I published a post yesterday listing various denunciations of ISIS barbarity from Muslim political leaders.
As I was assembling that list, I noticed that the denouncers were Shia. Based on what I’ve read, I believe that ISIS is Sunni.
I don’t have much knowledge of Shia vs Sunni, but I think, from what I’ve read, that this is a blood feud that is largely tribal and historic.
After I published that post, I could almost hear the massive sigh from readers. At last, a few of them said, the Muslims are joining us in combating the genocide.
I don’t want to put a pin in that balloon. Not yet. Because I’m not sure of anything.
But I do have these niggling questions that I think we need to consider before we go all twittery and weak-headed. It is critical to not allow ourselves to believe what we want to believe because we want to believe it. Let’s think a bit and chew on it a while first.
Here are the questions:
1. How did ISIS get all that American heavy armor from the Iraqi army? Press reports have said variously that they “took it in battle,” or that it was “abandoned.” That is too simplistic and too facile to mean anything.
What an Okie would say, is “that don’t add up.” And this Okie agrees.
I find it a little hard to believe that those pristine armored vehicles were “lost in battle.” I also find it hard to believe that a military with those armaments would be so easily overpowered. Frankly, that equipment would give the Iraqi army quite an edge in a battle.
As for those things being “abandoned,” give me a break. I think that Sunni members of the Iraqi army gave that American armament to ISIS. I may be wrong. But that’s what I think.
2. Are we being played by the Shias to use us against the Sunnis? If the only Muslims speaking out against the genocide are Shias, and ISIS is Sunni, and these people are at war with one another, well then, that sounds like politics to me.
I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing for any Muslims to speak out against the genocide, for whatever motivations. I’m also not saying that we should not welcome their help. The point here is to stop the barbarity. I sincerely welcome anyone whose actions add to that fight.
But that doesn’t mean I trust them like they were blood kin and just blindly assume that their motivations are the same as mine and that their future actions will be what I would do.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In this case the outraged American public is the unwitting enemy of the Sunnis, simply because the Sunnis are slaughtering innocents. That makes us the (temporary) friends of the Shias.
There’s a saying in Okieland — I don’t have a dog in that fight. We don’t have a dog in the Sunni-Shia fight. Our objective is to end the genocide.
Let’s remember that and not go all politically-correct gaga and attribute our motives to other people we know very little about.
These are my questions. These ideas of mine are conjecture. What do you think?
The videos below are a couple of months old. I don’t agree with everything said in either analysis, but they highlight a bit of how this situation developed and give us information about American arms falling in ISIS’ hands.
UPDATE: Hind Makki, of the Patheos Muslim Channel shared this information with me. I am very glad to hear that both Sunnis and Shias have denounced the barbarity in Iraq.
Dear Rebecca Hamilton, the denunciations against ISIS have been given by
both Sunni and Shia leadership and lay people. Looking at piece you
wrote yesterday, I would like to share some information with you. I hope
you will update your piece reflecting this information: Ayatollah
Sistani – Shia. Indonesian Ulema Council – comprises all Muslim groups
in Indonesia, Sunni, Shia and everything else. Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam –
Sunni. Lebanese Muslim Association – Sunni. International Union of
Muslim Scholars – comprises all Muslim groups in the world and one of
it’s missions is to counter sectarianism. Yusuf Qaradawi – Sunni.
Organization of Islamic Cooperation – non-religious political group of
all countries with large Muslim populations. Iyad Ameen Madani – Sunni.
Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate – Sunni. Where did you get the
information that they are all Shia?
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