Quotes about Islamic Sectarianism

Abdullah II of Jordan

The Shiite Crescent is the areas that receive Iran's support for Shiite forces in the Middle East which seeks to alter the traditional balance of power between the two main Islamic sects and poses new challenges to U.S. interests and allies.

He coined the term “Shiite Crescent” in this quotation.

Ramzan Kadyrov

If people in Russia do not take the path of traditional, pure Sufi Islam, Russia will lose out. All the other denominations, like Wahhabism, are new inventions for our country - we have never had it, and we will never accept it.

Thomas Friedman

The oldest civil war on the planet is the one between the Sunni and Shiites over who is the proper successor to the Prophet Muhammad.

Lawrence Murawiec

To Wahhabism, non-Wahhabi Muslims are infidels (kufr). Shiites are apostates who should be killed. Christians and Jews ought to be killed as well.

Salman Rushdie

Dissensions between Muslim nations run at least as deep, if not deeper, than those nations' resentment of the West.

Thomas Friedman

The oldest civil war on the planet is that between Sunni and Shiite Moslems.

Shimon Peres

When it comes to the Sunnis and Shiites, it is not for the United States or for us or for anyone else to settle who was the heir of Muhammad. This is a Muslim and Arab problem, and they have to deal with it.

Nayef Ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Saud

I do not want to see any more articles criticizing Wahhabism or Ibn Taimaya.

The Interior Ministry has “responsibility” for the press in Saudi Arabia. Licenses are needed to publish a newspaper or magazine. The licenses are granted by the Interior Ministry. Editors keep close to Nayef and censor themselves based on his “guidance.” Wahhabism is a violent and fundamentalist version of Islam whose origins lay in Saudi Arabia. Ibn Taimaya was a 14th century Muslim cleric who preached a particularly radical form of Islam.

Amir Taheri

To Arab Sunni Islamists, Iranians are gabrs (Zoroastrians) while Shi'ites, including Arab ones, are rafidis (heretics) who must be “re-converted” or put to death.

Bashir Assad

[A conflict of Sunni vs. Shia] is in the mind of the Saudis, and this is in the minds of the Wahabists.
[The Iranians] actually what they are doing is the opposite. They tried to open channels with the Saudi, with many other Islamic entities in the region in order to talk about Islamic society, not Sunni and Shi'ite societies.

Greg Mortenson

We all sat there laughing and sipping tea peacefully, an infidel and representatives from three warring sects of Islam. And I thought if we can get along this well, we can accomplish anything. The British policy was ‘divide and conquer.’ But I say ‘unite and conquer.

Nicholas Kristof

Saudi Arabia isn't the enemy, but it is a problem. It could make so much positive difference in the Islamic world if it used its status to soothe Sunni-Shiite tensions and encourage tolerance. For a time, under King Abdullah, it seemed that the country was trying to reform, but now under King Salman, it has stalled.

Hosni Mubarak

Most of the Shias are loyal to Iran, and not to the countries they are living in.

Islamic Sectarianism Quotes