Often, a normal being would wonder how irrational a sizeable chunk of the populace of a particular culture or a region could be – especially after watching the recent developments in the Middle East. It is astonishing that at this stage of human civilisation, so many people there don’t care about their own and their families’ lives, or the lives of other fellow beings when it comes to sectarian sentiments.
People can be as dumb as to destroy their own community, township, city, or even country fighting over mere sectarian identity originated in the antiquity. Common language, culture, heritage, and centuries of living side by side evaporate when an otherwise petty sectarian cleavage pops up or is deliberately cooked up by the worst of the madmen. All the teachings and talks of great ideas like democracy, tolerance, coexistence, etc vanish with the first shot of the denominational infighting. No one is talking about the Arab Spring, often described as the greatest political awakening of the Arabs, anymore. Sectarianism has completely overshadowed it.
It now appears that the predictions and warnings by a few seasoned Middle East experts to the US and its allies to “not to stir the stability, enforced by the dictators and Ameers, in the name of bringing liberty and democracy in the Middle East,” have come dead true. American politicians like George W Bush and his advisors were simply unfit to be in charge of global affairs for so many years.
Many often forget that the Middle Eastern societies are not modern societies in the Western sense or even by some Eastern measure, especially the Far East. The petro-dollars have bought the Arabs modern amenities, certainly not modernity itself which mostly is about rational ideals, values, and norms. Beneath the veneer of material gains of these Rentier States, there lies almost primitive Deep States of religious radicalism, sectarianism, neo-patrimonialism, and tribal-kinship ties in the place of rational and impartial bureaucracy of a 21st century Weberian State.
Common people of distant countries and leaders like George W Bush would never be able to grasp such nuanced insights. And thus, the latter messed around with somewhat lasting balance and stability created by home-grown despots. Some suspect it was deliberate and the hidden purpose was to secure the long-term safety of Israel, meaning putting millions of Arabs in peril to ensure foolproof safety of the Jewish state.
The Shi’ite-Sunni and tribal-kinship divide is an old one. But it was somewhat sent to the back burner by dictators like Asad, Saddam, Mubarak, Gaddafi, and the Gulf Ameers. The dictators and some Ameers were essentially modernisers to varying extents – although unable to erase the ancient social construct. But whatever advancement was made was completely overturned when Bush and company bullishly decided to march into these states and, unwisely or with criminal intent, stirred the subtle stability enforced by the iron fist of local strongmen on the otherwise belligerent sects and tribes.
The sectarian and tribal contestation have some similarity with the caste divides of India with the variance in intensity, which is obviously more on the Arab side, and some unique characteristics like the status of rituals. But of course, there are tradition-sanctioned, if not scripture-induced, tribal or kinship hierarchy, a silent yet influential factor.
A strange aspect of the Shi’ite-Sunni identity cleavage is that it’s more about historical events and personnel rather that driven by ideals or values. That’s where it differs from the Catholic-Protestant divide. The Shi’ite doesn’t recognise the first three Caliphs of ancient Islamic state or Caliphate, who were, as per the Sunni version of history, elected democratically by the Sahaba-e-Kiram, or companions of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Shi’ite consider them illegitimate and claim that only the members of the Ahlul Bayt or the household of the Prophet were entitled to be the leaders of the Muslim Ummah (worldwide Islamic community) and the Caliphate. They term the ultimate Islamic leader as Imam who they consider holds some divine authority. They have an additional set of holy sites in the ancient region of Kufa – present day Iraq – which are often targeted by Sunni extremists these days which triggers sectarian violence.
Regionally, it is understood that Saudi Arabia loosely patronises the Sunni groups whereas Iran does the same with the Shi’ite. In Syria, the Alawite Shi’ite was in the leading role due to their traditional dominance and over-representation in the military, despite being only 13% of the population, whereas the Sunnis constitutes close to 70%.
Obviously they have some Sunni allies. There is a sizeable Christian population as well. But most of the Syrian rebels are now sectarian Sunni groups. In Iraq, it was the other way round until Saddam’s regime. After that, a conservative Shi’ite coalition came to power which is still at the helm of the country. Shi’ites are the majority in Iraq, mostly concentrated in the south of the country and partly in the centre in and around Baghdad.
The Sunni Arab areas are centre, west, and north-west along the Syrian border. The northeast is mostly Sunni Kurd and they are the only relatively peaceful self-administered regions. Lebanon at the west of Syria has sizeable population belonging to all sects Shi’ite, Sunni, Christians, and Druze Muslims. It has a bloody sectarian past.
Sectarian crises in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq are getting increasingly interconnected also influenced by rival Iranian and Saudi patronages as part of the regional sectarian power game. There are also sectarian issues in other Arab countries like Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia itself, and Egypt, among other countries.
The recent emergence of Sunni extremist outfit ISIS/ISIL which quickly occupied a large part of Syria and western and northern Iraq with support from the local population vindicates the severity of the sectarian faultline. The belligerent Shi’ite reaction to the ISIS rise was also vivid. Clashes are increasingly becoming widespread in the region and human catastrophes more and more massive. Close to 300,000 people have died in the past three years and numerous cities, townships, and villages were destroyed. The number of refugees is massive and so is the human suffering and collateral damage. Decades of buildup and progress have been wiped out in the madness of a few years.
Of course the Arabs and their dumb leaders are the primary ones to be blamed for their nightmares who also are playing to the hands of cruel and cool-headed America-Israel nexus. Arab nationalism, which was a source of inspiration for so many decades cutting across sectarian lines, appears untraceable now. There are so many conflicting interests among Arabs ranging from maintaining the vested interests of sects, dynasties, and radical Islamists. Moreover, there are seemingly perpetual issues with Palestinians, Arab leadership, and so on.
It’s difficult to see any rays of light in the near future in the Middle East. The international community, especially the US, is playing a dubious role. What happens next in the Middle East is anybody’s guess. Sensible people all around the world should raise their voices for a logical and peaceful solution to the Middle Eastern crisis and for the end of this acute human misery.
This article was previously published in www.millenniumpost.in.
