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KNOW YOUR ENEMY
By Micah Halpern

Monday November 27, 2006

Column:

Over two hundred Shiites in Iraq are killed by Sunnis. The next day, Sunnis are doused with kerosene as they leave their mosque. Human, Sunni, torches. Burned alive. And Americans hold their heads in their hands and lament. A collective American voice wails: What have we done, what have we done to the people of Iraq?

The answer, America, is NOTHING!

There is no correlation between the presence of the United States of America in Iraq and Sunni/Shiite violence. Sunnis and Shiites - in Iraq and throughout the Muslim world - have been going at it for years. For hundreds and hundred of years. For centuries, for generations. Since just after the time of the prophet Mohammed.

The question we should be asking is not - what have we done. The question is - why are they doing this to one another.

Americans call it "sectarian violence." Americans think that they are the cause, or at least, an exacerbating factor in the on-going ever-increasing violent relationship that exists between the Muslims of Iraq. Iraqis know otherwise. The Muslim Arab world knows otherwise. The only reason Americans know about the violence at all is because America is there. American media is there. And if and when the United States of America and all other Western nations leave Iraq, and when all Western media leaves Iraq, the violence will continue. It just won't be on the front pages of Western newspapers. It won't be the cover story of Western magazines. It won't be the lead story on the evening news. But it will still go on.

The dispute between Sunnis and Shiites began with a discussion about the successor to Mohammed. Who would take over after the death of the prophet Mohammed? Who was the true successor? Sunnis said that Mohammed's brightest disciple should be the rightful heir and inheritor of the Islamic mantle. Shiites said a relative would be the best heir, that Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, the husband of his daughter Fatimah, was the best person for the job and that every subsequent successor should be a blood relative. The Shiites won out.

From that day to this Shiites and Sunnis are separated not only in ideology, but also in tradition and law. Shiites became much more confined in their understanding of Muslim law and in the traditions of Islam. Sunnis became more liberal in law. Sunnis make up 90% of Islam while Shiites are a mere 10%. But they are a very loud, very local, very aggressive 10%. Sunnis have their extremists, too, but they are a very small minority within Sunni tradition.

There is more separating Sunnis and Shiites than uniting them. This is not about Protestants and Catholics. They are not co-religionists. The mind set of Sunnis and Shiites is beyond Western comprehension, sectarian violence is a new concept for us. Sunnis and Shiites are not united. They actually see one another as heretics. They each have more in common with Jews than they do with each other. And they will continue to murder one another for the foreseeable future. They are sworn enemies.

It is wrong to believe that had the United States and Western allies not invaded Iraq there would be no discord, no internal violence. Just wrong. This is not about American policy, it is not about the role of the United States in the region. This is about internal Muslim conflict. When Zarqawi, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq was alive, he killed far more Shiites than Westerners. Shiites were his enemy long before the United States made it to his hit list and they will remain on the Sunni hit list long after.

This is one problem that the West cannot resolve. The best the West can do is to prevent a wholesale massacre. Rather than throw up their arms in despair or bury their heads in guilt Americans can open their minds and learn more about Islam and Islamic societies. Sunnis, Shiites, they can both be friend or foe of the West.

The less we know about them, the less we understand about them, the less successful we will be in our fight against them. Know your enemy, it's not just a platitude. It's the only way to win the war.

4 June 2017 12:14 PM in Columns


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