) in Iran.

If I was a Shia Arab, I would not hesitate to identify with Iran, which is ruled by a theocratic system based upon my precious beliefs, than I would with Arabs, the majority of whom do not follow my sect, and who view me with suspicion and send their sons to blow up my children and brothers. If anything, those attacks have further helped increase the rift between Arabs and Shias.

So, the Shias are bound to be loyal to Iran out of religious necessity, which is quite frankly the most vital constituent of kinship these days, in addition to the mutual lack of love from their Arab brethren, their identity is vastly different to the orthodox Arabs, and worst of all, Iran, like all theocratic nutcase movements, is expansionist, actively working to spread what it believes to be the divine truth and savior of mankind, it is the ultimate Shiite regional power, gee whiz, if I was Shia, where would I go?

Let me look at my own experience in that field, when I was first tackling those issues, I had a vague notion of Shiites as "people who don't eat Jirri fish and cry over Hussein." but after reading I realized that the differences are vastly more than simply that, the point that agitated me worst of all was, quite embarrassingly, the cursing of the companions ; yes that's right, this whole violent hatred is largely based on what these two sects think about people who died some 1400 years ago. I wouldn't mind flagellation or Mahdi or Mut3a marriage or any of that, but the cursing, lovingly propagated and cemented as a pillar of the Shiite faith by the Saffavids, is something that many orthodox Sunnis, whether obedient or non-practicing simply can't bear, the whole Shiite dogma focuses on the issue of victimization and the personification of those figures as pure evil. It is not just a matter of Sunnis insisting that a guy has black hair and Shias say he has yellow, it is about calling one's mom a bitch or not.

So how can we solve this problem in a manner that makes Shia Arabs acceptable to Sunnis yet enable them in the same time to retain their identity from Iran? Hasan al-Alawi, a former Baathist and a Shia opposition figure who fled Iraq since the 1980s and wrote many books criticizing the sectarian structure of government "Shia and Dawla Qawmiya" wrote a book called "Umar and Shiism," in which he tried to capitalize on a theme introduced by a major Iranian thinker, Ali Shariati, assassinted by Savak in 1975, by saying that the present mainstream Shia view of Umar, perhaps the only real obstacle between Shiism and Sunnism, was a theme that got picked on and propagated by Persian Saffavid nationalists. Of course, and as expected, those efforts were largely neglected and viewed with scorn by Twelver Shia, who looked on the effort as a Wahhabi-financed attempt to create tensions within the Shia community.

It is nice to find an article which can articulate and expand your thoughts better than you, here is a piece written by Mohammed Baqir, a Shia, on the website Kitabat.com:

"At the heart of all Iraq's problems is the duality of Sunni ambition and Shia worry, it is not a question of contradicting political agendas but is rather a politico-religious struggle that is distinctly sectarian, and has rallied support of many un-Islamic parties. At one side of this equation is a Sunni ambition to return to the days of old, an outright rejection of all the new realities, by the days of of old I mean not the Saddam regime, but the preceding eras of Sunni dominance, a fact supported by various sympathizing neighboring countries, as part of its perspective regarding historical claims of Iraq rule. This is especially felt from the stoic statements given by many Sunni Arabs, actually, their actions are a better mirror of that: Sunni parliamentary blocs curiously abstain from any projects or proposal that reflect an active participation and acknowledgment of the new order in a manner that reflect their desire to serve their voters through democratic means, save for the sectarian denomination system that reinstates sectarianism in the state through division of all posts between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds, in spite of the fact that Sunni Arabs is the component must audibly crying over the sectarianism of the new Iraq!!!! Second, the Sunni Arabs constantly oppose most bills and projects served by majority blocs, especially evident in the presidency where al-Hashimi executes his rights with unjustified stupor. Those reservations stem from their rejection of the new political reality which produced a Shia dominance.
The second dimension is the Shia anxious fear of not lasting in power for a long time, perhaps born out of psychological complexes bound to historical realities or worries about the changing dynamics of US under the pressure of the Arab lobby which does not favor this historical turn which had gave Iraq, with all its historical and religious legacy to an extraneous sect that is largely loyal to Iran, as stated by Egyptian president Hussni Mubarak. Shia are fearful of the diminishing of Iranian influence in Iraq, prominent Shiite politicians rely upon this influence greatly as it forms their repellent of Arab agenda which shall not sit back and watch developments in the interest of Shias for long.
This Arab disfavor of Shia had led to practices targeting Shia in which nationalists and Islamist agenda collaborated through political and/or military means against Shiites, in a way that actively contributed to the more hardline currents embracing justifications to diverge the Shiite path through constitutional means that may seem minor at first, by this we mean federalism.
Federalism was largely a political goal encouraged by audiences out of their conviction in the authority of its political elite. The Samarra incidents strongly ripped the social fabric, forming sectarian ghettos, this segregation led to the reduction of sectarian violence as a direct result of the lack of mingling between sectarian components.
Any observer of Iraq sees without doubt that division is a reality on the ground, only requiring to be recognized in a legal, constitutional facet, and federalism is perhaps the suitable frame in spite of the common belief that it is not an actual federalism but rather a polite inadvertent division. This course could be reversed in the occurrence of either of these three miracles:

1. A totalitarian military-styled government: An unlikely prospect, at least in the near future, due to the lack of any independent military organization detached from political discourse, in addition to the sectarian tensions and the presence of rogue militias, but most importantly the presence of occupation forces, which has sat back idly due to the complexity of the Iraqi scene, which is likely to remain ferociously intertwined for a very long time.
2. Sunni Arab minority acceptance of the new post-Saddam realities and formation of a new equation, also an unlikely outcome, as Sunni Arabs have been religiously attempting to restore things back to the way they were, an effort that we do not expect to see faltering anytime soon.
3. Concession of the Shiites to the rule of Sunni minority, supported by the idea that Shiites in general never did mind the dominance of Sunni rule in exchange for the respect of their rules and the respect of their freedom, a historically supported fact as Shiites never objected to the rule of Sunni minority because it is a minority ; perhaps this last statement is related to social, religious and psychological state of oppression and victimization that always made Shiites accepting of Sunni rule, as if it is a historical necessity. This can be perhaps taken seriously in the past, when Shiites did not have political movements, ideological parties, active militias, and a radical Shiite Islamist neighbor such as Iran, not to mention the fact that they are currently in power.

Although this article is obviously with a pro-Badr Shia slant, it contains many truths.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. Shia Arabs, for many historical, political, and ideological connotations, will never be embraced by the mainstream Sunni community as equally valid citizens, and vice versa.
2. The problem can only be solved if both sides make concessions: Shia Arabs must make more efforts to distance themselves from Iran and be more receptive to Arabs, a fact somewhat difficult to accomplish with adherence to one's religious beliefs, on the other hand, Sunnis must be willing to embrace them. [Highly unlikely on both fronts.]
3. The normal interaction between the two sects is suspicion.
4. Some Daydream Solutions:

* Everyone will be sick from religion (like I did) after a while and decide to play with Godlessness, if that fails, spray everyone with ATHEIST ACID.
* Nuke the Shia. (~Thanks, Dad.)
* Await for the return of Saddam's Son, our Mahdi (HAHAH, in your face!), who will complete the genocides of Anfal and 1991 and resurrect Hakim and Sadr (La3nat Allah 3alayhim) from their graves to kill them again, and then I can go back home and have some ice cream.
* Invite Hakim, Sadr, Dhari and Dulaimi to a party and whip out drugs and bitches so they can have a jolly good time and realize that we're all human.

27 comments:

Iraqi Mojo said...

Tomorrow night I'm going out with a half Sunni half Shi3i Iraqi girl. She's so damn cute, I'm not lettin no "foreign intrusion" get in the way:)

I do have one cousin who said that he would marry only a Shi3i woman. That kinda shocked me.

Anonymous said...

Great post, Kid. Just one thing: I don't know what they do in Jordan, but in the states we do not "whip out bitches" whenever we please. We politely invite them.

CMAR II said...

Kid,

A lot to digest but I like your daydream solutions.

Mojo,

That's right. The object is to limit the intrusions to strictly domestic.

Iraqi Mojo said...

Kid, this is an incredible post. You admit a lot that many Sunni Arabs wouldn't. I'm impressed, and I learned a lot. Saladdin is reviled by Shia? Why? And wasn't he Kurdish?

My cousin (he's my mom's cousin's son), the one who told me that he would marry only a Shi3i woman - he's the youngest of 7 siblings who were imprisoned by Saddam's regime between 1981 and 1984 becausse their older brother defected the army. Foreign intrusion mighta helped in that situation:)

On the bright side, one of my first cousins (she has green eyes!) in Baghdad married a Sunni Arab last year. They live in Adhamiya. Iraq will heal eventually, without Zeyad if he really hates the Shia that much.

On the companions: I don't know any Shi3i who's actually cursed the Prophet's companions. I'll be the first one to praise Ummar and all the Prophet's companions if the bombings of markets stops.

Anonymous said...

Kid,

Great post. I'm about halfway through right now, but I wanted to give you a quick thumbs-up. Okay, let me dive back in.

*

Anonymous said...

Kid,

Okay, just finished. Thanks a lot. I can't tell you how many discussions I've had over the last five years where I argued that the Sunni-Shia tension must have been there all along before the fall of Baghdad in 2003 and that it also must have been Saddam's tyranny that had held that natural antagonism between the groups down. Nothing else would explain the savage conducted displayed by both sides. Zarqawi and Muqtada both played on those deep pockets of emotion that you have nicely delineated in your blog entry.

CMAR II will also attest how many times the two of us have had this discussion with a wide range of Iraqis. Most Iraqis (okay, most Sunna) told us that everything was peaceful and brotherly before (while Saddam kept a shotgun to their face and even invaded their nightmares) and no one ever talked about one's sect. Well, now, after reading your article, one can see why. Talking about one's sect is like playing with dynamite.

The only really good thing about life under Saddam Hussein for me is that the presence of a brutal tyrant violently suppressed all those schisms, many people, including sadly, myself, would rather content themselves with living that miserable lie than realize the bitter and horrible truth of our disunity. A truth that had revealed itself slowly, but surely, that the kinship of sects is enormously more than just a religious banner or because of the brutal acts of Saddam Hussein ; it is who we really are, far back before the modern state of Iraq was created.

That's a very direct, honest piece of writing there, Kid. Hats off to you.

When Saddam was around the Sunna were privileged and the Shia were held down, but the tables have been reversed. Iraq has new winners and new losers.

Kid, if it's any consolation, Europe went through both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, fighting bloody battles for around a hundred and fifty years, until finally the Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the bloodshed.

Today in Germany Protestants and Roman Catholics live side-by-side and haven't tried to kill each other over religious differences for a very long time. And today also in Germany most people are not practicing church-goers and religion is not that important to them (which is not the case in the US, by the way). So maybe your children's children will look back on the current Sunni-Shia split and animosity toward each other as very hard to believe, like Germans today wondering how anyone could fight about religion.

*

Anonymous said...

"It is not just a matter of Sunnis insisting that a guy has black hair and Shias say he has yellow, it is about calling one's mom a bitch or not."

You know, while I was walking this evening I was wondering about the differences between Shia and Sunni, and wondering to myself if I'd have to look it up, or if Kid would be kind enough to spell it out for me. Thank you for this post... and I'm keeping the above quotation in mind as a quick reference (mainly to how fundamentally stupid it is for brothers to kill each other for millenia over something so infantile...).

Safety and Peace,

-Chrysm

Anonymous said...

One of the very best posts I have read. Great stuff!

RhusLancia said...

Great post, Kid. That'll get you today's vote, but you've still got a ways to go to catch Sunshine and the ITM bros.

At the risk of violating your fatwa, one observation. All that you say on this divide seems true at the highest levels of Iraqi society- i.e. the struggle for power and control by the clerics & politicians and so on. There seems to be quite strong evidence that at the interpersonal level Iraqis don't buy into this as much. We are told over and over about Iraqis who intermarry between sects, also few had trouble establishing friendships across the sectarian divide. The sectarian violence in Iraq has eroded this, as you've said, and the separation of sects certainly leads to an "us" vs "them" mentality that allows this mistrust to be exploited for power in a vicious circle.

OK, but my point is that this is not a natural state. As both politics and security stabilize in Iraq I think and hope Iraqis will be able to re-cross that divide and interact with each other naturally on a personal level. This will spread into a new national identity that hopefully will be just "Iraqi" and not some religious or Master-Racist artificial allegiance. This is like your fourth daydream scenario, but with regular folks and forget the turbaned snakes.

Don Cox said...

Excellent article, very well written. It seems to me that the Sunni-Shia divide has much in common with the caste system in India - it is as much a matter of social class as of religious belief. This is also true of Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Ahhh, Kid, brilliantly said. If Mel's applause smiley worked here, I would add it to my comment. :)

...a question that I ask myself virtually every day, who are the 'real' Iraqis?

A very interesting question. And despite the schism that you point out so eloquently, the answer is all of you.

Kid, do you think that Americans all have exactly the same background to draw from when they look at the United States? Or look at themselves as Americans? Do you think we have always felt or feel united? We come from many different ethnicities, religions, professions, etc. Yet we all feel a binding to something greater than ourselves as individuals. I don't know, perhaps it is to an ideal. We fight, indeed, we fight a lot. But at the end of the day we still call ourselves American. We do have shared experiences, we do have shared concerns.

Sunni and Shia, despite different backgrounds, and being on opposite sides of events, still share common goals. You want to live in peace, have some say in your government(I assume), be able to provide for your families and maybe enjoy life a little again. Sure you will always find bigots(we still have them here), but that's something you have to work through. Find people who will honestly work towards the common good, rather than for their own selfish agendas. Iraq has a chance, albeit I understand a slim one, to get beyond the old hatreds and biases. If you can do that, that will be an accomplishment that Iraq and Iraqis can be truly proud of.

P.S. I printed out your Shariati article and will read it later.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

P.P.S.

Yes, I understand that people are still concerned with things that happened 1400 years ago. But sacrifices will have to be made...stop thinking about it and get over it. ;)

Bruno said...

It's very sad that the whole sectarian war has broken out like this. As far as I understand it, there's very little difference between the fundamental beliefs of Sunna and Shia, except for the whole Ali thing. It really seems like a power schism as opposed to a religious one.

Apart from the excellent content of this post, the last series of, ehm, "solutions" was really funny. Thanks.

Bruno said...

[lynnette] "Yes, I understand that people are still concerned with things that happened 1400 years ago."

Good point. I mean, look at all those Christians running around.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

Good point. I mean, look at all those Christians running around. Bruno

Yes, it is. And it does apply to anyone who can only see the past and not the future.

Lynnette In Minnesota said...

There's something else I wanted to say.

I read that Shariati piece, Kid. I found it rather disjointed and rambling. I prefer the writing style of Al-Wardi.

Anyway, I understand that the conflicts within Iraqi society are not something that can be easily wiped away. Whether they stem from events thousands of years ago or more recently. And my suggestion to "get over it" may seem simplistic in light of the depth of the feelings of the people involved. But it is the only solution that will allow the region to move forward.

I sometimes bring up the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in discussions. No, it is not to try to get you to feel all warm and fuzzy about Israel. At least not entirely. ;) It is also to try to remind you of what can happen if problems are not dealt with up front. Conflicts that degenerate into that kind of standoff serve no good purpose. I don't care how much pride or land is involved.

Anonymous said...

Kid, does your computer ever get tired with all those words coming out of it?
Thank you for a thought provoking piece of work. I note that most of the quotes in the comments come from the first part of the essay. I tried to read the entire thing in one sitting, but found my attention wandering after a while. I will try to get back to this.
I see that The USA has agreed to back up the government in Iraq. This would seem to put us in the middle of all this s-vs-s bad feelings.
I don't think anyone in our government considered this before we launched the invasion. Even if our troops were greeted as liberators, it would not make the sunnis and shia kiss and make up.
Chamblee54
Blogspot has declared war on me and my sites. I cannot post under my own handle.

Anonymous said...

I am Shia and Iranian and I enjoy calling Umar ibn al-Khattab an asshole (he was Imam Ali's pet dog), Aisha a whore (daughter of a pimp named Abu Bakr) and Othman a pussy.
I curse the "sahaba" because they were murderers like the Sunnis who are killing Shia pilgrims in an-Najaf and Karbala. You are right, there will never be peace between us. I wait for the day we will shred the Al-Khalifa to pieces, and unite Bahrain with al-Hasa and al-Qatif and form a united Bahrain Shia republic.
America is even trying to turn Shia Azerbaijan against its Shia sister Iran. America is not in Iraq to help Shia, it is there for oil, otherwise it would not be supporting Sunni rule in Bahrain.

Anonymous said...

I forgot one more thing. I also prefer Jews and Israelis to a7l as-Sunna. I would gladly help any Jew or Israeli burn a Sunni mosque or turn Ramadi, Fallujah, Tikrit and Baqouba into a parking lot.

KULL YOWM ASHURA, KULL ARD KARBALA!

YOU SUNNI FOLLOWERS OF YAZID HAVE YET TO PAY!

Anonymous said...

OMAR IBN AL-KHATTAB=CHALB KABEER WAJID.

Anonymous said...

And by the way, I am not a supporter of Iran's government because it gives our Shia money to Sunni Palestinian dogs who call us "rawafidh" behind our backs.

Anonymous said...

Ani ba7lam bi'innu kull a7l as-Sunna yin7arig bin-naar! Zayn howayya chidhi! Dazz-li ar-ra'as Omar ibn al-Khattab (ibn al-chalb).
Ta3al ihni, ani ureed araawik shinha l-gowwat al-iranniyya, ya gawwad as-sunni!
Kiram too dahane harchi Sonniye SAG mazhabe, soosmar khorhaye koskesh! Reedam too dahane Omar!

Anonymous said...

Final word: If Israel's IDF decides to burn a Sunni mosque, I will join the IDF, just as I said before.

ahmed said...

dear mr. anonymous,

thank you for visiting, you didn't need to do all that to prove to me that sunnis and shia are never going to be united ; i know that for a fact, but from a secular point of view, i do care about iraq, i have many iraqi shia friends and i care about them, many of them are probably as religious are you are.
i don't think that sunnis and shia must fight ; like you said our religion is different and we are enemies in religion, but you know what, the fight can only begin when al-Mahdi appears. So until then we can live together, each to his own, you guys do your thing and we do ours.

Please do visit some more, we need Shi'i viewpoints like yours a lot.

Best
A Sunnnnnni

Anonymous said...

zayn kallish, ani raaji3, la tkhaaf.

Anonymous said...

Sayd Abbas, i7na mub as7ab, akeed, bass khallee7a tikuun sul7a baynena al-7een, khilal al-Ghaybat al-Mahdi, mithil ma gultilli.
Actually we really would like that, but when our faithful are attacked continously in front of their shrines in an-Najaf, Karbala, Samarra, and Kadhimayn (and nearby Baghdad), it makes it a little difficult for us to maintain that interim peace you are suggesting, and we cannot wait until the Mahdi returns from Ghaybat al-Kubra. Not avenging attacks is taken as a sign of weakness by the Sunnis who slaughter Shi3a, and this is evidenced by the fact that when the Shi3a obeyed Sistani's orders not to avenge attacks, the number of attacks on Shi3a neighborhoods, shrines and marketplaces increased tenfold.
I have not forgotten how Saddam expelled members of my extended family from Karbala just because they were "3ajam" (even though they were born in Iraq, and speak Persian with an Arabic accent), and sent them accross the border with nothing more than the shirts on their backs, without a single dinar to their name, and made them walk on foot to the Iranian border, where they were picked up by Iranian border guards who found them half-starved and thirsty.
I have absolutely nothing against you personally Sayd Abbas, and I am sorry if I allowed that demon inside of me to come out, but it is a result of the anger I feel when I see Shi3a women, children and elderly being slaughtered like sheep. 500 pilgrims were slaughtered in one day in Karbala alone, their only crime being loving Imam Huseyn Sayyed ash-Shuhada. Can you please tell your Sunni correligionists to please respect Shi3a holidays as well as Shi3a shrines and stop attacking pilgrims during their ziyara to the 3atabat? I will admit that what I said about attacking and burning down Sunni mosques was wrong. That was also out of anger. No place of worship should be attacked. I am sorry about some of the things I said, and being offensive. I am sure, however, you can understand what drove me to it.

Anonymous said...

I wish DEATH and DESTRUCTION upon Iraq, and I hate you Iraqis to the point that if I ever have an opportunity to punch one of you in the face, I will.
Fuck your Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Arabs, you're all the same shit.
You left TWO countries in ruins, Iran and Kuwait.
Fuck your country.