Shiites, Shi'ites Quotes

Lebanon is a country divided into religious sects which have a long history of animosity, distrust, violence among them. Few leaders were as candid as Jumblatt.

Qom is a city in Iran that is the center of Shiite Islam and inhabited by many Islamic clerics.,

Some Muslims believe that since God prohibits the worship of symbols and idols, no Christian who believes in the Trinity could be a believer. For those Muslims who not only determine Islamic theology but Christian theology as well, this becomes another reason for disrespect if not hatred of Christians.

The Iraqi Prime Minister was a Shiite autocrat who had a winner take all approach to government and other than putting token Sunnis and Kurds in the Cabinet ran a very discriminatory government and could muster no loyalty with Kurds and Shiites.

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

3 years thereafter Saddam was tried by an Iraqi court, found guilty, and hanged.

After years of minority Sunni Muslim rule of Iraq, the U. S. invasion gave the majority Shiite Muslims political control. The Sunnis and Shiites have been at each others throats for centuries despite the fact that they are both Muslims. Saudi Arabia is the center of Sunni Islam and many of its religious extremists issue edicts advocating the suicide bombing of Shiite mosques and other facilities and assuring martyrdom for the suicide bombers.

The enriched nuclear fuel could be used to operationalize a nuclear bomb. Iran had a history of using illegal poison gas in the Iraq-Iran War (Both sides used chemical weapons.) Iran had a history of aiding terrorist organizations. And Iran is the only nation belonging to the UN and sighing its charter in modern history that has threatened to destroy another nation via their President whose threats had not been retracted. Iran also is a Shiite Muslim nation and is at odds with the Sunni Muslim countries of the Middle East and if the Iraqis developed a nuclear bomb, there would be a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race. If Iraq would not cease its development program under pressure from other nations, a military attack was the other option. All were indeed ugly.

She is a leading American Arab who is a Syrian expatriate. The examples she gives in the beginning of the quotations are relatively recent atrocities where Muslims have attacked and brutally murdered other Muslims. She articulates one of the theories to explain the Islamic propensity to brutality and violence that the religion itself, when taught literally which it so often is, actually produces an inclination and glorification of brutal violence and develops a tolerance and acceptance of Islamic violence.

While it may be true that some major powers do not presently want unity between Muslims, the Sunni-Shiite conflict has been ongoing for centuries—long before many “major powers” even existed. It is the oldest, continual civil war in history. It is certainly true that major Islamic powers like Saudi Arabia oppose unity was Saudi Arabia is a Sunni majority country and regard the Shiites as not only blasphemous and evil, but see them as dangerous.

The implication of this sura is that it is permissible to kill non-Muslims but not Muslims. The same is true of slavery. Another prescription of this sura is that a Muslim should never kill another Muslim, so while this sura is very discriminatory and in that sense reprehensible, it does call into question the Islamic terrorist practice of the late 20th and early 21st century of killing fellow Muslims who might vote, serve in an official role or cooperate with non-believers. And it definitely to the Western mind prohibits the kind of Islamic sectarian violent practice of Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims torturing and butchering each other—a practice that has continued since the two groups fought over who was the rightful successor to Muhammad. The religious rationale for that murderous behavior is that each Islamic group sees the other as apostate and therefore no longer real Muslims.

There was no problem with Iran having nuclear power. However, they wanted to utilize a process with which fuel for nuclear bombs could be made. Russia had offered to provide them with nuclear fuel for any power plant that they might want to create, but Iran refused insisting that they had a right to enrich their own uranium. Then they lied to the inspectors for the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. They had threatened to “wipe Israel off the map” and the major Arab nations in the area secretly asked the United States to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons even if force had to be used. Economic sanctions were tried first.

The Kandahar region of Afghanistan was occupied by the Persians under Gurgin Khan. The Persians at the time were Shiite Muslims while the Afghans were Sunnis. Gurgin Khan forced all the Sunnis to convert to become Shia under threat of death. Mirwais Hotak led a force of freedom fighters, and defeated the Persians, killing Gurgin Khan in the process. There were some Afghan people who by collaborating with the Persians had done very well for themselves. They were anxious about their liberator and some were thinking about sneaking away and joining up with the Persians. He then made this speech, remarkable for any time, and especially so at the early 18th century. Notice, that unlike most other peoples of the Middle East, the Afghan’s placed a high value on freedom, and were willing to fight for it. In that sense, Afghanistan was culturally and politically different from the rest of the Islamic world.