Should we support Sunnis or Shiites?
An Ethical Musings' reader inquired: Who are we
supposed to support, Sunni or Shiite Muslims?
I'm unclear about the antecedent of the pronoun
"we" in the foregoing question. The "we" may be Christians or
it may be the United States. Regardless, my answer is quite simply; Support
both Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
First, both Sunnis and Shiites are God's children. The
issues that divide Islam's two largest communities are irrelevant to non-Muslims.
Controversial issues include whether leadership of the Muslim faith community requires
a blood tie to the prophet Mohammed (Sunnis say no, Shiites answer yes),
whether Muslims have saints and shrines (Sunnis say no, Shiites say yes), and
so forth.
Second, Islam in both its Shiite and Sunni traditions
is a religion of peace. Islamic extremism has arisen among both Shiites (e.g.,
Hezbollah) and Sunnis (e.g., al Qaeda). These extremists groups attempt to
mobilize Muslims against what they perceive as egregious injustice. Clothing
the protest in religious language and ideology adds an emotive power to the protest
while concurrently placing the opposition between a proverbial rock and hard
place. On the one hand, failing to oppose the protesters actively tacitly cedes
their complaints credence and jeopardizes the status quo. On the other hand,
actively opposing the protest can easily create the impression that the current
regime is non-Islamic and opposed to Allah's call for justice. People and
states everywhere should expose injustice for the evil that it is and support
progress toward justice and peace. This entails supporting Sunni and Shiite
while rejecting extremist groups that adopt a twisted form of either.
Third, Shiite Iran is challenging Sunni Saudi
Arabia for hegemony in the Middle East. Since the Shah of Iran's downfall, this
centuries old challenge has become a principal source of conflict in the Middle
East. The United States, branded by Iran as the Great Satan, has sided with
Saudi Arabia, primarily because of oil interests and Saudi willingness to
support U.S. foreign policy goals. Saudi trust in the U.S. is eroding. The U.S.
government is increasingly open about the potential weakness of Saudi power and
Saudi responsibility for having sewn many of the seeds that grew into Sunni
extremism. Iran appears to want to reenter the global community. Perhaps this
is the moment for U.S. policy to pivot, balancing support for Shiite Iran and
Sunni Saudi Arabia. (N.B.: In both Iran and Saudi Arabia, Islam is the
officially established religion. However, neither nation's government perfectly
embodies Islamic teachings. Indeed, describing either as Islamic is demographic
rather than theological; both nation's aim to promote the well-being of their
governing elites rather than the fullness of Islamic justice. Of course, a
similar assessment holds for allegedly Christian nations, e.g., the now defunct
Holy Roman Empire.)
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