Iran backs the terrorist organization Hezbolla and wants to destroy our ally, Israel. Iran also backs the Assad regime in Syria that ISIS is trying to overthrow; we too want Assad overthrown, just not by ISIS. Iran now controls much of Iraq, where we are providing air support in their fight against ISIS, while Iranian backed rebels who have taken Yemen are being bombed by our ally Saudi Arabia that supports Al Qaeda because it fears Iran. The enemy of our enemy is not our friend while the enemy of our friend is not our enemy. Confused? Perhaps this “road map” to Middle East politics will help.
The Sunni And The Shia
There are 1.6 billion Muslims. The vast majority — about 1.4 billion — are Sunni, while the Shia number around 200,000,000. Nearly half the Shia live in Iran and southern Iraq, where they constitute 95 percent of the population; the rest are spread throughout the Middle East, Turkey, Pakistan and India, where they are a decided minority.
The Sunni don’t like the Shia, and the feeling is mutual. In countries where the Sunni dominate, Shia often suffer discrimination and oppression and are the poorest sector of society.
The rift between the Sunni and Shia began with the death of Muhammad in 632. The Shia believed Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad, was the rightful successor to the prophet, while the Summi believed it was Muhammad’s father-in-law Abu Bakr.
The last 1,400 years have been filled with violent clashes between the two, but theology is not the core problem. The theological differences are similar to those between the Catholics and Protestants, and the two denominations co-exist peacefully in many parts of the world. Violence tends to erupt when geo-politics comes into play, and Sunni-Shia violence is on the rise today.
The Wahhabis
Wahhabism is the doctrine followed by Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and most other radical Sunni organizations. Mohammad Bin Abdul Wahhab lived in the 1700s and taught that to be a true Muslim, one must adhere solely and strictly to the beliefs set forth by Muhammad in the seventh century and that every idea added to Islam after that time is false and must be eliminated.
In 1745, Wahhab formed an alliance with Mohammad ibn Saud, the founder of the dynasty that controls modern Saudi Arabia. The alliance held, and today Wahhabism is the official doctrine of Islam in Saudi Arabia.
The OPEC oil embargo in 1973 quadrupled the price of oil, and nearly a billion dollars a day began pouring into Saudi Arabia. Some of this oil money financed the spread of Wahhabism to central Asia and east Africa.
The Saudi government officially opposes terrorist activity, and King Salman recently denounced radical Islamists, saying they are not only threatening Muslims, but are tainting and vilifying the image of Islam to non-Muslims. But the Saudi royal family has more than 15,000 members who share in its wealth — estimated to be over $14 trillion. Regardless of the King’s official policy, members of the royal family are known to independently support terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS.
The Caliphate And Sharia Law
When the prophet Mohammad was alive, he was the political, military and religious leader of the Muslims. After his death, others had to assume these roles. A “caliph” was chosen to be the political and military leader of the rapidly expanding Muslim domain. But no mere human being could fill the religious role of Muhammad, who, it was believed, received revelations directly from God. Thus, shortly after his death, Muhammad’s companions and scribes compiled his revelations in the Koran, which became the immutable basis for Sharia law that governs all aspects of everyday life for Muslims.
There have been a number of caliphates in the history of Islam; the most recent being the Ottoman Caliphate that lasted from 1362 until 1924. At the height of its power in the 1700s, the Ottomans controlled much of southeast Europe, western Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. But in the 1800s, it suffered a series of military setbacks, culminating in its defeat in WWI.
After its dissolution, the victorious European powers carved the Ottoman Empire into secular nation states that divided ethnic populations into weak warring factions. Radical Islamists dream of reestablishing a caliphate that will unite the Muslim world under sharia law.
Secular Government
Secularism is the separation of public life and civil government from religious teachings and commandments. In the Christian world, the notion that monarchs derive their authority to govern by divine right began to be challenged in the 1700s. A basic tenant of the American Revolution was the belief that free people could get together and constitute a government that would rule by the consent of the governed rather than divine authority. In secular democracies elected parliamentarians make the laws, not theologians — a notion that is anathema to Islamic fundamentalists intent on imposing sharia law.
Some moderate Muslims believe secular democracy can be compatible with Islam and point to Turkey as an example. Some former Soviet republics with Muslim populations have also adopted secular democracy. But the primary experience with imposing secular government in the Islamic world is that it requires a strongman or powerful dictator with outside support to prevent the various factions from killing each other or overthrowing the government.
If the United States were to get involved militarily in the Middle East, whose side should we take? Our current foreign policy prefers secular democracy over ruthless dictators such as Assad, Kadaffi and Saddam Hussein. But secular democrats in the Middle East are about as common and popular as Alabama football fans in Baton Rouge.
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