Dr. Mohammad T. Al-Rasheed in Arab News (thanks to Nicolei) writes well about the recent massacres of Shi’ites by Sunnis in Karbala, and the absurdity of the general tendency to blame America for everything:
What is overwhelming, however, is the reaction while the blood is still hot and streaming down the streets of Iraq. A few Shia clerics, including prominent ones in Lebanon, have declared that America is to blame for this atrocity. How so, pray tell? ‘It did not provide security,’ is the answer. Mind you, this America is the one the same the Shia are now talking to so they can finally govern themselves for the first time in 1400 years. If I were a Shia and from Iraq, I’d pray to the Almighty that America remained in Iraq until the country was stable and on its feet again. Otherwise, the Karbala massacre will be just a trailer for the full version of an unbelievable horror show.
My point, however, is not America’s role. It is something I have written about many times: the Arab tendency to blame others and shun the facts. Shia and Sunni know perfectly well who the perpetrators are. There might be ‘foreign fighters’ responsible for this, but foreign and Iraqi members of this group come under the heading of “Arab.” They also come under the sub-title of ‘theological elitism’ -my own euphemism for what cannot be spelled out in print.
In this he is likely referring to those who massacre in the name of “pure Islam” — the Salafi Wahhabis who dominate Saudi Arabia.
Shouldn’t the Shia clerics name names and point fingers in the right direction? We are sick and tired of this kind of behavior. We honestly have had enough of it and cannot blame the world for looking at us and wondering if we retain any shred of humanity. The creed that sanctions blowing up worshipers in mosques (or any other religious venue for that matter, including office buildings since Islam says that work is worship) should be declared the public enemy of humanity. The UN should vote on that publicly and let us count the votes and identify those who vote against the motion.
This is laudable, but it would be better, circumstances and Islamic law being what they are, if Rasheed spelled out the monstrousness of a creed that targets unbelievers for massacre. He seems exercised about Muslims killing Muslims, which is indeed a heinous crime in Islam (see Sura 4:92-3); however, since Islamic law mandates a lesser punishment for those who murder non-Muslims, and sanctions warfare against them, it would be a great step forward for him to include this also, explicitly, as a crime against humanity.