Lawlessness and street justice prevailed. Communities that happened to be Sunni or Shia formed self-defense militias, first to protect themselves, then to exact revenge killings. Sunni families and Shia families came to see one another as threats, and the militias committed massacres to drive out the other side.
In just two years, Baghdad's once-mixed neighborhoods were starkly divided by religion. The story of Baghdad is important not because it's necessary to blame America for everything but because this was in some ways the start of today's Sunni-Shia region-wide war, and it shows how that conflict is not really primarily about religion. Rather, it is a story of how insecurity and fear can lead a once-unified people to divide themselves along some tribal line, which then hardens into hatred and violence.
And it shows how people will split along whichever lines are most readily available, or whichever lines happen to line up with the politics of the moment. In that case, it was religion. But there's little to this story that is in itself religious, much less ancient.
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Share this story Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share All sharing options Share All sharing options for: The real roots of Sunni-Shia conflict: beyond the myth of "ancient religious hatreds". Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Iraqi Sunni and Shia attend a Baghdad conference bringing together local political and religious leaders. Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan put together a very nice video debunking the myth that Sunni-Shia sectarianism is all about ancient religious hatreds and explaining how modern-day power politics, beginning in , is actually driving much of the sectarianism we're seeing right now: RealityCheck : The myth of a Sunni-Shia war.
If the Sunni-Shia conflict isn't about religion, where did it come from? Iraqi army fighters, with US support, clear out territory held by Shia militias in Baghdad in My colleague Zack Beauchamp explains : After Iran's Islamic Revolution toppled the pro-Western shah, the new Islamic Republic established an aggressive foreign policy of exporting the Iranian revolution, attempting to foment Iran-style theocratic uprisings around the Middle East.
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The Latest. The Sunni-Shiite split is rooted in the question of who should succeed Muhammad in leading Muslims after his death in Sunnis are the majority across the Islamic world.
Both consider the Quran the word of God. But there are distinctions in theology and religious practice between the two sects. Some are minor: Shiites pray with their hands by their sides, Sunnis with their hands crossed at their chest or stomach. Others are significant. Shiites, for example, believe Ali and a string of his descendants, the Imams, had not only rightful political authority after Muhammad but also held a special religious wisdom.
Sunnis accuse the Shiites of elevating Ali to the level of Muhammad himself — incorrectly, since Shiites agree that Muhammad was the last of the prophets, a central tenet of Islam.
The bitter disputes of early Islam still resonate. Even secular-minded Shiite parents would never name their child after the resented Abu Bakr, Omar or Othman — or Aisha, a wife of Muhammad, who helped raise a revolt against Ali during his Caliphate. But only the most hard-core would say those differences are reason enough to hate each other. For that, politics is needed.
After the U. Sunnis feared the repression would flip onto them. The result was vicious sectarian fighting that lasted until Sunni extremists pulled Shiite pilgrims from buses and gunned them down; Shiite militiamen kidnapped Sunnis, dumping their tortured bodies later. Two of his sons were killed by Shiite militiamen. Now he fears the strife is returning, and he blames the Shiite-dominated government. If the Shiites are convinced to change their politicians, that would be a big help.
He is married to a Shiite woman. In the absence of the leadership of direct descendants, Shias appoint representatives to rule in their place often called ayatollahs. Shias are a minority of the global Muslim population, although they have strong communities in Iraq, Pakistan, Albania, Yemen, Lebanon and Iran. There are also different sects within Shia Islam.
Other disputes that continue to exacerbate the divide include issues of theology, practice and geopolitics. Hadith are the reports of the words and deeds of the prophet and considered an authoritative source of revelation, second only to the Quran.
They provide a biographical sketch of the prophet, context to Quranic verses, and are used by Muslims in the application of Islamic law to daily life. Shias and Sunnis differ over prayer as well. All Sunni Muslims believe they are required to pray five times a day, but Shias can condense those into three.
During the Hajj — the pilgrimage to Mecca, held annually and obligatory for all Muslims once in a lifetime — it may seem that these differences are masked, as both Sunnis and Shias gather in the holy city for rituals that reenact the holiest narratives of their faith. And yet, with Saudi authorities overseeing the Hajj, there have been tensions with Shia governments such as Iran over claims of discrimination.
Looking at the sectarianized conflicts of the Middle East through the lens of a 7th century conflict is therefore both simplistic and misleading.
Ian A. Merritt Friday, April 1, This lazy narrative of a primordial and timeless conflict needs to be replaced by serious analysis. And that should be one that looks at what the Sunni-Shiite sectarian contest has become in the 21st century: a modern conflict in failed or failing states fueled by a political, nationalist and geostrategic rivalry. These sectarian conflicts have become proxy wars between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two nationalist actors pursuing their strategic rivalry in places where governance has collapsed.
What is happening is not the supposed re-emergence of ancient hatreds, but the mobilization of a new animus. The instrumentalization of religion and the sectarianization of a political conflict is a better way of approaching the problem, rather than projecting religion as the driver and root cause of the predicament.
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