Iran & Assad Use Israel As "Red Herring" To Spread ShiiteHegemony

02 August 2012

By Khalid Amayreh

The dark embrace between the clerical regime in Tehran and the murderous cultist regime of Bashar Assad in Syria speaks volumes. The Iranian regime claims to be representing Islam and upholding the virtues of justice and freedom. However, in truth, Tehran and its allies in Lebanon and Iraq are effectively embracing one of the most nefarious regimes under the sun.

According to reliable news reports, Iran is providing the cultist regime in Damascus with more than lethal weapons to crush a popular revolution, demanding an end to decades of Alawite tyranny and terror.

Iran actually has been sending "volunteers," military advisors and other terrorists who have been involved in murdering Syrian civilians, including women and children.

Last week, at least three members of Hezbullah were laid to rest in the southern neighborhood in Beirut. The three Shiite Shabbiha or thugs were killed while trying to repress protests demanding the downfall of the regime.

In Iraq, an undisclosed number of militiamen affiliated with the so-called Mehdi army, a Shiite militia answerable to the Iraqi cleric-turned-politician Muqtada al-Sadr were also buried in Iraq recently, having been killed in Syria while fighting on the side of Bashar Assad troops.
It is really hard to think of a plausible motive behind the absolute and unlimited backing by Iran and its Shiite Ithna Ashari (the twelvers) allies of a quasi atheistic and secular regime such as that of the Alawite minority in Damascus. A regime that belongs to the family of Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, and Adolph Hitler and history's other mass murderers.

Indeed, until quite recently, most Iranian clerics considered the Alawites heretical and apostates due to their anthropomorphistic doctrine. The Alawites believe that Ali Ibn Abu Taleb, the prophet Muhammed's cousin and son-in-law was God incarnate. The Alawites actually pray to Ali, not to Allah, as the Ithna Asharis do, although with clear polytheistic proclivities. (for example, they beseech, implore, and make supplications to Ali), which is considered by most other Muslims a form of polytheism or associating other gods with God.

Some Shilogists (scholars specialized in the study of the Shiite sects-historically more than 70 sects) argue that Iran is endearing itself to the Alawites in Syria in the hope of returning them to the Ithna Ashari fold. Others, claim that political and strategic considerations stand behind Iran's embrace of the Assad regime, namely the undeclared Iranian plan to create the so-called Shiite Crescent, which includes Iran, Iraq, Lebanon (Hizbullah) and Syria to counter the main Sunni powers in the region, including Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Iran carefully avoids any statements or signals suggesting harboring sectarian designs against Sunni powers. Instead, it accuses its critics of being "Wahhabis" or implementing, knowingly or unknowingly,the Zionist agenda.

In truth, however, Iran and its allies, including the Assad regime, are using Israel and the Palestinian plight as a mere red herring to divert attention from the real thing, namely their strategic designs to spread Shiite hegemony at the expense of Sunnis.

After all, the Syrian regime never fired a single bullet toward Israel ever since the 1973-war, and the liberation of the Golan Heights seems to be the last item on its goals and strategic priorities.
In the final analysis, one can safely assume that Iran's deep historical animosity toward the Sunnis, especially Sunni Arabs, not its infatuation with the Alawite minority, stands behind the Islamic republic's backing of the manifestly murderous regime of Bashar Assad.

Moreover, Iran obviously wants to avenge its failure in Bahrain to overthrow the pro-American and pro-Saudi Khalifa dynasty in order to create a small Shiite republic at Tehran's beck and call.
Needless to say, the lebensraum-like Iranian designs in Iran are the main reason the so-called "Bahraini revolution" has received very little support and sympathy in the Arab world. So the heavy but not so-brazen Iranian implication in Syria may well be considered a kind of quid-pro-quo to avenge the "Sunni" crackdown on the Shiite revolt in Bahrain.

Indeed, a casual surfer of Shiite sites on the net would get the impression that large-scale massacres of Shiites have been taking place in Bahrain at the hands of the government there. The truth, however, is that in more than 16 months of disturbances and violent protests, less than 40 protesters were killed. We believe that the loss of even a single human being is too much. However, it would be dishonest and unethical to lump the Syrian and Bahraini situations in one category. After all, Syria is undergoing a real slow-motion genocide where the number of civilians, murdered and decapitated by the regime and its thugs in just one day or even one hour , exceeds by far the number of Shiites killed in Bahrain in a year and a half of violent protests aimed at throwing the Khalifa dynasty and transforming the small emirate into a Shiite republic.

Traditionally, the Shiites pride themselves on identifying themselves withy the oppressed and the down-trodden. However, when it comes to Sunni Muslims, the Shiites, especially the Iranians, have not hesitated to embrace the most murderous regimes on earth and ally themselves with invaders and occupiers of Muslim land. The warm Shiite alliance with the invading American armies in Iraq is just one example of many.

The Shiites often invoke the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet, as a decisive, historical landmark battle between the forces of good and evil. This battle is reenacted every year during the Shiite commemoration of the battle of Karbula, which took place in the year 680 between Imam Hussein, his family and few supporters on the one hand and the forces of the Umayyad king Yazid, on the other, which ended with the death of Hussein.

Obviously, all Muslims. Shiites and Sunnis alike, believe Justice was on Hussein's side. However, the Shiites held and continue to hold the entire Muslim Umma, including Muslims of our time, responsible and guilty for what happen more than 1300 years ago, an illogical and irrational attitude reflecting historical vengeance and hatred.

There is no doubt that the Shiites of our time are siding with and embracing the Yazid of our time, namely the murderous and Nazi-like regime of Bashar Assad.

This dark embrace, this evil alliance, can never be tolerated, let alone forgiven. The Shiites have simply blown up all bridges of unity with their Sunni Muslim brothers and neighbors. And no amount of lies, propaganda, and disinformation or prevarication will succeed in blurring or obliterating this perfidy.

I do realize that there are decent Shiites who don't condone the evil acts of the Assad regimes. These are a small numerical minority but we do salute for their rectitude and honesty. However, it is a fact that the bulk of Shiites, including the clergy, support, even enthusiastically, the genocidal crimes of the Syrian regime, which really draws a serious question mark about the Shiites' human and moral credentials.
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