Aga Khan compares Sunni-Shia conflict to Ireland

[SBD-3]

OTTAWA: The hereditary spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims Thursday compared a conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims to Ireland, urging the West to engage both branches of Islam.

Speaking to both houses of Canada’s parliament, the Aga Khan said tensions between the two denominations “have increased massively in scope and intensity recently and have been further exacerbated by external interventions.”

“In Pakistan, Malaysia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan it is becoming a disaster,” he warned.

To help bring an end to the strife in these countries, the Aga Khan said “it is important for (the West) to communicate with both Sunni and Shia voices.

“To be oblivious to this reality would be like ignoring over many centuries that there were differences between Catholics and Protestants. Or trying to resolve the civil war in Ireland without engaging both Christian communities.”

Highlighting the span of the crisis, he said: “What would have been the consequences if the Protestant-Catholic struggling in Ireland had spread across the Christian world as is happening today between Shia and Sunni Muslims in more than nine countries.”

Canada is home to approximately 100,000 Ismaili Muslims, who found refuge in this country after being expelled by Ugandan President Idi Amin in 1972.

The Aga Khan himself was made an honorary Canadian citizen in 2010.
Aga Khan compares Sunni-Shia conflict to Ireland – The Express Tribune

 

[A.Rafay]

Don't know about Irelands protestant and Catholic conflict but Shia-Sunni rivalry is between two countries not people! Two countries are fighting each other and funding each others enemies.

 

[shuntmaster]

Don't know about Irelands protestant and Catholic conflict but Shia-Sunni rivalry is between two countries not people! Two countries are fighting each other and funding each others enemies.

The Northern Ireland conflict is a ethno-nationalistic conflict and not a religious-sectarian conflict as the Agha Khan tries to project. The conflict was primarily a political one, but it also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension, although it was not a religious conflict

What does the Agha Khan expect the predominantly Christian West to do in the Islamic-Sectarian conflict, which has been going on since the birth of Islam, 14 centuries ago?

 

[BelligerentPacifist]

After a million times, a million and oneth time: one person is either shii or sunni. You can't say shia-sunni, rather shii-sunni.

 

[Black Lion]

I don't believe in Shia or Sunni.

There should only be Muslims.

 

[asad71]

I don't believe in Shia or Sunni.

There should only be Muslims.

And I also believe this guy has no authority to lecture us.

 

[Black Lion]

And I also believe this guy has no authority to lecture us.

True and this guy doesn't set a good example for his followers.
BTW you're also on PF right?

 

[shuntmaster]

After a million times, a million and oneth time: one person is either shii or sunni. You can't say shia-sunni, rather shii-sunni.

What is the difference between Shia and Shii??

I don't believe in Shia or Sunni.

There should only be Muslims.

I suppose Shia-Sunni divide goes back to the very beginnings of Islam..

 

[Black Lion]

What is the difference between Shia and Shii??


I suppose Shia-Sunni divide goes back to the very beginnings of Islam..

Ironically, such divisions are unlawful..

Allah says:

مُنِيبِينَ إِلَيۡهِ وَٱتَّقُوهُ وَأَقِيمُواْ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَلَا تَكُونُواْ مِنَ ٱلۡمُشۡرِڪِينَ-- مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ فَرَّقُواْ دِينَهُمۡ وَڪَانُواْ شِيَعً۬ا*ۖ كُلُّ حِزۡبِۭ بِمَا لَدَيۡہِمۡ فَرِحُونَ
'[Adhere to it], turning in repentance to Him, and fear Him and establish prayer and do not be of those who associate others with Allah[Or] of those who have divided their religion and become sects, every faction rejoicing in what it has.'
(Quran 30:32)

 

[shuntmaster]

Ironically, such divisions are unlawful..

Allah says:

مُنِيبِينَ إِلَيۡهِ وَٱتَّقُوهُ وَأَقِيمُواْ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَلَا تَكُونُواْ مِنَ ٱلۡمُشۡرِڪِينَ-- مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ فَرَّقُواْ دِينَهُمۡ وَڪَانُواْ شِيَعً۬ا*ۖ كُلُّ حِزۡبِۭ بِمَا لَدَيۡہِمۡ فَرِحُونَ
'[Adhere to it], turning in repentance to Him, and fear Him and establish prayer and do not be of those who associate others with Allah[Or] of those who have divided their religion and become sects, every faction rejoicing in what it has.'
(Quran 30:32)

Would the divide ever happen, if the prophets family was not persecuted by political successors of the prophet and instead gave them their legitimate rights..

 

[shuntmaster]

The Economist explains
What is the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims?
May 28th 2013, 23:50 by S.B.

CLASHES between Islam's two big sects, the Sunni and the Shia, take place across the Muslim world. In the Middle East a potent mix of religion and politics has sharpened the divide between Iran’s Shia government and the Gulf states, which have Sunni governments. Last year a report by the Pew Research Centre, a think tank, found 40% of Sunnis do not consider Shia to be proper Muslims. So what exactly divides Sunni and Shia Islam and how deep does the rift go?

The argument dates back to the death in 632 of Islam’s founder, the Prophet Muhammad. Tribal Arabs who followed him were split over who should inherit what was both a political and a religious office. The majority, who would go on to become known as the Sunnis, and today make up 80% of Muslims, backed Abu Bakr, a friend of the Prophet and father of his wife Aisha. Others thought Muhammad’s kin the rightful successors. They claimed the Prophet had anointed Ali, his cousin and son-in-law—they became known as the Shia, a contraction of "shiaat Ali", the partisans of Ali. Abu Bakr’s backers won out, though Ali did briefly rule as the fourth caliph, the title given to Muhammad’s successors. Islam's split was cemented when Ali’s son Hussein was killed in 680 in Karbala (modern Iraq) by the ruling Sunni caliph’s troops. Sunni rulers continued to monopolise political power, while the Shia lived in the shadow of the state, looking instead to their imams, the first twelve of whom were descended directly from Ali, for guidance. As time went on the religious beliefs of the two groups started to diverge.

Today the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims all agree that Allah is the only God and Muhammad his messenger. They follow five ritualistic pillars of Islam, including Ramadan, the month of fasting, and share a holy book, the Koran. But while Sunnis rely heavily on the practice of the Prophet and his teachings (the “sunna”), the Shia see their ayatollahs as reflections of God on earth. This has led Sunnis to accuse Shia of heresy, while Shia point out that Sunni dogmatism has led to extremist sects such as the puritanical Wahhabis. Most Shia sects place importance on the belief that the twelfth and final imam is hidden (called "in occultation") and will reappear one day to fulfill divine will. Meanwhile, their sense of marginalisation and oppression has led to mourning ceremonies such as ashura, when followers flagellate themselves to commemorate Hussein’s death at Karbala.

There has never been a clash between the Shia and Sunni on the scale of the Thirty Years War, which saw Christian sects fight each other in 17th-century Europe with great loss of life. This is partly because the Shias, ever mindful of their minority status, retreated. The lines that divide Muslims in the Middle East today are being drawn by politics as much as by religion. The "Shia Crescent" that runs from Iran, through Mr Assad’s regime in Damascus to Hizbullah in Lebanon was once praised by Sunni figures. But the revolutions in the region have pitted Shia governments against Sunni Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who have supported their co-religionists with cash. This is strengthening Sunni assertiveness and making the Shia feel more threatened than usual. In most cases, though, members of the two sects still live harmoniously together.

Why Sunnis and Shiites are fighting, explained in two minutes

• BY MAX FISHER

• 
  The divide between the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam is both ancient and still highly consequential today. In Syria, a Sunni-majority country dominated by members of a Shiite sect, fighting that began as anti-government has taken on sectarian overtones. That has spilled over to Iraq, which is Shiite-majority and has a predominantly Shiite government but is increasingly troubled by Sunni rebels. And the region's major powers have long pushed sectarian interests, with Shiite-majority Iran on one side and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia on the other.
  
  In this two-minute video, reporter Karen DeYoung and The Washington Post's video team give a very brief history of the Sunni-Shiite divide and what it means for Iraq's escalating violence today. It's important to note that this religious division is one of many factors driving the conflicts in the Middle East. Although theological differences are not in themselves enough to explain the fighting, it's important to understand the very basics to grasp what's happening in the region.
  
  Here, to illustrate the Sunni-Shiite divide, is a map showing the religious groupings in the region.
  
  
  
  
  Data source: The Gulf/2000 Project and United Nations ReliefWeb (The Washington Post)
  

 

[AhsanAmin]

Iran-Iraq war put extreme fuel on the sectarian conflict and intensified it between the Muslims. In the armed conflict whichever side became short of weapons, was provided weapons in order for the war to continue. Our short memories might have forgotten Iran-Contra affair and let us not forget that president of USA himself used his special presidential pardon rights for those convicted in Iran-Contra by their courts. I do not call them Goodfellas for no reason. No sane person can deny that Iran-Contra had blessings of their President at that time.

 

[BelligerentPacifist]

What is the difference between Shia and Shii??
Singular versus plural!

 

[shuntmaster]

Then it should be Shia-Sunni or Shii-Sunnis?

 

[Falcon29]

Shia-Sunni physical conflict in the modern day world is part of a political game largely shaped by EU/US/CIA/Mossad.

@shuntmaster ...

Jeesh, shunto seems so enthusiastic in presenting information about Muslims, I wonder why, LOL.