Sectarian conflict proliferates in Middle East

Hard-line clerics and politicians on both sides of the sectarian divide are stoking violence and distrust — but among the public, views are more complex

It’s not hard to find stereotypes, caricatures and outright bigotry when talk in the Middle East turns to the tensions between Islam’s two main sects: Shias and Sunnis.

Hatreds between the two are now more virulent than ever in the Arab world because of Syria’s civil war. Officials said four Shias in a village west of Cairo were beaten to death by Sunnis in a sectarian clash unusual for Egypt.

Hard-line clerics and politicians on both sides in the region have added fuel, depicting the fight as essentially a war of survival for their sect.

But among the public, views are complex. Some sincerely see the other side as wrong — whether on matters of faith or politics. Others see the divisions as purely political, created for cynical aims. Even some who view the other sect negatively fear sectarian flames are burning dangerously out of control. There are those who wish for a return to the days, only a decade or two ago, when the differences did not seem so important and the sects got along better, even intermarried.

And some are simply frustrated that there is so much turmoil over a dispute that dates back to the 7th century.

“Fourteen centuries after the death of the Prophet, in a region full of destruction, killing, occupation, ignorance and disease, you are telling me about Sunnis and Shias?” scoffs Ismail al-Hamami, a 67-year-old Sunni Palestinian refugee in Gaza. “We are all Muslims. … You can’t ignore the fact that (Shias) are Muslims.”

Associated Press correspondents spoke to Shias and Sunnis across the region. Amid the variety of viewpoints, they found a public struggling with anger that is increasingly curdling into hatred.

Sunnis are the majority across the Islamic world. In the Middle East, Shias have strong majorities in Iran, Iraq and Bahrain, with significant communities in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other parts of the Gulf.

Both consider the Quran the word of God. But there are distinctions in theology and religious practice between the two sects.

Some are minor: Shias pray with their hands by their sides, Sunnis with their hands crossed at their chest or stomach.

Others are significant. Shias, for example, believe Ali and a string of his descendants, the Imams, had not only rightful political authority after Muhammad but also held a special religious wisdom. Most Shias believe there were 12 Imams — many of them “martyred” by Sunnis — and the 12th vanished, to one day return and restore justice.

Sunnis accuse the Shias of elevating Ali to the level of Prophet Muhammad himself — incorrectly, since Shias agree that Muhammad was the last of the prophets, a central tenet of Islam.

The bitter disputes of early Islam still resonate. Even secular-minded Shia parents would never name their child after the resented Abu Bakr, Omar or Othman — or Aisha, a wife of Muhammad, who helped raise a revolt against Ali during his Caliphate.

When outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Egypt earlier this year, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar University, the bastion of Sunni theology, told him sharply that if the sects are to get along, Shias must stop “insulting” the “companions of the prophet.” But only the most hard-core would say those differences are reason enough to hate each other. For that, politics is needed.

Al-Azhar University (J?miat al-Azhar) was founded in 970 or 972 by the Fatimids as a centre of Islamic learning. Its students studied the Qur’an and Islamic law in detail, along with logic, grammar, rhetoric, and how to calculate the lunar phases of the moon. By bringing together the study of a number of subjects in the same place it was one of the first universities in the world and the only one to survive as a modern university including secular subjects in the curriculum. It is today the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 additional non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.

If Syria’s war has raised the region’s sectarian hatreds, the war in Iraq played a big role in unleashing them. After the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, the long-oppressed Shia majority there saw a chance to take power. Sunnis feared the repression would flip onto them. The result was vicious sectarian fighting that lasted until 2008: Sunni extremists pulled Shia pilgrims from buses and gunned them down; Shia militiamen kidnapped Sunnis, dumping their tortured bodies later.

Abdul-Sattar Abdul-Jabar, 56, is a Sunni cleric who occasionally preaches at the prominent Abu Hanifa mosque in the Sunni-dominated Azamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad. Two of his sons were killed by Shia militiamen. He blames the United States and Iran for Iraq’s strife.

“Right from the beginning, the Americans were trying to create sectarian rifts,” he said. “Iran is a country of regional ambitions. It isn’t a Shia country. It’s a country with specific schemes and agendas.”

Now he fears the strife is returning, and he blames the Shia-dominated government.

“We feel the government does not consider us part of the Iraqi nation,” he said. “There is no magical solution for this. If the Shias are convinced to change their politicians, that would be a big help.”

Ahmed Saleh Ahmed, 40, a Sunni, runs a construction company in Baghdad mainly employing Shias. He is married to a Shia woman. They live in the Azamiyah neighborhood and raise their two daughters and son as Sunnis.

Still, his wife prays with the small clay stone that Shias — but not Sunnis — set in front of their prayer rugs. She often visits a Shia shrine in another Baghdad district. Ahmed sometimes helps his wife’s family prepare food for Shia pilgrims during religious ceremonies. But he admits that there sometimes is tension between the families.

“We were able to contain it and solve it in a civilized way,” Ahmed said.

Iraqis like to talk politics, he said, and “when things get heated, we tend to change the subject.”

When their children ask about sectarian differences, “we do our best to make these ideas as clear as we can for them so they don’t get confused,” he said. “We try to avoid discussing sectarian issues in front of the children.”

Ahmed believes sectarian tensions have been strained because people have abused the democratic ideas emerging from the Arab Spring.

Democracy “needs open-mindedness, forgiveness and an ability to understand the other,” he said. “No human being is born believing in democracy. It’s like going to school — you have to study first. Democracy should be for people who want to do good things, not for those who are out for revenge.”

Hussein Al-Rubaie, 46, a Shia, was jailed for two years under Saddam. His Shia-majority Sadriya district in Baghdad saw considerable bloodshed during the worst of the strife, and he fears it’s returning.

“The whole region is in flames and we are all about to be burnt,” he said. “We have a lot of people who are ignorant and easily driven by sectarian feelings.”

He sees it among his friends, who include Sunnis. “My friends only whisper about sectarian things because they think it is a shame to talk about such matters,” al-Rubaie said, “but I am afraid that the day might come when this soft talking would turn to fighting in the street.”

Among some of Lebanon’s Shias, it’s fashionable to wear a necklace with a medallion in the shape of the fabled double-bladed sword of Ali. It’s a mark of community pride at a time when the Shia group Hezbollah says the sect is endangered by Sunni extremists in the Syrian uprising.

During Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, the main fight was between Christians and Muslims. But in the past decade, the most dangerous divide has been between Shias and Sunnis.

For much of Lebanon’s existence, Shias, who make up about a third of the population, were an impoverished underclass beneath the Christians and Sunnis, each roughly a third also.

The Shia resentment helped the rise of the guerrilla force Hezbollah, on whose might the community won greater power. Now, many Sunnis resent Hezbollah’s political domination of the government. The 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a Sunni, increased Sunni anger after Hezbollah members were blamed. Since then, both sides have clashed in the streets.

Syria’s civil war has fuelled those tensions. Lebanon’s Sunnis largely back the mainly Sunni rebellion, while Shias support President Bashar Assad’s regime, which is dominated by his Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism. Hezbollah sent fighters to help Assad fight the rebels, enraging Sunnis region-wide.

Rania, 51, is a Shia Lebanese banking executive, married to a Sunni and living in Ras Beirut, one of the capital’s few mixed neighbourhoods.

When she married, at age 22, “I didn’t even know what the difference between Sunnis and Shias is.”

Now she’s inclined to support Hezbollah. While not a fan of the hard-line group, she believes that Hezbollah and Syria are targeted because of their stances against Israel. She said her husband is anti-Hezbollah and supports Syria’s rebels.

Rania, who gave only her first name because she doesn’t want to be stigmatized about her social, religious or marital status, said she doesn’t talk politics with her husband to avoid arguments.

“I support one (political) side and he supports the other, but we’ve found a way to live with it,” added Rania, who has a 22-year-old daughter.

She said education plays a big role. “I find that the people who make comments about it are the people who are just ignorant, and ignorance feeds hatred and stereotyping,” she added.

Khaled Challah is a 28-year-old Syrian Sunni businessman who has lived for years in Lebanon. He comes from a conservative, religious family but only occasionally goes to mosque. He said the only way he would be able to tell the difference between a Sunni mosque and a Shia one would be if the cleric talked about Syria in the sermon.

“A Shia imam would speak against the rebels, and call to resist them, and a Sunni sheikh would talk against the government in Syria,” he said.

He said he still doesn’t understand the Shias’ emotional fervour over the battle of Karbala, in which Ali’s son, Hussein, was killed by the armies of the Sunni Ummayad dynasty in the 7th century. Hussein’s martyrdom is a defining trauma of their faith, deepening their feeling of oppression. Every year, Shias around the world mark the battle with processions that turn into festivals of mourning, with men lashing or cutting themselves.

“It means much more to Shias, this battle’s memory, than to Sunnis,” Challah said.

He said Sunnis “behave sometimes like they are the only Muslims.”

Challah called this “very silly. Sunnis and Shias come from the same root, they worship the same God.”

The Shia powerhouse of the Middle East is home to a government led by Shia clerics with oil wealth and a powerful Revolutionary Guard. Tehran has extended its influence in the Arab world, mainly through its alliance with Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. Iran has presented that alliance not as sectarian but as the centre of “resistance” against Israel.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies have been trying to stem Iran’s influence, in part by warning of the spread of Shiism. Saudi Arabia’s hard-line Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam views Shiism as heresy.

Reza Tajabadi, a Shia cleric in Tehran, blames the Wahhabis — and the related ultra-conservative Salafi movement in Sunni Islam — for stoking sectarian hatred.

“If Wahabis withdrew from creating differences, then Shias and Sunnis will be able to put aside their minor differences, which are not considerable.”

Abolfatah Davati, another Shia cleric, points to the historical difference between the two sects. Since Sunnis have been dominant through history, Sunni clerics became subordinate to the rulers. The Shia clergy, he said, has been independent of power.

“Sunni clerics backed rulers and justified their policies, like the killing of Imam Hussein. Even now, they put their rulers’ decision at the top of their agenda,” he said.

“In contrast, Shias have not depended on government, so Sunnis cannot tolerate this and issue religious edicts against them. This increases rifts.”

In a country where the Muslim population is overwhelmingly Sunni, many Egyptians know little about Shias. The Shia population is tiny and largely hidden — so secretive that its numbers are not really known. But ultraconservative Salafis, many of whom view Shias as infidels, have become more politically powerful and more vocal since the 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. They often preach against Shiism, warning it will spread to Egypt.

Mona Mohammed Fouad is a rarity in Egypt: Her mother is an Iranian Shia, her father an Egyptian Sunni. She considers herself Sunni.

“People are always surprised and shocked” when they find out her mother is Shia, said Fouad, 23, who works for a digital marketing company. “But usually as soon as they know, they are very interested and they ask me many questions.”

Fouad said her sister has heard colleagues criticizing Shias. In her fiancé’s office they distributed leaflets “telling people to beware of Shia indoctrination,” she added.

“People should read about Shiism. We make fun of foreigners who believe all Muslims are terrorists and we say they are ignorant, but we do the same thing to ourselves,” Fouad said. “There is a difference in interpretation, a difference in opinion, but at the end of the day, we believe in the same things.”

She told her Sunni fiancé from the start that her mother is Shia. “I told him to tell his family, so if they have any problem with that, we end it immediately.”

Anas Aqeel, a 23-year-old Salafi, spent the first 18 years of his life in Saudi Arabia, where he would sometimes encounter Shias. “We didn’t ever argue over faith. But they alienated me,” he said.

“I once saw a Shia in Saudi Arabia speaking ill of one of the companions of the Prophet near his tomb. That one I had to clash with and expel him from the place,” Aqeel said.

He worries about Shias spreading their faith. While he said not all Shias are alike, he added that “some of them deviate in the Quran and speak badly of the prophet’s companions. If someone is wrong and … he insists on his wrong concept, then we cannot call him a Muslim.”

Palestinian Muslims are also almost all Sunnis. Their main connection to the Shia world has Hamas’ alliance with Iran. But those ties were strained when Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, broke its connections with Syria because of the civil war.

Ahmed Mesleh, a 28-year-old blogger from the West Bank town of Ramallah, says he met Shias on a trip to Lebanon and encounters them via Facebook. But some have defriended him because of his online comments.

“If we take Shias from a religious point of view, then we can describe Shias as a sect that has gone astray from the true doctrine of Islam. I consider them a bigger threat to Muslims and Islam than Jews and Israel,” Mesleh said.

He cited the Shias’ processions mourning Imam Hussein’s death, saying: “The way they whip themselves, it’s irrational.”

The Middle East conflict “is in its core a religious conflict. The Shias want to destroy Islam. In Lebanon, they are the ones controlling the situation, and the ones who are causing the sectarian conflict.”

Ismail Al-Hamami, a 67-year-old Palestinian refugee in Gaza’s Shati camp, said politics not religion is driving sectarian tensions.

“In Gaza, Iran used to support the resistance with weapons. Now they support Assad. … In Iraq, they (Shias) executed Saddam Hussein, who was a Sunni, and they took over the country with the help of the Americans. Now they are working against America in Iran and Syria.”

“So is that related to religion? It’s all about politics.”

The beneficiaries of sectarianism, he said, are “those who want to sell arms to both sides … those who want to keep Arab and Muslim countries living in the dark. The beneficiaries are the occupation (Israel) and the people who sell us religious slogans.”

“God knows who is right or wrong.”

Saudi police have killed a man who fled when they tried to arrest him for allegedly taking part in unrest that shook the kingdom’s Shiite-populated Eastern Province last year, a report said.

Security forces tracked down Morsi Ali Ibrahim Al-Rabah, “who was involved in criminal acts that targeted Saudi nationals and citizens of his village”, the official SPA news agency reported, quoting an interior ministry spokesman.

The spokesman said police opened fire at Al-Rabah, who figured on a list of 23 Shiites wanted in connection with unrest in the Shiite village of Al-Awamiya, when he fled as they tried to arrest him. He was wounded and died in hospital, the spokesman said.

Al-Rabah had “taken part in opening fire at citizens and members of the security forces, killing and wounding some,” said the spokesman, adding that authorities will continue to hunt down wanted suspects.

It urged the remaining 10 suspects on the same list, to “quickly hand themselves over to security services,” adding that “this will be taken into account when looking into their cases.”

Thirteen suspects have been killed in shootouts during raids or have been arrested and are on trial.

Shiite towns in oil-rich Eastern Province have been rocked by sporadic violence. Residents have clashed with police to protest what they say is the marginalisation of Shiites in Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.

There are an estimated two million Shiites in the kingdom of around 27.5 million people.

Police said a young man was found dead in his car in Qatif, also in Eastern Province, after unknown gunmen opened fire at patrolmen in the area, sparking a gunfight.

The man was not immediately identified and it was not clear if his death was linked to the gunfight.

The unrest first erupted after violence between Shiite pilgrims and religious police in the Muslim holy city of Madina in February 2011.

The protests escalated when Saudi Arabia led a force of Gulf troops into neighbouring Bahrain the following month to help crush Shiite-led pro-democracy demonstrations in the tiny Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom.

Human rights groups say more than 600 people have been arrested since the spring of 2011, most of them in Qatif. The majority have since been released.

Eyewitnesses say that Salafist sheikhs in Giza village led a mob attack on Shia families, accusing them of being infidels and spreading debauchery, leaving four dead and scores injured

An angry mob led by Salafist sheikhs torched and attacked houses of Shias in the small village of Zawyat Abu Musalam in Giza governorate afternoon, killing four citizens including a prominent shia figure.

Not less than 3000 angry locals attacked houses of Shias in the village afternoon after weeks of incitement by Salafist preachers, according to eyewitnesses.

Five houses were set on fire during the attack. Police are evacuating the rest of the Shia residents from the village.

“For three weeks the Salafist sheikhs in the village have been attacking the Shias and accusing them of being infidels and spreading debauchery,” Hazem Barakat, an eyewitness and photojournalist, told Ahram Online.

Barakat, who reported the incident live on Twitter, took photos and videos showing one of the Shias began dragged in the street after being beaten. “I saw several Shias stabbed several times while they were being dragged in some sort of public lynching,” said Barakat.

At least four have been killed according to the head of the Giza security directorate. According to eyewitnesses, there are not less than 30 badly injured Shias who have been transferred to hospital.

The death toll included 66-year-old Hassan Shehata, a prominent Shia figure who was jailed twice under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for “contempt of religion.”

The police force came late according to eyewitnesses and did nothing to stop the attack and public lynching. “They were just watching the public lynching like anyone else and did not stop anything,” said Barakat.

“We hold President Morsi responsible for this attack,” said Bahaa Anwar, a Shia activist. “There are not less than three million Egyptian Shiias who live in Egypt and during the Syria solidarity conference attended by Morsi in the Cairo Stadium, Salafist sheikhs insulted Shias and incited hate against those Egyptian Shia citizens,” said Anwar, adding that President Morsi did not refute these insults and incitement, though he claims to represent all Egyptians. The outspoken Shia activist told Ahram Online that there are not less than 40 Shia families in Zawyat Abu Muslam village. “Some of the families managed to leave while there are families who are still besieged in the village.”

Anwar said that Shehata was visiting one of the Shia families in the village when the attack happened.

Salafist Islamist TV host Khaled Abdullah claimed that Hassan Shehata was attacked because he insulted the Prophet Mohamed’s relatives, blaming Al-Azhar for being silent on Shias in Egypt hours after the attack on Al-Nas TV channel.

Several Salafist and conservative Facebook pages, like “The Muslim Coalition to Defend the Prophet’s Family and Companions,” also bragged of the murder of the Shias, claiming that that was just the beginning of ending Shiism in Egypt.

Source: Weekly Holiday