Sunni And Shia Conflict Analysis

The Sunni and Shia divide dates back to right after the death of the Prophet Muhammad at the end of the 6th century, or more precisely in the year 632. It is vital that everyone understands what caused the division, how it has progressed historically and how is it influencing the rise of various groups in the present. "There is an emerging struggle between Sunni and Shia to define not only the pattern of local politics but also the relationship between the Islamic world and the West," says Daniel Brumberg of Georgetown University, author of Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran. Vali R. Nasr, the Dean of School Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University, unequivocally states that if anyone would want to understand
the tensions, the conflicts, the spread of terrorism in the Middle East it is vital to know the historical context.
Despite the perception that these two sects of Islam have been at conflict is wrong. There have been times of peace among the many years of chaos. According to the BBC, "members of the two sects have co-existed for centuries and share many fundamental beliefs and practices." The article goes on to say that they have coexisted and even continue to coexist in some places today, it does not suggest that either sect was content with the situation. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, "two countries that compete for the leadership of Islam, Sunni Saudi Arabia, and Shia Iran, have used the sectarian divide to further their ambitions. How their rivalry is settled will likely shape the political balance between Sunnis and Shias and the future of the region, especially in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain."
The beginning of the schism took place right after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632AD. With the exponential growth of the Islamic Empire, there was a crisis of leadership of sorts. The Sunnis, what they call themselves now, believed that there should be a sort of democratic consensus on who would lead the Muslims in the future. That person was Abu Bakr and indeed he was selected to be the caliph, the spiritual and political leader, until his death. On the other side were the Shias, who believed that the next caliph should be from the direct bloodline of the Prophet Muhammad. The Shias were suggesting that the leader should be Ali, the Prophet's son in law and cousin. Ali was selected to be the caliph following the assassination of the previous two caliphs. Ali led the Islamic Empire for only five years before being assassinated.
One of the biggest problems in the past and today is from which sect is the true leader of the Muslims.
One of the troubling sayings of the Prophet Muhammad stated in one of his hadiths is "my Ummah (community) will be fragmented into seventy-three sects, and all of them will be in the Hellfire except one," and both Sunni and Shia claim to be the rightful leaders."
The current conflict in Iraq is fuelled by sectarian rivalries too, which embattled President Bashar al-Assad and his family members of the Shia Alawite-sect, while many of the insurgent groups in his country – including the Islamic State terror group – are Sunni adherents. And of course, the current civil war in Yemen has become a sectarian proxy war, with Iran backing the Shia Houthi rebels who overthrew the country's Sunni-dominated government while a Saudi-led coalition has since intervened to reinstall the Sunni leadership.
(independent)
Over the next centuries, Islam clashed with the European Crusaders, with the Mongol conquerors from Central Asia, and was spread further by the Ottoman Turks.By the year 1500, Persia was a seat of Sunni Islamic learning, but all that was about to change with the arrival of Azeri conquerors.
They established the Safavid dynasty in Persia — modern-day Iran — and made it Shiite."That dynasty came out of what's now eastern Turkey," says Gause, the University of Vermont professor. "They were a Turkic dynasty, one of the leftovers of the Mongol invasions that had disrupted the Middle East for a couple of centuries. The Safavid dynasty made it its political project to convert Iran into a Shia country."Shiites gradually became the glue that held Persia together and distinguished it from the Ottoman Empire to its west, which was Sunni, and the Mughal Muslims to the east in India, also Sunni (NPR,
2016).
Violence between Islam's sects has been rare historically, with most of the deadly sectarian attacks directed by clerics or political leaders rather than erupting spontaneously. Extremist groups, many of which are fostered by states, are the chief actors in sectarian killings today.
But religion alone cannot explain the growth of the first Caliphate in the seventh century, any more than it can the rapid expansion of the current, self-proclaimed successor caliphate. The spark of jihad ignited and spread so quickly after Muhammad's death in 632 in part because it fell on the dry tinder of a region enfeebled by imperial wars that had exhausted the Byzantine and Persian Empires (The Altantic, 2015).