Muslim divisions

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Nov 26, 2014 at 05:09

Hi, Sara; shalom

I've been mapping out the Middle East, trying to assign these various movements and governments to as few sides as possible. I come up with four sides:

1. The Jews of Israel -- pretty much hated groundlessly by the whole world. So what else is new? Pass the latkes.

2. The Iranians and their clients. Iran is a Shi'ite theocracy; and I believe the Shi'ites look forward to the coming of the Madhi, to set all things straight. I don't know the Muslim prophecy well at all; but I did read the Zoroastrian prophecy that it was based upon. Whatever their expectations, they seem to be taking great pains to demonstrate that they represent all Muslims, not just their brand of Shi'ites. Bashar al-Assad of Syria is of the quasi-Shi'ite Alawite sect, but his Ba'athist politics are secular. He also has been a protector of the Druze and Christians in Syria, who justifiably dread the Sunni radicals. In Yemen, also, the Iranian-backed quasi-Shi'ite Zaidis are trying to forge an alliance with moderate Sunnis, against the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda. The Iranian approach, therefore, seems to be more practical than religious, at least on tactical matters.

3. The Sunni radicals, all of them -- from the Turkish AKP to the MB to Hamas to the al-Nusra front to Al Shabaab to Boko Haram to the Islamic State. These are strategically parallel to the Communist movement during the Cold War, fomenting revolutions everywhere. They promise repressed Muslims a religious Utopia, which is not entirely different from the Marxist Utopia promised by Mao Tse Tung and Che Guevara. Opposing them are

4. the Sunni STATES -- not the Sharia hybrid of Erdogan in Turkey, but hard-nosed states like Saudi Arabia and Morocco, which have to deal in a realistic way with keeping their excitable masses under control. They are the "reactionaries" to the Jihadist "revolutionaries".

Both #3 and #4 are deeply rooted in the Arabian peninsula, the link being the Wahabbi clerics of the Gulf States. To Western audiences, the "State Sunnis" play the "good cop" to the Jihadis' "bad cop".

I notice that on the margins of the Middle East and even further afield, all these groups have influence in very non-Islamic causes. Al-Shabaab of Somalia, for instance, is at war with the IGAD troops of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and others.

For tactical reasons, AS is involved with anti-Ugandan rebel forces in the DR Congo and the Central African Republic - South Sudan border region. The first group of rebels is led by a convert to Islam; the second, however, the Lord's Resistance Army, are led by a Christian Fundamentalist from the mainly Catholic northern half of Uganda. Iran, likewise, is using the Eritrean Orthodox leader to smuggle weapons to the Shi'ite Houthis of Yement; and Al Qaeda of the Maghreb associates with Latin American drug cartels (Catholic, presumably) for mutual benefit. The Sunni Taliban of Afghanistan also tax the opium growers there in a manner similar to the way the atheist FARC of Colombia taxes the coca growers.

A 2006 poll of the Lebanese is interesting. It shows that Sunnis and Christians alike supported Hizbullah; but eh Druze did not. In Syria today, of course, both the Druze and Hizbullah support Bashar al-Assad.

Back to the UAE and Qatar, I have no idea what's going on in their devious leaders' minds. I'm getting sleepy. Gottago.

Shalom shalom :-)

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