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Muslims ponder effects of a democratic Iraq | February 23, 2005

Interfaith activity must orient itself to the hard, life-and-death reality associated with religious influence in the world. It is important that we be informed. And it is important that we incorporate this knowledge of various Interreligious relations into our interfaith strategies. I have heard from even my closest, educated Muslim friends the repeated refrain "Islam is one, Sunnis and Shias have no problems with one another." The fact that this is not true is less important than the chance for these two communities, beginning with religious leaders to work together for the good of the innocent families who live in Muslim countries with both persuasions.

By Anwar Iqbal
United Press International
Published February 22, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Muslim analysts acknowledge that a stable democracy in Iraq would ultimately have a positive effect on Arabs and the larger Muslim world alike. They argue that if Iraq emerges as a viable democracy despite its ethnic and religious divisions, it will show that the Muslims are capable of living with differences.

On the other hand if the Iraqi Shias who emerged as the dominant political force in the Jan 30 election fail to reach broad agreement on forming a government, their lack of success will strengthen the argument that Muslims are still not capable of living in a pluralistic society where groups with differing religious, social and political interests live together as citizens of one state, united in their pursuit of democracy and economic prosperity.

The analysts also say that the emergence of a Shiite Iraq will set religion against Arab nationalism. If Iraq's new rulers join a Shiite bloc, led by Iran, against Sunni Arabs, it will be a victory for religion. And if they stay united with the rest of the Arab world, which is predominantly Sunni, it will be a triumph of Arab nationalism.

"There are two things the Muslims can learn in Iraq: one, that the Islamic world is divided between Shias and Sunnis," says Ayesha Siddiqua, a scholar at Washington's Woodrow Wilson International Center. "Two, that these differences are real and they need to learn to live with them."

When Muslims talk of unity, says Ayesha, they start with the premise that there are no differences within the greater Muslim community, which is known as the ummah. "And because all talks of unity start with the denial of reality, they always end in frustration," she says.

"The fact is that the Shias and Sunnis have basic differences with each other. They need to learn to live with these differences or there never will be any real unity," she says.

The most recent example of this desire of sweeping their differences under the carpet, says Murtaza Haider, a Shiite professor at Montreal's McGill University, is the decision to ignore Sunni bomb-attacks on Shiite mosques in Iraq this weekend.

"Scores of Shias were killed on some of their holiest days and no Shia priest or scholar even mentioned it," he says. "This will not help. The need is to discuss these attacks. Make the Sunnis realize that this is wrong."

Haider argues that as long as Sunni do not rise against attacks on Shias, the attacks will never stop.

"We always hear that it's only handful of hate-mongers behind these attacks; that the vast Sunni majority is against it. But where is this majority? Why does not it speak up," asks Haider. "The attacks must stop, not just in Iraq but also in places like Pakistan where attacks on Shia minorities are common".

Both Haider and Siddiqua say that while initially there will be an upsurge of Shiite sentiments in Iraq when the Shias assume power; Arab nationalism will ultimately overcome these feelings. "We must not forget that during Saddam's 10-year war against Iran, it's not just the Sunnis who were fighting. Iraqi Shias were also in his army," says Haider. "There were no mass-scale desertions of Iraqi Shia soldiers to Iran."

Siddiqua, while supporting this argument, points out that it was "not just fear of Saddam that prevented desertions. Many Iraqi Shias strongly believed in Arab nationalism."

Masood Haider Zaidi, a New York-based Shiite journalist, points out that despite Saddam's atrocities and despite continued attacks on Shiite religious sites, Iraqi Shia leaders are making serious efforts for reconciliation with the Sunnis.

"We might not have seen this spirit of reconciliation if non-Arab Sunnis, such as the Kurds, had ruled Iraq instead of Saddam, an Arab," he argues.

"There would have been a much stronger reaction against the Kurds, there would have been a civil war," agrees Murtaza Haider.

A religious conflict in Iraq he says could increase tensions in the rest of the Islamic world, for example, in countries like Pakistan, which have a sizeable Shiite minority. "But in countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh, two of the most populous Muslim nations, there will be no effect because they hardly have any Shias."

The emergence of a Shiite Iraq, however, will give "some sort of legitimacy" to the Shias in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, says Haider. Bahrain, like Iraq, has a Shiite majority but is ruled by the Sunnis.

Posted by admin at February 23, 2005 10:58 AM


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