We need to understand what Iran's Mullah's have been doing since 1979, creating a Shia Ummah for themselves, helping the Shia in every place on earth in every way possible and turning them towards Qom as their sole spiritual center. A 200 million population centered on an ideology controlled and developed in Qom, backed by Iranian oil wealth and the Iranian state, while Shia majority oil rich state of Iraq has teamed up with them. This is a significant force, that even the Arab world in a united Arab League will find difficult to deal with. They are also spread out from India to Arabian peninsula. You can see from the PDF posts, a lot of Pakistani and Indian Muslim posters are Shia and they support Iran overtly and covertly. Algeria as a state somehow seems to be friendly to them, although they are Sunni Muslims, perhaps because their strong relations with Russia. So is Hamas, out of gratitude from past help they received from Iran and Hezb.
In many Sunni countries Iran has been known to target Sunni Muslims to convert them to Shi'ism, I have heard about their activities in Malaysia, Indonesia and Sub-saharan Muslim countries like Nigeria. In this respect, their activity is no different than aggressive targeting of Muslims for conversion by Christian evangelists.
Joshua Project
Since the difference between Shia and Sunni goes back to the beginning of Islam and since the difference has not been resolved yet in 1400 years and since many Shia's consider Sunni's to be deviant and consider only Shia to be true Muslims as is evident from their effort to convert and create their own exclusive Shia Ummah, then I think we can safely say that Shia and Sunni do not follow the same religion. Ironically both Shia and Sunni like to call themselves the only true Muslim. So those of us who say there is fighting between two Muslim peoples, this is sheer deception and Taqiyah, because these are not same peoples.
Because of this difference and because of their recent aggression against Sunni Muslims, OIC should consider expelling Iran and suspending memberships of Iraq and Lebanon as all 3 states are currently controlled by Shia govt. or militia. After that move, the OIC should ban Shia people and states who are engaged in active aggression against Sunni Muslims from holding Hajj in Mecca and Medina and refuse them entry to these holy sites of Islam. Lets put the money where your mouth is and show some spine for a change please.
Iran will remain under Mullah control for the foreseeable future, because of IRGC and Basij both of which are creation of the Mullah govt. that arose during Iran-Iraq war. And this means that Qom centric Shia Ummah consolidation will continue for the foreseeable future. Basij together with IRGC essentially runs Iran, while the Mullah's have become their mouthpiece. Together they have more than 200k full time, 300k reserve and more than a million armed members who can join as a fighting force as and when needed. In addition to these forces they have now access to Hezb, Houthi, Iraqi militia and even Hazara from Afghanistan.
Basij - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Those of us who were here previously may recall, after ISIS emerged on the scene, I was upset about GCC govt. policies, because for long I have been posting comments to exercise caution about funds that are flowing to extremists fighting Assad. These funds obviously went not from govts but from private individuals, but govts failed to stop this flow of funds. To counter the rise of extremist rebels, I was proposing an OICPKF to tackle Assad and other Iranian proxies head on, which could be set up in an initiative led by the GCC govts.
OIC Peace Keeping Force for maintaining peace in majority Muslim countries
I was also upset because GCC govts believed and depended too much on the US in the Syrian conflict (hiding under the skirt of the US?), who turned out to be unreliable in the end, thanks specially to Obama. As I suspected, most people in the West has the attitude that "let these barbarian Muslim retards exterminate each other, it will be better for the world. Only good Muslim is a ....", so the govts. in the West with their inaction simply followed the opinion of their masses. GCC govts wrong decision to believe and to depend on the West, was a blunder which Iran and Iran's proxy Assad took full advantage of. Iran and Assad combined strategy always has been to provide space for and facilitate the growth of Sunni extremism, so they can eventually turn anti-West and then Iran and Assad will then join together with the West to destroy the Frankenstein monster. GCC govts could not foresee this game in the early stages of the anti-Assad rebellion and played right into this trap the Iranians and Assad set for them.
To be fair it is not just people in the West who feel ok with Muslims exterminating each other. I am afraid that a large cross section of population in China, India and Russia, have similar views about Muslims, specially Sunni Muslims, who are prone to irrational bouts of extremism and violence, thanks in large part to different variants of Salafi doctrine and its ability to turn normal mainstream Sunni Muslims into violent irrational extremists. Also it is because no one wants competition in their turf and Sunni Muslims, because of their current and future size (1.2 billion in just Sunni majority countries) if they become more united, can become an independent world power of sorts and a competitor, whereas the Shia, due to their smaller size will always remain dependent on their benefactors, like Russia and to some extent China.
Also, I was urging for a Global Fiqh Center (GFC) for Sunni Muslims to resolve the differences between different Madhabs and bring them closer together. This GFC then could easily declare the deviant extremists as outside the fold of Islam and thus expose, debunk and delegitimize their false claim among common Sunni Muslims, that they are supposedly following THE true path of Islam while committing War Crimes at the same time, violating basic Islamic laws:
How to stop Islamic extremism: Global Fiqh Council (GFC)
International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Jeddah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jeddah based OIC fiqh academy could be turned into this GFC and Saudi and other Arab Islamic scholars (Ulema) could lead this effort to reach a global consensus with other Ulema from all parts of the Sunni Muslim world. We must recognize that Salafism as a doctrine in its current form has proved to be a failure in promoting peace and development in Muslim societies and foster unity among the diverse Sunni Muslim community of different nationalities spread across Asia and Africa. We need to come up with a better alternative that will be acceptable to 1.4 billion Sunni Muslims of the world and which will also be good for unity, progress, development and tolerance among Muslim societies. Tolerance however does not mean that we need to keep lying down and become slaves of the Shia, but to become powerful we need to unify and consolidate the Sunni Muslim community of the world and keep them away from violent irrational extremism.
After the rise of Houthi's, His Royal Highness King Salman has made an excellent move to initiate attack on Iran's Houthi proxy in Yemen. Also a unified Arab force is an excellent move in the right direction. The decision to invite and include Turkey and Pakistan in this coalition is also great. But note that Turkey being a NATO member cannot directly participate at this stage, so their support will be limited to intelligence, logistics and perhaps equipment supply. Pakistan is also hesitant to get involved. Please note here that both Turkey and Pakistan, although they are Sunni majority, they have size-able Shia population, which is at least 10-15%. Specially in Pakistan Shia are highly educated, organized and influential. Some say they are 30% in the Army. The consensus I see in PDF is that Pakistan will help KSA defensively but not take part in any offensive operation outside KSA borders.
I believe KSA strategists also need to approach the other 3 major Sunni Muslim countries of the world, which are Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. If non-Arab countries like Turkey and Pakistan can get involved, there is no reason to exclude these 3 countries, especially so because these countries have practically no significant Shia population from historical times in the past till today. So even if they become involved in offensive war in Yemen or Syria or Iraq, there is not much opportunity for Iran to retaliate against these 3 countries using their internal minuscule Shia population as their 5th column proxies Also these 3 countries do not border with Iran and have no significant economic relations with Iran..Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, has a size-able armed forces and experienced personnel. Bangladesh also has a well trained armed forces serving in UN peace-keeping operations.
Iranian aggressive effort for the last 36 years to unify their Shia Ummah have proved that if Sunni Muslims do not get unified in a similar effort with all the major countries then it will be difficult to counter Iran led Shia Ummah from establishing dominance over all of Mid-east. If and when Iran gets nukes, then it will become even more difficult to stop Iran from its ambitious goal. In a way, I am glad that Iran has been going in this direction, because if Iran did not start moving in this direction, then Sunni Muslims would not feel the need or urge to get unified. Because there is this threat of Iran led united Shia Ummah, it also presents an opportunity where all major Sunni countries can come together and hopefully form some kind of Sunni Muslim NATO of sorts for collective self defense, starting with the OICPKF effort. After setting up this collective NATO like entity, if we can provide security for all member states, only then it will be possible to develop our 1.2 billion population. Economic growth and developing a population into their full potential does not happen amid chaos. In such a scenario:
- Iran will forever be defeated against this alliance, remain subservient, cease meddling and pose no threat to Arab world
- Indonesia and Malaysia will fulfill their dream of creating a more integrated ASEAN perhaps with a future unified Korea as their close ally
- Pakistan and Bangladesh will no longer be bullied by India and will be able to get fair share of river water that have sources upstream in India
- Egypt will ensure its fair share of water for the Nile river
just to mention some of the myriad benefits
All of the above can happen under tacit understanding from the West as I believe the West may see some benefit in the formation of this alliance, specially reduction of extremism and terrorism. Like other powers they may not like to see a competitor emerge in world stage, but all powers of the world eventually will accept such ideas, because a united, peaceful and developed Sunni Muslim world is better than a terrorist infested chaotic fragmented hellhole like it is today.
With peace and stability in our countries, free from interference from external powers, we will then be able to concentrate on development, industrialization and advancement in science and technology. Instead of being just the Royal family of Saudi Arabia, with this direction, there is potential that Al Saud family will be able to become the main Royal family of the Sunni Ummah of 1.2 billion people, while the Royal families from UAE and Kuwait will be able to become the 2nd tier influential families for the Sunni Muslim Ummah, right after the Al Saud family. The potentials are unlimited if people in key places (and palaces?) understand the plus side and start moving in this direction with concrete steps. But it needs a comprehensive long term plan and strategy, not some panicky reactions and hasty acts like what we apparently see in Yemen.
Iran is serious about building up the Shia Ummah and I congratulate their effort in investing their time and resources in this effort. Gulf Arabs have the resources, but they need to understand that unless they are committed to the greater cause of building up the Sunni Ummah, the people in Sunni Ummah will not come forward with full commitment to shed their blood just as paid mercenaries to help Gulf Arabs in their time of need.Together we can make it happen Insha-Allah, but first the decision makers must make the right decisions:
