History of the Sunni-Shiite Conflict,

and the War in Iraq

(Revised 5-30-2008)

To understand the real problem between the Shiites and the Sunnis, we need to understand some important parts of the history of Islam. We also need to understand why certain Muslims sects misunderstand prophecy, just as certain sects of Judaism and Christianity misunderstand prophecy. And ALL the Jews and Christians and Muslims who misunderstand prophecy must now understand how and why they have been misled, divided, and pitted against each other.

Of course, there are an incredible number of false beliefs about how prophecy will be fulfilled. Each religion and each of their religious sects have different ideas about it. But, many Jews believe in the imminent coming of a Mashiach King, just as many Christians believe in the imminent "second" coming of the Christ Jesus, this time as a Superman King. And most members of the Shiite and Sunni Muslim sects believe in the imminent coming of an "Imam Mahdi," a messiah-like figure who will come just prior to the "second coming of the Christ. Moreover, they believe that Jesus and the Imam Mahdi will then rule the world together.

Even worse, many proud and militant Jewish Zionists erroneously believe that only a "holy war" will bring desired results. Similarly, many proud and militant Muslims, like many proud and militant Christians, erroneously believe there must be a "final holy war between good and evil" (as they judge it), and it doesn't seem to matter to some of them whether the "evil" they judge is another sect or faction of their own religion, or another religion, or all other religions.

Therein lies the problem, because aside from the fact that they all have false expectations about the Moshiach-Messiah and the Mahdi and the Christ, they simply do not understand that killing is wrong, and that only good can overcome evil, only love can overcome hate, and two wrongs do not make a right. They do not realize or understand that they should judge not, lest they be so judged, and, if they are tempted to judge, they should love even those they judge as their enemies, because their enemy is a reflection of their very selves.

That is Universal Truth, which is made very clear in Judaic Scriptures (the Torah and Tanach). It’s also made clear in the Christian Gospels, and in the Qur’an (Koran), just as it is made clear in the scriptures of all other religions. But religious hypocrites ignore that, and they pick and choose certain isolated words in their scriptures to justify themselves.

Most of us who are sane in the West understand that. But most in the West do not know the truth about Islam. They do not know that hypocritical, radical, militant Muslims ignore the fact that the Muhammad's Qur'an makes it very clear that Islam does not cancel out the messages of previous prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, David, Solomon, Enoch, and Jesus. In fact, the Qur'an commands Muslims to speak with great courtesy to Jews and Christians, because they "all believe in the same God" (29:46).

They also ignore that the Qur'an condemns violence and aggression, and holds that killing is always a great evil (2:190 and 2:217). Moreover, while the Qur'an does permit a war of self-defense to fight persecution, when the Prophet Mohammed wrote it, one of his main purposes was precisely to stop indiscriminate killing!

The Qur'an states quite clearly that warfare is not the best way of dealing with difficulties and conflict. It says that the faithful should "argue (with unbelievers) in the most kindly manner, with wisdom and goodly exhortation."

It does say that, if attacked, the faithful may retaliate in an appropriate way that is proportionate to the wrong suffered. However, it also says that tolerance is far more advisable than retaliation. It says: "To bear yourselves with patience is far better for you, since God is with those who are patient in adversity." (16:125- 127) Indeed, it even says it is a meritorious act to "be charitable and to refrain from retaliation." (5:45) It is very similar to the teaching of Jesus, which advises us to "turn the other cheek" rather than retaliate by striking back.

The Qur'an also makes it clear that Mohammed's mission was not to create a new world religion, but to bring the religion of Abraham and Jesus to the Arabs, because they had no prophet before Mohammed, and they had no scriptures in their own language.

Furthermore, Mohammed made it very clear that he was not founding a religion to which everyone had to belong. According to the Qur'an, "There must be no coercion in matters of faith" (2:256), so coercion or the imposition of religion on unwilling people or all citizens is not permitted. If people disagree with a Muslim, he is to say: "Unto you your moral law, and unto me, mine." (109:6) In fact, in the Qur'an, as in Jewish and Christian scriptures, there is an emphatic prohibition of imposition, force and compulsion in religious matters (which is something the imposing American Christian Right really needs to learn and abide by).

Now, it should also help to understand that the false Muslim expectations and beliefs about a "Mahdi" were created because of a misunderstanding of both Christian and Islamic prophecies. That is because the Shiites and Sunnis have been misled by certain parts of the writings of the disciples and/or later followers of Muhammad (Mohammed), just as many Christians have been misled by certain parts the writings of the disciples and/or later followers of Jesus. Therefore, they have the wrong idea about the Christ and the Mahdi. They do not realize there will be no "second coming" of the Christ Jesus, nor will the Imam Mahdi come in person. The expected, prophesied one, this son of man, serves and represents the Ancient One (the Spirit-Consciousness of the Christ, Mahdi, Moshiach Messiah, Avatar, Buddha, Saoshyant, Sage, etc. in heaven). And, in a larger sense, the Ancient One’s Spirit of truth will increasingly influence us all from within.

Of course, there are other Muslim sects or groups. Most of us have heard about the groups called Hamas and Hizbollah, that mainly serve Palestinian interests. We’ve also heard about the cruel and murderous gang of thugs called the Taliban. But not many in the West know about the Wahabis. That’s another Muslim sect which was founded by Muhammad ibn-Abd-al-Wahab in the 18^th Century. It is still today the official ideology of the Saudi Arabian kingdom, and its theology is influential if not dominant also in Kuwait and Qatar, as well as some pockets of Somalia, Algeria, Palestine and Mauritania. Wahhabis see their role as restoring or saving Islam from what they perceive to be polytheism, innovation, superstition, deviance, heresy and idolatry. Many practices of Sunnis and Shiites are considered by Wahabis to be contrary to true Islam, while the Wahabis are seen by many other Muslims as puritanical. So, as you can see, Islam is as divided as Christianity in many respects, if not more.

Of course, most Muslims, like most Christians, are good people, and it is only the arrogantly proud, militant, misguided few who are causing the conflict and violence. But, unfortunately, as we've seen, those few can create horrendous havoc, death and destruction. That's why everyone needs more understanding of the situation. And, since the situation in Iraq is now one of the biggest, bloodiest, most deadly conflicts, we need to understand why both radical Shiites and radical Sunnis believe that the other sect is part of the "evil" they must destroy so that prophecy will be fulfilled.

We should start by looking at why the rebel Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr was able to gather a so-called "Army of the Mahdi" after American forces removed Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, and why Sadr was able to muster them around the Shiite's holiest shrine, the golden-domed "Imam Ali Mosque" in Najaf, the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali.

Along with that, we should look at and understand why Sadr and his army have been so ready to fight to the death both the "infidel" American occupiers and the "infidel" Sunnis.

This schism and conflict began in the year 680 in Karbala, where the Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law Ali's son, Husayn, along with most of the prophet's family, were brutally massacred by the forces of the Syrian Caliph, Yazid I.

That happened because when Mohammed's son-in-law Ali died, the caliphate (leadership) of the whole Islamic/Muslim community had passed to the then- governor of Syria, Muawiyah (Yazid's father). That was according to a power- sharing agreement meant to ensure that when Muawiyah died the caliphate would once again belong to the family of the Prophet Muhammad, and that Ali's son, Husayn, would become the Caliph. However, Muawiyah reneged on the agreement. After transforming the Muslim community into a united, expanding, dominant Arab-Muslim kingdom of enormous wealth and power, he then instead named his son Yazid heir to his throne.

This betrayal had dire consequences. Throughout the Islamic Empire, and particularly in Iraq and Iran, a large group of non-Arab Muslims banned together as the "Shiatu Ali" (the Partisans of Ali). They rose up in revolt, and they asked Ali's eldest surviving son, Husayn, to lead them in battle against Yazid, who they believed was a false Caliph.

But Husayn didn't make it, because Yazid's army intercepted and massacred Husayn and nearly every last member of the Prophet Muhammad's family. That's what split the Muslim community into two major factions. One was the sect now known as the Sunnis, who believed Yazid was the legitimate Caliph, and the other was the Shiatu Ali (who later became the Shiites), who believed that Ali's son Husayn should have been the rightful heir to the Prophet Muhammad's authority.

Four years after the massacre, some of the Shiatu Ali gathered secretly at Karbala to mourn the death of Husayn, and also to atone for their failure to protect him. Then more of the Shiatu Ali began gathering at Karbala, and gradually they became a new sect of Shiites and established the belief that Husayn willingly sacrificed himself in a "holy" war for justice against the tyranny and oppression of a false Caliph (Yasid). They exalted Husayn as a holy martyr, even though Husayn was merely the son of the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. They didn't realize that the "mantle" of religious authority does not pass from men to their relatives. It's not inherited. It is purely a gift from God only, and it is given only to called, spiritually anointed servants, prophets and messengers who are chosen by God.

Due to their misunderstanding, a huge gap between the Shiites and the mainstream "orthodox" Sunnis was created. And one of the big differences was the Shiite notion of atonement through sacrifice, because they came to believe Husayn's martyrdom at Karbala, like Jesus' sacrifice at Gethsemane, was predetermined by God. They celebrate his martyrdom every year with festivities that include passion plays about Husayn's "martyrdom," and they even conduct absurd demonstrations in which participants flog themselves or otherwise punish themselves in some way, thinking it's a religious act of contrition and atonement.

Most Sunnis believe such acts go against the original principles of Islam. They believe that Muhammad's Qur'an does not require any such acts to achieve salvation. They believe only God can forgive sins, and they reject the idea that Shiite Imams can act as intermediaries between Allah and those who worship Allah. In other words, Sunnis reject the idea that Shiite Imams and Ayatollahs are divine. And they are quite right about that, because they are not. They are only human, and no human has ever been or ever will be divine or holy. Only God/Allah is the Divine Holy One.

The Shiites, on the other hand, believe that the Qur'an "speaks" to them in a way that is not understood by Sunnis. Like the early Christians who sifted through the Hebrew Scriptures looking for anything that might possibly be interpreted as a referral to Jesus, the early Shiites sifted through the Qur'an looking for references to justify their beliefs. They gradually came to believe they are the recipients of a secret knowledge passed down from God to Muhammad, from Muhammad to his son-in-law Ali, from Ali to Husayn, and then down to the rest of the "holy" Shiite Imams and Ayatollahs. But that is simply not true.

Sunnis correctly believe an Imam is simply the person who stands at the head of the mosque and leads the congregation in prayer, while the Shiites believe the Imam and the Ayatollah are divinely guided leaders and embody the living spirit of the Prophet Muhammad and Allah. The Sunnis consider that to be heresy. In fact, the Sunnis believe it is blasphemy to consider any human being divine, because only Allah (God) is divine and holy. And they are quite right about that.

The Shiites counter that they do not believe the Imam is equal to God. But they do believe that, like Christian Saints, the Imam is above the rest of humanity and may even be prayed to. They believe the Imam's authority is derived from his connection to the Prophet Muhammad, and they believe the line of Imam's will ultimately culminate with the expected one who would be known as the Imam Mahdi. But they are wrong about all that as well, just as some Christians are wrong in praying to those regarded as saints. We should not pray for the ears of men, nor should we pray to men. As Jesus said, we should pray in secret to our God who hears us in secret.

Now, nearly all Muslims believe the Imam Mahdi will be a messianic figure who will return at the "end times" after a "final war of good against evil" to usher in a time of peace and justice. Like many Christians who believe in the "second- coming" of Jesus, they believe it will be an apocalyptic event preceded by wars, earthquakes, famines, and false prophets.

The truth, however, is that while the terrible tribulation we are suffering through was foretold, and while wars and the seven plagues and many other terrible things have certainly occurred prior to the coming of this son of man, as was prophesied, the "Apocalypse" is misunderstood. As I've said, it is about the uncovering, revealing and unveiling of the real meaning of prophecy, and about the judgment from God and the Spirit of truth. But in spite of that, nearly all Muslims believe they can judge, and that there must be a "Great Jihad" and the utter destruction of their enemies. They believe that following the Jihad the Mahdi will be the harbinger of the return of Jesus, and that then both prophets will rule the world together. But they grossly misinterpret and misunderstand real prophecy, because God wants us all to love one another and share the throne in God's New World Kingdom, where only God in heaven reigns Supreme over heaven and earth. The Christ and Mahdi are with God in heaven, and if fact can be considered as one.

Unfortunately, the Sunnis and Shiites differ in their beliefs about the role of the Imam Mahdi, and the biggest difference is that the Shiites believe that the Mahdi's role would be to avenge the unjust killing of Husayn and his followers by the Sunni authorities at Karbala. That is why the rebel Shiite warmonger Muqtada Sadr was able to gather his "Mahdi Army"after the fall of the tyrannical Sunni dictator, Saddam Hussein, and take control of the sacred cities of Kufa, Karbala, and Najaf in Iraq. Sadr exploited traditional Shiite beliefs by masquerading as the herald of the coming Mahdi, and by fighting the "prophesied Jihad" ("holy war") prior to that coming. But Sadr is in fact a false prophet, just as surely as certain people masquerading as "Christian Authorities" are false prophets.

Unfortunately, Sadr's so-called Mahdi Army is capable of becoming more of a problem, and the conflict between the Sunnis and Shiites who are radical, arrogantly proud and militant has only gotten worse. Their civil war is partly because of that history, and partly because the tyrannical dictator Saddam Hussein was a Sunni who oppressed, persecuted and even murdered many of the Shiites. Shiites want to take revenge, not only for Husayn's murder, but for SaddamHussein's murderous tyranny.

Both the Sunni and Shiite factions need to realize the extent to which they have been misled, because they are both incorrect and wrong to a certain extent. They are both wrong particularly about killing, because Muhammad said killing is always evil, especially indiscriminate killing. Both Sunnis and Shiites misunderstand prophecy, just as many Jewish and Christian factions misunderstand prophecy. They all need to understand that the so-called "mantle of divine authority" did not pass from David or Jesus or Muhammad to anyone else by blood line or inheritance or discipleship. It just does not happen that way. It is not passed on or inherited from men. It's given as a gift from God only, given to individuals who are truly called and anointed by the Holy Spirit and then chosen by God when they have proven they are worthy. For while many are called, few are worthy to be chosen by God, who knows all.

Regarding the whole Israeli-Palestinian-Muslim-Christian conflict and the Sunni- Shiite conflict, here is the bottom line: We will be able to establish lasting peace in the world only when all Jews, Christian and Muslims understand that they were meant to be and actually are a family of religions; that there is indeed One God, One Supreme Consciousness, that wants us all to love one another as brothers and sisters, and to treat others as we would have others treat us if we were them. It is as simple (and as difficult) as that. They must obey God's Will, or they will continue to suffer the pain of disobedience and the consequences of their misguided, egocentric, ethnocentric folly and iniquity. God wants them love their enemy.

You see, in most cases your enemy is a reflection of your Self. That’s part of the reason why we should abide by the golden rule and the universal divine imperative. And since many people have not done that, they must make amends and reconcile their differences. And we all must ensure that justice prevails and all parties are treated fairly.

Regarding the war in Iraq, we have to realize that there are actually two wars. One is Bush’s War, made worse by the original "insurgency" that started when radical Sunni and Shiite Muslims began fighting guerilla warfare against the American occupation. The other war is a civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites.

Regarding Bush's war in Iraq, most reasonable people would concede that it was indeed a good deed to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and it has been good that American forces have helped Iraqis to begin establishing democracy. It has also been good that they have helped to begin to restore what the initial American bombing raids destroyed. However, the United Nations should have done what needed to be done in the first place. And, failing that, America should have let the U.N. handle it following the initial American invasion of Iraq, with a truly international peace-keeping force that includes Arabs and Sunni and Shiite Muslims. (Read the issue page on Bush’s Real Record, which includes the real motivation for Bush’s War, and what we should do about it now.)

As for the Sunni-Shiite civil war, that will cease as soon as they both start following the teachings of their prophet and those who preceded him, and stop choosing isolated phrases from the Qur'an to try to justify their evil, murderous activities. They must start acting like real Muslims instead of bigots, hypocrites, criminals and murderers. And that also goes for the thugs, gangsters and murderers who call themselves the Taliban in Afghanistan, and for others who do the same thing in other countries where misguided Islamic sects work iniquity and cause conflict, division, violence, death and destruction. They are bigots, hypocrites and murderers, and their followers should ignore them and repent.

But don't get me wrong. I fully understand and sympathize with most Arabs and Muslims, and especially Palestinians, because they have very legitimate grievances against England, the U.S.A., and Israel. Palestinians have been terribly and outrageously wronged ever since 1917, and the injustices increased enormously in 1948 when the modern State of Israel was established. The injustices increased more since the 1967 war, and even more recently in all outrageously unfair criminal violence, killing and destruction the Israeli military has inflicted. Two wrongs do not make a right, and violence and toughness only begets more reciprocal violence and toughness. I discuss those issues my books, and I suggest how we might address all the grievances to finally bring peace to the region.

Of course, U.S. and Israeli offenses do not justify the murderous activities of misguided Muslim extremists. There is no excuse for murderers. The only time killing is justified is when it is to protect the life or lives of those in imminent danger of being killed or terribly oppressed and persecuted. Those who commit indiscriminate murder of people just because they are of a different nationality or religion or religious sect or race, are an abomination in the sight of God. It doesn't matter whether the murderers call themselves Muslims, Jews or Christians. They are NOT "holy warriors" or "jihadists," but evil murderers.

In other words, both sides have been wrong in certain respects. So Israel must repent and stop the offenses, incursions and atrocities she has been committing for so long against her neighbors, and make amends. And radical, violent, murderous "Muslim" hypocrites must also repent and stop their evil warfare.

The "Christian" Right in America (including Bush) must also repent and start acting like real and true Christians instead of divisive bigots, hypocrites, and militaristic, imperialistic theocrats, who not only want to rule America and the world, but also blindly support Zionism even though it is grossly unfair to Arabs and Muslims.

The message from the Spirit of truth will provide significant help to expose and stop them, but it will also take authoritative good Jewish and Christian and Muslim voices to speak up to help tell the truth to expose the bigotry, hypocrisy and error of the false and spiritually blind shepherds who lead their flocks astray into violent conflict. Only the message and enough good people speaking up to validate the message will reduce the followers of the false, misguided Jews and Christians and Muslims. For once they are fully exposed, they will eventually have no followers at all.

The Americans, British, and Israelis now also need to understand what most Muslims really think, and we now have a pretty good idea of that. Georgetown University Prof. John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, helped organize a survey and published their findings into a new book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. It is based on a Gallup Poll, the largest of its kind, which surveyed some 50,000 Muslims in more than 35 countries. It asked questions about gender, race, terrorism, the separation of church and state, and the prospects of peace with the West.

This research shows that most Muslims in the world admire the West for its technology and democracy. They support freedom of speech, the rule of law, and the transparency of government. Even in places like Iran and Saudi Arabia, only very small percentages said they admired nothing about the West. But what most of them disliked most about the West is the perceived moral laxity and libertinism or lack of restraint.

By the way, I think there is some justification for that judgment against the West, as I’ve addressed on other pages about poverty, violence, sex, greed, corruption, inequity, etc. However, I personally believe that many devout Muslims tend to be even more prudish than conservative, fundamentalist Christians in America. In fact, I believe all extremely devout and pious religious people of most religions are needlessly prudish, to their own detriment, to the detriment of their families, and to the detriment of their relationship with the rest of their society and world. In my view their beliefs can tend to lead to egocentric attitudes, and can lead them to think they are "holier" than everyone else. I think they need to loosen up. And I’ve thoroughly explained why on other pages and in my books.

The shocker about the Gallup research regarding Muslims, though, is that only 7 percent of Muslims think that the al Queda attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 were completely justified. And even those 7 percent do not think there is any religious justification for suicide bombers and their attacks on civilians. Instead, their attitudes are more revolutionary, in the sense that they are against American imperialism and occupation of Muslim lands by the West. And it is not piety that motivated their responses, but politics.

The important thing to keep in mind is that 7 percent of Muslims is about 100 million people. Only a relative few of them are actually the terrorists who do the killing, but those 100 million people are sympathetic to those who are willing to die to fight Israeli, American and British occupation and imperialism.

That’s why it is even more important to keep in mind is the most Muslims simply want the West to respect them as much as most of them respect the West. That will require many Christians and Jews to admit to their prejudices, religious bigotry, and hypocrisy, while it will require many Muslims to admit to theirs as well.

So, all good people must stand up and speak up, and spread the word about the message from the prophesied Spirit of truth and all other sources of truth. That's the only way things will change.

© 2006- 2008 Joseph J. Adamson

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Credits:

The historic parts about Islamic sectarian conflict were gleaned, revised and edited from an article published on the Internet in August 2004 by Reza Aslan, who is the author of No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, published in January 2006.

Those parts are not in any of Joseph's books published so far. However, the parts about true Islam and the Qur'an, and about Bush's real motivation for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, have been more fully covered in the books Memoirs of a Prodigal Son of Man, and What IS the World Coming To?

Much of the parts about the Qur'an were quoted from the book, What IS the World Coming To?, and have been pointed out by the best-selling author, Karen Armstrong, who wrote A History of God, and The Battle for God. Commentary and analysis are Joseph's.