“And hold fast, all together, unto the bond with Allah, and do not draw apart from one another… (3:102-103).
Mohammed Khaku
Nationalism is a sickness; Racism is a plague and sectarianism a cancer. These are the three major illnesses that afflicts the Muslims” – Crescent International. These Asabiyaah of Sunnis, Shia’s, Black and White, Males and Females, and rich and poor are the evils of the society. The sectarian polarization can be traced from the time of Muawiya. Sectarianism is a disease that must be confronted aggressively because it has potential to undermine the Unity of Muslim Ummah. he world is babbling with news of Pakistan on the verge of a civil war. Pakistan has been gripped by sectarian violence for decades but last few days it has become very vicious. The term sectarianism and Pakistan have become virtually synonymous. The sectarian divide between Shia’s and Sunni has reached unprecedented levels due to Ashura procession. Ashura commemorates the killing of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson at the battle of Karbala in 680 AD The demonstration follows a raft of blasphemy accusations of Shias in a Sunni-majority Pakistan which has twenty percent of Pakistan’s 200 million population. he sectarian toll on Muslims started from Makkah to the shore of US westward and from Madinah to Pakistan eastward, no one can deny this obnoxious venomous brew of sectarianism has taken hold in the minds of misinformed Muslim Ummah. Without being emotional Muslims, we need to ask a logical question. Who is financing and arming Muslims to kill Muslims? hat we are witnessing is the silence of spreading the poison of sectarism and fountainhead of Fitnah been played by Pakistan and foreign countries like India, Zionist Israel, Arab counties and USA. The foreign influence and interference in Muslim counties namely by British and US imperialism have fueled the schism among the Shia’s and Sunni’s. Unless Muslims began to think outside the Sunni-Shia box we will remain at the mercy of Zionist and imperial power as what is happening in Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon. he Zionist and USA can neither fight the Hezbollah nor Iran on the Military front, hence the sectarian divide turns out to be their war plans. The Arab countries are now having full diplomatic ties with Zionist Israel. The enemy of Shia are my friends. The evil and destructive mind of racism, tribalism, imperialism and Zionism is stoking of sectarism. This sectarism has already caused so much damage to the Muslim Ummah and will take many generations to recover. The curse of sectarianism is like a Tsunami which has plagued Syria, Bahrain and now Pakistan. For past three decades the extremist ant-Shiite group sponsored by Saudi like Sipah-e-Shaba have conducted mob lynching, bombing Shia Mosques, blow up innocent children in to pieces and vigilante killing of Shia doctors, businessman and bankers, all in the name of defending the honor of Shabah! Does this emulate the example of the Shabah? Don’t get me wrong, Sectarism exist on both sides and hard nut to crack due to centuries of self-righteousness, holier-than-thou and judgmental of both sides. We Sunni and Shia’s believe in one God, believe in the same Quran, fast like each other, pray like each other and perform many rituals like each other’s, but willing to kill each other’s. This is where the sectarianism begins. There is not maturity on both sides, while the Islamic scholars, leaders and rulers use the sectarian dived to hold power and wealth. I have yet to see a Shia Imam to lead prayers in Masjid ul Haram in Mecca or Masjid ul Nabawi and vice versa a Sunni Imam to lead prayers in Najaf, Karbala or Mashhad. To me God willing that the day will come when killing of Muslims by Muslims will end by understanding that if Shi’ism is the love of Ahlul Bayt than all Muslims are Shia’s and if Sunnism means the Sunnah of Allah and his Prophet than all Muslims are Sunnis This sectarian dichotomy has continued since Umayyad regime, which has gotten away by killing the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, Imam Hussain and destroying Ka’baa and the graveyard of Baqi. This mayhem and killing has not been exposed nor condemned by today’s Muslims, but instead renown Islamic scholars have justified the killing of the family of the Prophet, praised the Yazid and Muawiya and call Shia a Wajib-ul-Qatil – meaning Shia’s are not Muslims and can be killed. These Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties usurped the legitimize caliphate and used the sectarian card to hold power that we still suffer today. Wake p! My Muslim Ummah, in plain English the Umayyad and Abbasid rulers were worst than Hitler and were causing sectarian conflicts to safe guard the regime and money as are today’s monarchies of the Arab world. How can Muslims who adhere to Quran and Sunnah have to hatred of Shias as Wajib-ul-Qatal? Medicine is bitter and immunization shots are painful, but how does a Shias in Pakistan live in the daily fear of been killed by his own brother. Moreover, this Sunni-Shia divide is disruptive and diverts attention to the oppression of Muslims in Kashmir, Palestine, Myanmar and Uyghurs in China. Fear no Shias, nor the threat comes from Shias, but the threat of sectarian venom comes from the Arab monarchies and the House of Bedouin kingdom with the Salafi Trojan Horse allied to Zionist to destroy any chances of the liberation of Palestine. European and US have exploited the rift among Muslims, but Muslims themselves have allowed to be exploited and the interference will continue if we are not united. As Imam Khomeini said “If one who divides Sunni and Shia is neither of them” while Dr. Kalim Siddique said “Let’s all Shia be less Shia and let all Sunni be less Sunni, and we all be Muslims.” My question to Muslim Ummah, was the Prophet a Sunni or was he a Shia? And has Quran defined the definition of Shia or Sunni or extremist Shia or extremist Sunni? However, I would say that Wahabism has hijack the Islam (Sunni) with the ideology of Ibn ?Abd al-Wahhab. The sectarianism has been manipulated by western power and media. The best example I can give is the vocabulary use of word to differentiate between the Catholics and Protestant, or Orthodox (Haredi/Dati) or traditional (Masorti) and secular (Hiloni) Jews, the word used is denominator while in the case of Shia and Sunni, the word used is SECT. Muslim Ummah should be looking for larger fish to catch, than sinking into to the pits of ritual performance as Imam Khoomei said “Enemies of Islam are looking ways to chop our hands, while we are bickering about to fold our hand on not during Salaat.” The two well renown scholars the late Ayatollah Motahari and Dr. Ali Shariati have addressed the cancer of sectarianism widely in their lectures, books and Juma’ah khutbahs which are not widely circulated to Muslim Ummah and in many countries the books are not for sale. I applaud the character of civility of the Iranian Islamic scholars and diplomates; it will be naïve for me not to bring about the nationalist and even racist tendencies prevalent now than during the times of Imam Khomeini. I pray that that the sectarian divide does not lead to reversal of the concept of Wilayat al-Faqih (The Guardianship of Islamic Jurist) specially in the time of Intezar-e-Mahdi. Mohammed Khaku. Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA.
(-This writer was born in Mombasa, Kenya and has lived in Allentown, USA since 1980. )
