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Sunday, August 24th, 2014

Sunni-Shi’ite Divide Threatens Middle East Stability

Author:     MOHAMED ELSHINNAWI
Source:     VOAmerica
Publication Date:     August 23, 2014 1:53 PM
Link: Sunni-Shi’ite Divide Threatens Middle East Stability
Stephan:   This is a straightforward exegesis on the Sunni-Shi'ite split and its origins. Unless you are thoroughly familiar with this geopolitic trend, I think you will find this useful. This basic knowledge was not considered, maybe not even known, in the Bush-Cheney White House. If it had been it would have been obvious that destroying the integrity of Iraq would in turn alter the course of history in the middle east.
FILE - Sunni protesters chant slogans against the Iraq's Shiite-led government as they wave national flags during a 2013 demonstration in Fallujah.

FILE – Sunni protesters chant slogans against the Iraq’s Shiite-led government as they wave national flags during a 2013 demonstration in Fallujah.

The Sunni-Shi’ite divide playing out in violence in parts of the Middle East is an ancient dispute that traces back to the dawn of Islam.

It started some 1,400 years ago with a dispute over leadership for the Muslim community following the death of the Prophet Mohammad.

‘There were those who felt that the leadership should fall upon the most able individual,” said Gregory Gause, a professor at the International Affairs Department at Texas A&M University. ‘These people came to be known as Sunnis because they followed the Sunna, or the way of the prophet.

‘There were those who felt that the leadership should remain within the blood relatives of the prophet,” he said. ‘These people focused on Ali; the prophet’s cousin and they became known as the Shi’ite or ‘partisans of Ali.”’

Through the centuries, there […]

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