What’s behind the wave of violence against Shias?

TEHRAN,June 30(MNA)--The recent murder of four Egyptian Shias, including a respected seminary scholar, is a major development that shows that Iran must reassess the situation in the Arab world. In 1979, Iran’s Islamic Revolution inspired many people in other parts of the Muslim world and gave them a new momentum in their struggles against despotic rulers and colonialists. However, almost none of them were able to realize their objectives, and uprisings in Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other countries were suppressed. Breakdowns of leadership, the inability to establish a popular base, and most importantly, disunity among the followers of different schools of Islamic jurisprudence were the main reasons behind the failure of the movements in the Islamic world. The autocratic regimes in the region and their Western supporters soon understood that the best way to counter the growing revolutionary fervor was to sow discord among Muslims and to foment sectarian strife between Shia and Sunni Muslims in order to make them lose sight of their common goal of fighting against colonialism and despotism. To this end, they launched a massive campaign against Iran, which has been the leading Shia force in the Islamic world for centuries, and tried to create an ideological confrontation with Iran. The government of Saudi Arabia has been the main supporter of this campaign and has used its extensive and modern media outlets, which receive over $10 billion in funding per year, to widen sectarian rifts in the Muslim world and to promote hatred of Iran and jealousy of its growing spiritual influence. Although the policy has been actively propagated for decades, it was never able to create deep hostility between Shia and Sunni Muslims. However, the recent slaughter of Shias in Egypt and the desecration of Shia holy sites in Syria and other Arab countries show that the provocateurs of sectarian strife have, to some extent, finally succeeded in their mission and the Islamic world is now facing a serious threat. Over the past few years, the tiny emirate of Qatar and its Al-Jazeera network seem to have outdone the Saudis in sowing discord in the Islamic ummah (community). The Qatari-based Egyptian mufti Yusuf al-Qaradawi is currently the chief ambassador of sectarian hatred. In his weekly show on Al-Jazeera Arabic, he disseminates the most bizarre ideas about Islam and the need to counter the rising influence of the Shias. He has never adopted a strong stance toward the slaughter of innocent Shias in Yemen, Iraq, and Bahrain and has even played a significant role in fomenting sectarian strife in the Islamic world. Qaradawi, who is undoubtedly a product of the intelligence agencies of Western countries and the Zionist regime, is correctly called the mufti of NATO. The hypocritical approach toward Islamic unity adopted by Qaradawi and his fellow provocateurs is now common knowledge. However, in the past, some respected Shia scholars were duped by Qaradawi and helped him establish the International Association of Muslim Scholars. But the current trend, especially what happened in Egypt, has been a stab in the back for the Shias, who have made every effort to promote the idea of unity of the Islamic ummah. Thus, the Iranian government and Iran’s religious scholars are expected to redefine their stance toward developments in the Arab world. Salafis and extremists are ready to cooperate with Satanists but will never attend a mosque where Shias pray. Hassan Hanizadeh is a political analyst and an expert on the Middle East based in Tehran. (By Hassan Hanizadeh)