Do you remember the furor caused this last Easter when the State of New York shut down all but the most basic worship services at St. Paul’s Cathedral in downtown NYC from Good Friday through Easter Sunday? The cathedral was ringed by a cordon of city and state police officers over fears prompted by threats of armed violence and bombings planned by fundamentalist Baptists and Presbyterians.
You don’t recall this?
That’s good, because it didn’t happen.
On the other hand, last week from Wednesday through Friday (September 19-21), the Egyptian government shut down the Imam Hussein mosque in Cairo from all but the most basic prayer services. Why?
The Imam Hussein mosque is the largest Shiite mosque in Egypt, and so is a magnet drawing crowds of the minority sect to prayers. September 20-21 this year marked the holiest uniquely Shiite day on the Muslim calendar, known as Ashura. The day commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, son of Ali and grandson of Muhammad, who was killed in battle by opposing Muslim armies at Karbala (in modern-day Iraq) in 680 AD. This watershed moment is generally regarded as the genesis of the Shiite-Sunni divide in Islam, where the army and followers of Hussein viewed with unquenchable enmity the army and followers of Yazid who would subsequently become Caliph over the quickly growing Muslim world, cementing in history the Umayyad dynasty. The followers of Hussein (known as the party of Ali, his father) began to commemorate the martyrdom of Hussein annually with self-flagellation and beatings as a way to show their allegiance and dedication to Hussein and opposition to the rule of those who had killed their leader.
These followers became known as Shiites (from that Arabic word for party/movement, “shi’a”). The majority rulers, whom they opposed, became known as Sunnis (from “sunnah”, meaning “traditional customs” — which, with regard to the succession of caliphs, the Shi’ites rejected).
Much like the Jews and Samaritans of the ancient world, or the Hatfields and McCoys of late 19th C. America, there is typically little love lost between the Sunnis and Shi’ites. Often, members from each side consider the other side to be disbelievers, atheists, heretics, apostates or some combination of all these labels. Among influential Sunni medieval scholars, Ibn Taymiyya lumped Shi’ites among the worst of heretics to be opposed by true Islam. Ibn Khaldun wrote that they were the “astray people,” and “the source of all deviant groups in Islamic history.” In contemporary times, Abdul Aziz Ibn Baz, who served as the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, penned numerous fatwas denouncing Shi’ites as apostates and atheists. So foul were they that he legally proscribed marriage between Sunnis and Shi’ites. One of the foremost Sunni theologians alive today, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has also issued multiple fatwas condemning Shi’ites as heretics. Fundamentalist Muslims are fond of using “rafidi” (refusers, rejecters) as a derogatory term for Shi’ites, highlighting their rejection of the three caliphs prior to ‘Ali and the customs of Islam arising from that period of Islamic history.
Shi’ites, for their part, have their own derogatory term for Sunnis: Nasibi. It means literally “those who have hatred,” specifically toward ‘Ali. In other words, those who will not accept that ‘Ali and his lineage were meant to rule over all the house of Islam are “haters of ‘Ali, and so are excluded from the family of true Muslims. Shi’ite tradition reports that the sixth Imam, Abu Abdullah, said, “The Nasibi is worse than the Jew.” (For Muslims of any persuasion, this is about as defamatory as one can get, although Shi’ite tradition also speaks of the Nasibi as lower than a dog.) Likewise, in some Shi’a eschatologies, when the Imam Mahdi (final Muslim conqueror of the whole world) comes, he will first turn to the slaughter of the Sunnis and their scholars before he turn his attention to the slaughter of all infidels.
As I said, there is no love lost between Sunnis and Shi’ites.
The vignette of Ashura at Iman Hussein mosque in Cairo and the action of the Egyptian (Sunni) government to preemptively suppress any violence by fundamentalist Salafi or Muslim Brotherhood operatives against minority Shi’ites points to the explosive friction manifested between Sunnis and Shi’ites around the world. Bombings are commonplace at rival mosques in cities where spatial constraints force these opposing groups to rub shoulders. Militants from both sides employ hit and run attacks, spraying bullets or running vehicles at crowds to spread mayhem and death.
Christians today, who have our own share of sectarianism, can’t understand how denominational differences can lead to repeated violence and murder. Certainly in the history of the Church such things have happened, and Christian blood has dripped from the hands of fellow Christians at low times in our history. But when the Church comes back to its senses and returns to the teachings of her Lord, she repents of the evil she had committed, seeks reconciliation, and resolves to never treat fellow Christians as enemies. Certainly Jesus’ teachings prohibit hatred of others (even enemies) and the use of violence against them.
So, many Westerners look on the Muslim world with bemusement, wondering how Muslims can shed the blood of fellow Muslims with regularity and zeal, and why there are few if any signs of repentance by the perpetrators of such internecine strife. Is this merely a stage of history that the Muslim community will outgrow, as the Church endured and emerged from its own bloody Middle Ages, or will hate-inspired, Muslim-on-Muslim bloodshed and carnage continue to haunt much of the Islamic world indefinitely?
Unfortunately, the answer is, most likely the latter. Unlike the Church after it has engaged willingly in evil and finally repents, returning to the peace-making teachings of Jesus, when the Muslim umma (community) engages in willful destruction of fellow Muslims or infidels, it finds nothing to repent of. On the contrary, it congratulate itself for following carefully the teachings of Muhammad and Allah as found in the Qur’an and traditions:
“Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not” (Qur’an 2:216)
“Slay the unbeliever wherever you find him” (9:5);
“O ye who believe! what is the matter with you, that, when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling heavily to the earth? Do ye prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the Hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place” (9:38-39)
“O Prophet, fight against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them. And their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination” (9:73)
“Surely Allah loves those who fight in His way” (61:4)
“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them” (8:12)
“If the hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is a disease, and the alarmists in the city do not cease, We verily shall urge thee on against them, then they will be your neighbors in it but a little while. Accursed, they will be seized wherever found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter” (33:60-62)
“What is [the matter] with you [that you are] two groups concerning the hypocrites, while Allah has made them fall back [into error and disbelief] for what they earned. Do you wish to guide those whom Allah has sent astray? And he whom Allah sends astray – never will you find for him a way [of guidance]. They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper” (4:88-89)
“They [the hypocrites] are the enemy, so beware of them. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded! (63:4 — Sura 63 is itself entitled “The Hypocrites”).
There are literally hundreds of verses in the Qur’an identifying the enemies of Allah and enshrining violence as a way to deal with them. Idolaters, unbelievers, hypocrites (Muslims in name only) and apostates are all enemies, and they are to be dealt with harshly by the “true” Muslim community.
With regard to Sunnis and Shi’ites who anathematize each other and look for Qur’anic justification to kill their opponents in the name of Allah, perhaps 9:73 is the linchpin verse: O Prophet, fight against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them. And their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination. “Fight against” is a translation of the verbal form of “jihad”, and so may rightly be translated “Wage jihad against…” Disbelievers and hypocrites are lumped together equally as targets of jihad. If therefore, it is right to kill disbelievers (any who reject the call to become Muslim), it is equally right to kill hypocrites, that is, those who go by the name of Muslim but who don’t really believe the “truth”; those “in the right” are to show no mercy to the objects of Allah’s wrath, for indeed Allah will show them no mercy in the roasting fires of hell.
Thus, as long as the Sunni-Shi’a divide continues (and there are no signs it will ever be healed as each newly-inflicted wound merely deepens hatred and a desire for revenge), each side will wrap itself in the cloak of righteous jihad against the other, and feel justified on the grounds of their holy book in their massacre of each other.
Read the rest here.
Walter Sieruk says
Concerning Islam and the devout Muslim followers of this religion. Many Sunni Muslims hate with a passion the Shi ‘ite Muslims. Likewise, many of the Shi ‘ite Muslim hat with a passion the Sunni Muslims .Nevertheless Muslim of those two of Islam both believe that the founder of their religion, Muhammad, was an actually prophet of God. Likewise , they both believe that their “holy book” the Qu ‘ran is the actual word of God .All this lead to the important subject that it’s a good thing to define what Islam really is .Of the many ways Islam may be described, one of them is that a religion of denial. Meaning that Islam denies that Jesus is the Son of God. As in the Son of God Who is God the Father. Furthermore, Islam denies the Jesus is God the Son. In addition, Islam denies that Jesus is God. Before going over these three denials of Islam it first should the stated the Bible instructs the way to tell if a prophet or religious teacher is really from and of God or not is do the teachings and doctrines of that prophet of teacher really fit in accord what is found in the Bible ? For if that prophet or teachers and teachers doctrines that are in contradiction to the Bible then that prophet is a false prophet and that religious teacher is a false teacher and thus in doctrinal error and darkness. Likewise if a religion had teachings and doctrines that are in contradiction that is religion is in error also part of the world of darkness and is therefore a false religion. As the Bible instructs in Isaiah 8:20. “To the law of the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” [K.J.V.] With this clearly stated, three things should be known.
First, that Islam denial that Jesus is the Son of God is in great contradiction to the teaching of the Bible . Which reveals the Jesus is the Son of God? As seen in ,for example Matthew 3:16,17. 16:15,16. Luke 1:35. John 3:16-18, 36. First John 2:22,23. 4:14,15. 5:12,13. Second, that Islam denies that Jesus is God the Son is in strong contradiction to the Bible. As found in Hebrews 1:6-8. With emphasis on verse 8. Third, Islam’s denial that Jesus is God is in great contrast to the doctrine and teaching of the Bible. That Jesus is God may be found in ,for example, John 1:1;3. Colossians 1:15-17. 2:9. Romans 9:5 Second Peter 1:1. Titus 2:13. First John 5:20. Moreover, to further discover that the Bible teachings that Jesus is God all a person has to do is to compare the Old Testament with New Testament to see that Jesus is God. As in comparing Isaiah 45:22,23. with Philippians 2:5-11. Also by comparing Psalm 89:8,9. with Mathew 8:23-27. will reveal that Jesus is God. Likewise, by comparing Psalm 62:5-7 . with First Corinthians 10:4. shows the Deity of Jesus. Even by comparing the News Testament books together will show that Jesus is God. As in comparing Romans 14:12. with John 5:22. will show Jesus to be God. The list can go on but this should be enough, for all who are willing to see the truth, that Jesus is, indeed, the Son of God. That Jesus is God the Son and that Jesus is God.
The imams and mullahs as well as the other apologists for Islam will try to “explain’ this all away by making the claim that the Bible had been corrupted by Christians ,through time, and that’s way the Bible reads as it does. This claim, very much, underestimate the Power of God to protect and preserve His Word ,through time , and to keep in intact and away from the corruption of men. In conclusion, in light and information of the Bible in can be seen that Islam is a awful and terrible doctrinal error concerning it teaching about the Nature of Jesus and therefore Islam is part of the world of darkness. So Islam with its strong contradictions to the Bible is a false religion, Proverbs 14:12. So all Muslims be they peaceful non-ISIS members or the violent jihadist/ISIS members are thus invited to leave the false religion of Islam and come the and receive the Jesus of the Bible who is the only way to heaven ,John 14:6 and the True Light of the world. John 8:12.
Hari Singh says
No need for long arguments on veracity of Muhammad and Muhammedeans. He was immoral, his followers are immoral. Tree is known by its fruits
Burner Jack says
Book of Matthew 7:15-20
Peter Buckley says
“…as long as the Sunni-Shi’a divide continues (and there are no signs it will ever be healed as each newly-inflicted wound merely deepens hatred and a desire for revenge)…”
Indeed. Probably the best and clearest article concerning the chaos in the Middle East was this one written when ISIS first kicked off:
“As for the warring Arab Islamic sects, they are set to continue to battle one another, with ready foreign help, over the ruins of the countries once known as Iraq and Syria. This war is just beginning. Any attempts to portray either of the warring sides as “anti-terrorist” or “pro-western” should be stubbornly resisted. Acceptance of such definitions is the entry hall to new policy failures and wasted lives. ISIL and the Quds Force differ in organizational structure, but are similarly anti-western — and similarly vile. They should be left to bleed one another white.”
https://www.meforum.org/articles/2014/second-front-opens-in-the-sunni-shia-war
Quite. Personally I view current events in the ME as kind of inevitable. It is the first stage of Islam’s own self-destruction:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/opinion/sunday/thomas-l-friedman-how-isis-drives-muslims-from-islam.html
Rick says
So why intervene – let them fight it out to see which one is “really” Muslim?
PRCS says
Given that both Shiite and Sunni Muslims live in the U.S., not sure that letting them “fight it out” here would a good idea (drive by shootings, bombing “enemy” mosques, etc.).
A caveat: the general public might, could and SHOULD have a better understanding of Islam’s true teachings by such public sectarian violence on U.S. soil.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, PRCS.
David Grisez says
There are a number of times where disputes between Muslim factions leads to violent confrontations. I remember an example of this that took place some years ago. The story goes like this. There was a mosque in Pakistan that had two factions. Each faction wanted its leader to lead the prayers at the Mosque. The dispute between the two factions quickly escalated to into a full blown gun battle inside the Mosque. By the time the gun battle was over around 17 people were injured and there was blood all over the floor of the Mosque. This shows just how violent and deadly Islam is. It is common place for different Muslim factions to get into fights against each other. Muslims are their own worst enemy.
gravenimage says
Could you imagine this happening in a Church or Synagogue? Me neither.
Indiana Tom says
The 30 year war had enough carnage for everyone. Saxony was permanently weakened as a great power. Vast populations were killed or exiled as a result. Most of the Protestant Rhinelanders in the USA are here because they were forced out of Germany. One of my ancestors was one of them.
gravenimage says
Indiana Tom, you have to go back almost 400 years for that. The Thirty Years War was a long time ago.
StellaSaidSo says
Indeed, I can ‘imagine’ it, too, Tom. The Religious Wars in France continued for well over a century, during which time thousands of Protestants were slaughtered or exiled, their assets seized. The fact that it was ‘a long time ago’ does not diminish any atrocity.
gravenimage says
I did not say that time diminished the atrocity–of course, it does not.
I obviously meant that it would be absurd to worry about Christians doing such things now. To pretend that Jews and Christians are as violent as are Muslims is just false moral equivalence, and it diminishes our response to terror if we pretend that Western Jews and Christians and Secularists are as apt to commit acts of terrorism as are Muslims.
StellaSaidSo says
Get a grip. Nobody claimed that Jews and Christians are as violent as Muslims. You asked ‘Could you imagine this happening in a Church or synagogue?’ Some of us can, and mentioned examples.
David Grisez says
I have only heard of this type of event happening in Islam. I have never heard of it happening in other religions.
gravenimage says
True.
gravenimage says
The Hatfields and McCoys of Islam
…………………….
Fine piece by Mateen Elass.
And more and more, we are going to see this sectarian savagery here in the civilized West, as Muslims continue to flood in here.
WPM says
The Hatfields and McCoys good comparison two inbred violent families fighting over a slight that is over a thousand years ago. I look to World War Two how the allies treated Germany and Japan after that war for how Jewish Christian foundation on how Western governments works a mere 73 years later they became the best of allies to the western world. Too bad Germany is giving over the keys of its house , its wealth , its women and children to the inbred ,welfare stealing ,4 wives breeding, violently slashing , young girl grooming, white trash religion of “peace” the best of allahs people. That you Mateen Elass is very true, wars come and go, Islamic violence is preach to last forever!
Indiana Tom says
when the Imam Mahdi (final Muslim conqueror of the whole world) comes, he will first turn to the slaughter of the Sunnis and their scholars before he turn his attention to the slaughter of all infidels.
Gee, now I feel special that I will not be slaughtered immediately.
Indiana Tom says
each side will wrap itself in the cloak of righteous jihad against the other, and feel justified on the grounds of their holy book in their massacre of each other.
They need to try harder.
Guy Leven-Torres says
The reason why Islam is violent is due to its very nature. It is a violent death cult. It brings death and oppression wherever it exists.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Mateen Elas,the ideology of Takfir from wahhabism came from an isolated group called khawarij, not from sunni Islam. the Takfir wahhabists rename themselves as sunnis or salafists as a deception to get acceptance among muslims who rejected khawariji ideology for long. If you can read the books of Fiqh, especially four sunni schools, even if they find an opinion to be wrong they don’t declare that person an apostate or to be killed. This is also the case among shia scholars. If fact Takfir ideology of killing a person with dissenting view never sneak into shia Islam ,and that is why you will never find Takfir and killer groups among them. The takfiri wahhabists hold perverted interpretations of the the verses on jihad fighting you have cited.The verses cannot be used to kill even non-muslims who do not fight Muslims or oppress others as explicitly stated in the Quran. It is not because of these verses that such killings of shia by Takfir wahhabists cannot end as it was ended among Christian sects, the Takfiri killers are being used by the west ,especially the evil United States, to divide and weaken Muslim world for the advantage of fascist evil Zionist State of Israel.
don vito says
itace, you swear on allah that what you posted is true?
Mateen Elass says
Of course, Ibrahim. Even Muslim killers of fellow Muslims are first and foremost victims of the United States and the West. How does this explain the slaughter of Muslims by Muslims before 1776, when the USA could not be the Great Satan attacking Islam? Was there ever a time where Muslims should be held responsible for their own evil actions?
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Mateen Elass, I did stated that wahhabi takfiri ideology is the revival of that deadly isolated khawariji ideology that emerged since the first civil war in Islamic world during the time of caliph Ali and muawiyya. It was only khawarij faction who declared other Muslims as kafirs (unbelievers) for committing a sin or holding contrary view to their own exactly like wahhabi takfiri killers, the Sunni and shia factions never did that.
don vito says
itace, Is every word of your post true? Swear on allah, every word you posted is true?!
gravenimage says
The dishonest Ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
Mateen Elas,the ideology of Takfir from wahhabism came from an isolated group called khawarij, not from sunni Islam.
………………………………
What absolute tripe–this is utterly false, as Ibrahim itace muhammed knows. Takfir dates way back as an Islamic doctrine–Abu Bakr, a “companion” of the “Prophet” and first Caliph, practiced it against Muslim tribes that refused to pay Zakat. Ibn Taymiyyah, the 14th century scholar, was also a great proponent.
It has been practiced by many Muslims of all sects, including all who murder other-sect Muslims, such as Sunni vs. Shia–and this has been going on for over 1300 years.
Wahhab also used the doctrine, but he was far from the first.
So why is Ibrahim itace muhammed flogging this here? Because he has claimed–absurdly–that Wahhab was actually a Jew and not Muslim, and that Wahhabism was backed by Americans–never mind that the new born United States had *no* presence whatsoever in Arabia in the 18th century,and most of Wahhab’s influence came before the US even existed.
More:
the Takfir wahhabists rename themselves as sunnis or salafists as a deception to get acceptance among muslims who rejected khawariji ideology for long. If you can read the books of Fiqh, especially four sunni schools, even if they find an opinion to be wrong they don’t declare that person an apostate or to be killed. This is also the case among shia scholars.
………………………………
Sunni and Shia slaughter each other *all the time*–and such violence is not limited to these two sects. For instance, the Ahmadi are frequent victims of their more orthodox coreligionists.
More:
If fact Takfir ideology of killing a person with dissenting view never sneak into shia Islam ,and that is why you will never find Takfir and killer groups among them.
………………………………
Is that so? How does Ibrahim itace muhammed explain stories like this one?
“40 die in Baghdad massacre as Shia militia go on rampage”
https://www.theguardian.com/guardianweekly/story/0,,1818778,00.html
There are many similar hideous stories.
More:
The takfiri wahhabists hold perverted interpretations of the the verses on jihad fighting you have cited.The verses cannot be used to kill even non-muslims who do not fight Muslims or oppress others as explicitly stated in the Quran.
………………………………
Yeah–right. Yet Ibrahim itace muhammed *himself* has said that Muslims have the right to slaughter any Infidels who do not submit to Islam. He also does not note that merely refusing to submit to Islam is considered “fighting” in Islam.
More:
It is not because of these verses that such killings of shia by Takfir wahhabists cannot end as it was ended among Christian sects, the Takfiri killers are being used by the west ,especially the evil United States, to divide and weaken Muslim world for the advantage of fascist evil Zionist State of Israel.
………………………………
We’ve heard *this* before–that Muslims are not waging Jihad–it is all just the evil Americans and Jews. Try again…
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Liar Gravenimage, Caliph Abubakar fought those who refused to pay Zakkat as rebels not as kafirs (unbelievers). Ibn Tahmiyya held kwariji ideology at the beginning ,but later dropped it when he realised that it is wrong. Check his biography
gravenimage says
Talk about a distinction without a difference, since Muslims consider apostates to be both rebels and unbelievers, and are happy to slaughter them.
Giacomo Latta says
iim is a shia, a disbeliever. Duly make note of that, dear sunni readers, should you ever meet him.
gravenimage says
He’s said before that he is Sunni–although he approves of Shia oppressing and murdering Infidels.
don vito says
itace, watch your 6 in your mosk. Why? Devout and pious believers in the ROP are offended when they are accused of being agents of evil USA and zionistic Israel. Or do you only post about your brithers, to kufr? What mosk do you attend? What’s twenty?
don vito says
brothers