Sunni Shia Peace and Politics
As a Westerner I have been trying to wrap my brain around the Middle East Conflicts for quite some time. The following is what I have come up with so far. It is is a response to a post by a friend:
"There WAS peace in the Middle East before we got there. Sunnis and Shias were living together in peace as Catholics and Protestants do in America and Europe. They lived harmoniously together, intermarried, celebrated common local religious holidays, worked together, respected each other's differences just as we do here. They had established an ecumenical state of being. But the Shias are a minority and often well educated and somewhat Marxist believing that the Sunni traditions have grown too corrupt. Reforming activist groups have become militant and being supported by outsiders and what was once a peaceful people who had achieved stasis have been consistently prodded into adversity with one another. It would be the same if Mexico and Canada had funneled massive funds to the Black Panther's in the 60's to exacerbate division here. The FBI made short change of it. But in those countries whose resources are greatly coveted, hostile and cruel attempts to suppress activists by secret police only served to abuse the feelings of the Shia minority by murdering their activists. Thus, these measures gave rise to greater and greater anger, resistance and violence as outside benefactors began fueling heated passions for revenge and civil war. (War is always a lucrative business.) These people could have taught us all something about Marley's music because they succeeded in resolving their issues peacefully on their own even after being released from many generations of colonialism. Border disputes are vulnerable politics. The Iran/Iraq war on 1980 that cost millions of lives was an interesting war because it was a Shia/Shia conflict. Iraq, predominantly Shia, had established a delicate balance between the Shias and the Sunnis through the Pan-Arab Ba'ath Party (same as Assad). But the outsiders have no desire for peace in the Middle East because a unified Arab world means loss in profits and exclusion of the colonizing controlling Western interests. It's sad when you think of it. The propaganda that we are fed, Celeste, is about "those Arabs, those Muslims, those terrorists" but the truth reveals more about us. I think the White House and 10, Downing Street need a better sound system!"
"There WAS peace in the Middle East before we got there. Sunnis and Shias were living together in peace as Catholics and Protestants do in America and Europe. They lived harmoniously together, intermarried, celebrated common local religious holidays, worked together, respected each other's differences just as we do here. They had established an ecumenical state of being. But the Shias are a minority and often well educated and somewhat Marxist believing that the Sunni traditions have grown too corrupt. Reforming activist groups have become militant and being supported by outsiders and what was once a peaceful people who had achieved stasis have been consistently prodded into adversity with one another. It would be the same if Mexico and Canada had funneled massive funds to the Black Panther's in the 60's to exacerbate division here. The FBI made short change of it. But in those countries whose resources are greatly coveted, hostile and cruel attempts to suppress activists by secret police only served to abuse the feelings of the Shia minority by murdering their activists. Thus, these measures gave rise to greater and greater anger, resistance and violence as outside benefactors began fueling heated passions for revenge and civil war. (War is always a lucrative business.) These people could have taught us all something about Marley's music because they succeeded in resolving their issues peacefully on their own even after being released from many generations of colonialism. Border disputes are vulnerable politics. The Iran/Iraq war on 1980 that cost millions of lives was an interesting war because it was a Shia/Shia conflict. Iraq, predominantly Shia, had established a delicate balance between the Shias and the Sunnis through the Pan-Arab Ba'ath Party (same as Assad). But the outsiders have no desire for peace in the Middle East because a unified Arab world means loss in profits and exclusion of the colonizing controlling Western interests. It's sad when you think of it. The propaganda that we are fed, Celeste, is about "those Arabs, those Muslims, those terrorists" but the truth reveals more about us. I think the White House and 10, Downing Street need a better sound system!"
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