“One of the primary objectives of the study is to identify the cleavages and fault lines among sectarian, ethnic,
regional, and national lines, and to assess how these cleavages generate challenges and opportunities for the United States.” – The Rand Corporation
Another excerpt from the Rand study (US Strategy in the Muslim World After 9/11) reads as follows: “Arabs constitute only about 20% of the world’s Muslims, yet interpretations of Islam, political and otherwise, are often filtered through an Arab lens. A great deal of the discourse on Muslim issues and grievances is actually discourse on Arab issues and grievances. For reasons that have more to do with historical and cultural development than religion, the Arab world exhibits a higher incidence of economic, social, and political disorders than other regions of the so-called developing world.”
One of the “disorders” that the Arab world (and other parts of the Muslim world, unfortunately) has been afflicted with is the Sunni vs. Shi’a pathology; and needless to say, those advocates of U.S. global supremacy are exploiting this shameful and divisive disorder for all that it’s worth, at the expense of the Muslim Ummah.
As this arrogant and spiritually blind government of ours sets its destructive sights on yet another Muslim nation (Iran) – and as corrupt regimes in the “Arab world,” in concert with the Zionist-Apartheid State of Israel, convey a message of full steam ahead – it behooves committed Muslims the world over (and especially in the West) to read and reflect deeply over what some of the leading scholars and activists have had to say on this issue over the past century. (For one of the most effective tools of the enemy has always been ignorance.)
It is said that the esteemed shaheed (martyr) Imam Hasan al-Banna, one of the pioneers of the modern Islamic movement, was instrumental in helping to revive the thought of bringing Sunnis and Shi’ites together, and was one of the leading participants in the work of Jama’at at-taqrib bain al-mathahib al-Islamiyah (The League to Bring Together Islamic Schools of Thought). Al-Azhar’s foremost religious scholar and the highest jurist for religious edicts (at the time) Imam Abdul Majid Salim, and the distinguished scholars, Imam Mustafa Abd al-Razzaq and Imam Mahmud Shaltut were also said to be participants in the group.
Abdul Karim al-Shirazi authored a book titled al-wahdat al-Islamiyah (Islamic Unity), which is a collection of reports and articles of religious leaders from the Shi’ites and Sunnis – first published in the magazine Risalat al-Islam (The Message of Islam), edited at al-Azhar University, on the subject of Jama’at at-taqrib. Here is what he had to say:
They agreed that the Muslim is one who believes in the One God; Muhamad as the Prophet, the Qur’an as the book, the Ka’ba as the direction for ritual prayer and the house for the pilgrimage, the five known pillars, the belief in resurrection, and the practice of what is known to be obligatory according to the Divine Law.
These were the points of agreement among all of the representatives from the four known Sunni schools of thought and the two known Shi’ite schools of thought, al-Imamiyah and al-Zaidiyah, who attended the meeting. Further, they agreed to respect each other’s differences in opinion on matters which neither constituted a condition for the faith, nor a pillar of the religion.
One of the Ikhwan al-Muslimun’s thinkers, Salim al-Bahnasawi, noted in al-Sunna al-Muftara aliaha (The Tradition Being Falsified): “Since the formation of the group of bringing together Islamic schools of thought in which Imam al-Banna and Imam al-Qummi clearly participated, cooperation existed between the Ikhwan al-Muslimun and the Shi’ites that led to the visit of Nawab Safawi to Cairo in 1954.” He further states, “This kind of cooperation is not surprising or strange because the beliefs of both groups (Sunnis and Shi’ites) lead to it.”
A distinguished student of Imam al-Banna, Abd al-Muta’al al-Jabri, in his book entitled, Limatha yuqitla Hasan (Why Hasan al-Banna was Assassinated), quoting a writer by the name of Robert Jackson argued:
If the life of this man (al-Banna) had been longer, it would have been possible to gain many benefits for this land, especially in the agreement between al-Banna and Ayatullah Kashani, one of the Iranian Muslim leaders, to uproot the discord between Sunnis and Shi’ites. They met each other in the hijaz in 1948. It appears that they conferred with each other and reached a basic understanding but Hasan al-Banna was quickly assassinated.
“Muslims should be awake! Muslims should be alert [to the reality] that if a dispute takes place among Sunni and Shi’ite brothers it is harmful to all of us, it is harmful to all Muslims. Those who want to sow discord are neither Sunni nor Shi’ite, they are agents of the superpowers and work for them.” – Imam Khomeini
The assassination of Imam Hasan al-Banna constituted a serious blow to the Islamic movement, and to the efforts that were being made among different groups of committed Muslims toward the unification of the Ummah (though efforts did continue).
Dr. Ishaq Musa al-Husaini notes in his book, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, that there were Shi’a students in Egypt who joined the Ikhwan, and it has also been recorded that the ranks of the Ikhwan in Iraq contained many Shi’ites.
Dr. Ezzoddin Ibrahim, in his essay titled Sunni vs. Shi’ah: A Pitiful Outcry, wrote “When Nawab Safawi visited Syria, he met Dr. Mustafa al-Siba’ai, the general observer of the Ikhwan al-Muslimun. When the latter complained to Safawi that some Shi’ite youth were joining the secular and national movements, he addressed a large number of Shi’ites and Sunnis saying, ‘Whoever wants to be a true Ja’fari should join the ranks of the Ikhwan al-Muslimun.’” (The Ja’fari madhab is one of the main schools among the Shi’a.)
Nawab Safawi was the leader of the Fidaiyin Islam Organization; an organization whose significance can be found in the following words of Safawi himself: “Let us work jointly together for Islam, and let us forget everything save our struggle for the sake of the dignity of Islam. Has not the time come for Muslims to understand and resolve the division of Sunni and Shi’ite?”
In his book titled al-Mawsua al-harakah (Encyclopedia of Movements), Fathi Yakin wrote about the warm, enthusiastic reception that Nawab Safawi received in Cairo by the Ikhwan. He also recounts the reaction to the death sentence given Safawi by the Shah of Iran:
There was a strong reaction to this unjust sentence, and the Muslim masses were shocked on hearing it, for they appreciated the heroic deeds of Nawab Safawi and his struggle. They condemned this sentence, demonstrated against it, and sent thousands of telegrams from various parts of the Muslim world denouncing such an unfair sentence given to this faithful hero and struggler. His death was considered as a great loss in the modern age.”
The first issue of the magazine al-Muslimum (published by the Ikhwan), featured a moving tribute titled “With Nawab Safawi,” in which the observation was made, “The beloved martyr had a strong relationship with the Muslimun. He had stayed as a guest in their house in Cairo during his visit to Egypt in January 1954.”
That a Shi’ite was considered to be one of the great martyrs of the Ikhwan al-Muslimun (a predominantly Sunni movement), clearly demonstrates the fraternal brotherhood and unity of purpose that existed between Sunnis and Shi’ites during that golden period of Islamic struggle.
In the same article of al-Muslimun, the editor shared the statement of Safawi following the arrest of several members of the Ikhwan:
When the tyrants oppress the men of Islam anywhere, the Muslims must arise above differences of their schools of thought, console their oppressed brothers and share in their sufferings, pains and sorrows. There is no doubt that by our positive Islamic struggle we can destroy the plans of the enemies that are aimed at creating social disturbances among Muslims. There is no harm in the existence of many schools of thought, and we cannot abolish them. But what we have to do is prevent the manipulation of such a situation for the benefit of the enemies of Islam.
Muhammad Ali al-Dhanawi, in his book titled Kubrah al-harakat al-Islamiyah fi al-asr al-hadith (The Greatest Islamic Movements in the Modern Age) quotes historian Bernard Lewis as follows: “In spite of their Shi’ite school of thought, they believe in Islamic unity to a great extent similar to the belief of the Egyptian Muslim brothers, and there was a great deal of communication between them.”
At the end of the al-Muslimum article, Nawab Safawi is quoted as saying: “We are confident that we will be killed sooner or later, but our blood and sacrifice will revive Islam and lead to its resurrection. Today Islam is in need of this blood and sacrifice, and will never arise without it.”
Nawab Safawi was talking about “blood and sacrifice” according to the pure, pristine, resuscitating principles of Qur’an and Sunnah – not the wasteful madness that we see in parts of the Muslim world today!
http://www.peacethrujustice.org/shiasunni.htm
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