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21 February 2011 By Saeed Qureshi
The anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain
primarily boil down to the centuries-old ideological
yet unbridgeable dissention between Shia and Sunni
branches of Islam. The seeds of Shia faith in Islam
were sown on the demise the prophet Muhammad when his
successor was to be chosen. The prophet, during his
life time, did not appoint a successor or laid down
the procedure for choosing a successor after his
death.
Since Arab society has a tribal structure, the rivalry
for ascendency has been at the root of their
coexistence before and after Islam. The prophet
belonged to the Banu-Hashim clan of Quraish tribe
while the three caliphs who succeeded the prophet were
from other tribes. But there was no major discontent
or furor over their choice through a limited vote of
notables as was the custom being practiced during
those times.
But the dissenting voice was that of Hazrat Ali and
his loyalists who thought that the succession to the
holy prophet should be the inalienable right of the
blood relations.
Hazrat
Ali was the cousin and son -in -law of
the prophet and he opposed the choice of the three
caliphs on the premise that on various occasions the
prophet had indicated that Ali was to be his
successor.
Although following the brutal murder of the third
caliph of Islam Hazrat Osman, the mantle of caliphate
was finally passed on to Hazrat Ali (656 A.D.), but by
that time the Muslims in Arab Peninsula and in the
Northern regions mainly
Iraq
and
Syria
had been divided between those supporting the Hashim
clan of Hazrat Ali or the family of prophet and those
out of that orbit. The 5 years period of Hazrat Ali's
caliphate ( 656-661) was mostly spent in a civil war
between the Omayyad governor of Syria, Amir
Muawiyah on one hand and Ali on the
other in which hundreds of thousands Muslims died on
both the sides.
The massacre of the family of prophet in Karbala near
Baghdad by the Omayyad caliph Yazid was
the last straw on the camel's back that finally and
irreconcilably divided the Muslim nation into two
distinct blocs. There is a great deal of ideological
common ground between
Sunnis and
Shia but by virtue of their various customs and
beliefs there are unbridgeable discords that are hard
to tide over.
The cleavage is borne by the very fact that the Sunnis
believe in four successors of the prophet, while the
Shia discard the first three as illegitimate and only
Ali as the legitimate successor of the prophet. Down
the ideological road there are numerous denominations
and sub sects within the two strident ideological
foes.
"The question of true successor to prophet became a
cause for division in the ranks of Islam. The Sunnis
believe in the principle of elective office. The
Shias
profess that the true succession to the prophet comes
through the prophet's bloodline and through his cousin
and son in law Ali Ibne Talib. The Shias faith is that
from the beginning Allah and his prophet had clearly
designated Ali as the only legitimate successor and
therefore the first three caliphs were not
legitimate." (Mankind's Search for God)
The Division of Islam between Sunnis and Shia have
witnessed in history the mutual sack and pillage by
both the groups whenever they got a chance. The Shia
being the minority sect (20 percent of the Muslim
population around the world) have been mostly
persecuted and have remained at the receiving end of
the intimidation and brutalities inflicted upon it by
the majority sect which do not consider the Shia as
Muslims and vice versa. Iraq and Syria, Jordan and
Iran
have been facing the brunt of the Shia Sunni rivalry
all these centuries which is still going on. Millions
of Muslims from both sects have died as a result of
sectarian hatred and bigotry in these lands.
Even, as late as during Saddam Hussain era, the Shia
community had been brutally suppressed. The Shia-
Sunni animosity was also rife even after the
occupation of Iraq by American forces in 2003. Not
only that an insurgency flared up against the
occupation armies but there was mutual annihilation
and bloody clashes between the adherents of both the
sects.
In a broader perspective the Saudi Government
professes Sunni faith and the people of
Saudi Arabia are predominately Sunnis.
On the contrary, Iran's over 90 percent population
practices Shia faith. Thus within the
Muslim world there are two stalwart
contenders and arch rivals: one heading the Sunnis and
the other leading the Shias.
The conflict between Arab and non- Arabs known as
Arabism vs. Ajam dates back to the pre-Islamic eras.
The
Persians
belonging to Ajam had subjugated the Arabs, until the
time of the first caliph when the Persian army of
emperor Yazd Gard (fire worshipper) was conclusively
routed thus ending the Persian suzerainty over Arab
lands for ever.
But by interesting twist of events, the Persians
embraced the Shia brand of Islam because the spiritual
leaders from the family of the prophet took refuge in
Iran. Not only that deep-seated ideological feud has
been running between the Sunnis Arabs and Iranian
Shias but also there have emerged two political blocs
each in the form of Saudi Arabia and Iran reviving the
old rivalry in the present times. Precisely for these
reasons, the Saudi orthodox regime has always
supported
Israel in comparison to Iran the latter
perceived as the biggest and phenomenal threat to
Arabs' hegemony in the
Middle East than Israel.
Lately, over the Iran's nuclear controversy, Saudi
king Abdullah called upon the United States to crush
the snake's head by which he meant Iran. In
Pakistan this sectarian conflict has
always been sharp, frightening and perennially
implacable. There is no way under the sun that an
ideological harmony and concord can be brought about
between these leading sects whose believers are ever
ready to die than shake off their beliefs.
During Saddam's dictatorship (1979–2003) Shias were
brutally persecuted. And since May, 2006 onward, the
Sunnis are reported to be mal-treated, discriminated
and even tortured by the Iraq's Shia
majority government of
Nouri al-Maliki.
In the sectarian vendettas, thousands of Sunnis and
Shias have died in Pakistan, Iraq and
Lebanon. But the pillage and destruction
of Baghdad, the cradle of Muslim civilization for
seven centuries resulted from the ideological animus
between the Sunni caliph Mustaasim and his Shia prime
minister Mohammad bin ali Kami. As a result of that
rivalry, Out of two million population of Baghdad, 1.5
million were massacred by the Mongols secretly invited
by Ali Kami. All the mausoleums, museums.
Institutions of learning and research, big building,
mosques and libraries were burned and razed to the
ground. Baghdad was turned into a ghost city with
river
Tigris full of books and the human blood
for miles.
Seen in the historical hindsight, the Bahrain uprising
against the Khalifah ruling family has sectarian
undertones as well. It is utterly impossible for the
ruling family to subdue the protestors as the Shia
population is 70 per cent to the 30 per cent of the
Sunnis population. Moreover, Iran would not let this
golden and rare occasion just pass by without
producing desirable results that would not only herald
political changes in that region but would also bring
to the suppressed Shia population greater leverage
and rights. The democratic set up to emerge would be,
predictably, in favor of the Shia community because of
their predominant majority.
With the dismantling of the dynastic regime, the hold
of Saudi Arabi, regional foes of Iran and for that
matter of Shias would also weaken or come to an end.
Whether such a political change would also be
detrimental to the American military presence in
Bahrain is yet to be unfolded once the
riots and protests successfully subside as happened in
Tunisia and
Egypt. |
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