The neo-Shia-Sunni super split, does it exist?

[Alisomali]

Muslims killing Muslims, its nothing new and we as Somalis know it too painfully well.

But I have started to notice a really scarry trend in Iraq. Shia Muslims killing Sunni Muslims and vice-versa.

My question is where do you think this bloody split came from?

What are your impressions of Shia Muslims?

As for me growing up in the US I have been exposed to a lot of cultures, amongst them Shia Muslims. My best friend is an Iranian who is Shia and we look at one another as Muslims nothing less nothing more.

But in the lead up to the American war on Iraq I started to hear all these pseudo-experts talk about this supposed huge split between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq. But the funny thing is that Shia served right next to their Sunni comrades in the Iraqi armed forces while Iraq fought Iran.

Anyways was this new split in iraq created by the occupation or was it simmering before under Saddam and this war just let it come out.

[General Duke]

^^^There is a clrear split and a fear in the corrupt oil rich Sunni nations of the emerging power of the Shia.

 

Iran is the only regional power, it has a large population, educated and they have managed to control their oil.

 

Iraq is for the first time in its history run by the Shia who are estimated to be 60% of the population. They also have the most powerful millitias, Badr Brigade, Mahdi of Al Sadr.

 

Lets add Lebanon which has 1/3 of its population Shia making up the ranks of the world famous Hizbollah..

 

The Saudi,s have 10% Shia population, who reside in an important oil rich province.

 

So while the fat cats in the Gulf helped destroy Sadam in Iraq, they have become the midwife who delivered the new Shia power Iran...

[Alisomali]

He Duke you made a point i had not thought about before. The oil rich dictatorial regencies did help in ushering in this new shia power and now they are scared.

Fun fact...did you know that Bahrain is majority Shia, im sure the king over there is not too happy about the situation.

But Im also wondering was this violance between Shia and Sunni fomented by the British in the South of Iraq and the US in the rest of the country for reasons of political expediancy in order to gain a stronger hold over Iraq, but now there is occuring a huge Blowback form the aforesaid classic policy of divide and conquer?

[General Duke]

But Im also wondering was this violance between Shia and Sunni fomented by the British in the South of Iraq and the US in the rest of the country for reasons of political expediancy in order to gain a stronger hold over Iraq, but now there is occuring a huge Blowback form the aforesaid classic policy of divide and conquer

Yes, the occupiers of IRAQ started to highlight the differences or ethnicities in Iraq, you had the silly SUNNI TRIANGLE which was never used in the general discourse of that nation. Kurds, Shia and Sunni was used to strengthen the hand of the occupiers. They belived they could control the Shia and buy of the Kurds and bomb the Sunni to submission.

 

They were mistaken the Shia fighters and rebels came back with a clear agenda of their own. The pro-western Shia politicians like Ahmed Chalabi, Iyad Allawi etc, took a back seat to the Mullahs and young upstarts like Al-Hakim and Sayid Muqtada Al Sadr..Further more the Ayatolah Al-Sistani an Iranian is the most powerful man in Iraq today, because he can with one word call up the 18 million Shias to the streets..

 

The Americans are now courting the Sunni's in order to weaken the Shia coilition who now run the government and the new army.

 

You mentioned Bahrain a valid point which illustrates the nature of the problem, remember also that the Iranians are next door to UAE and QATAR, who happen to be pro American. Imagine if there is a war on the Iranians or a Shia-Sunni confrontation?