THE SHIA/SUNNI CONFLICT

Last year during the Lebanese vs Israeli conflict I heard a Lebanese Sunni Muslim say he supported Hezbollah's (a militant shia organization) stance against Israel, but that the Shia were still fake Muslims. Now Id been hearing about the Sunni / Shia dispute over the last couple of years and I have been fascinated by some of the details Id been learning. To Someone like me who is committed to Anti-Religion ism and who views the misuse and abuse of religion as one of the greatest problems the world has ever seen, this type of attitude is offensive,neanderthalish and quite frankly retarded. Although I have no love for religion of any form I am a very spiritual person by nature and truth be told if not for religion(s) (which I consider a form of spirituality) something inside of me thinks that, this planet would be even more screwed up than it already is.

After all it is a fact that thousands of Christians missionaries all over the world are feeding and helping to care for sick people. Not to mention the thousands of hospitals all over the world started by christian, Muslim and Jewish people and organizations all over the world . Simply put the church and people inspired by religion are taking care of people 24x7 all over the world in the absolute worse conditions and without any fanfare. Those Christians and other religious folks (although I believe their religions are fairy tales) are often on the front lines of despair and poverty working to bring relief to the poor and suffering that's a fact.

The Sunni/Shea split started right after the the Prophet Muhammad died, one school of thought followed that the new leader of the Islamic world should be chosen by a committee of the most learned and respected Islamic scholars (Sunni), another school of thought was that the Prophet Muhammad had spiritual qualities that would be passed down through his children and descendants (Shea).

Ever since the death of Muhammad Islam has been split by philosophical, ethnic, clan and tribal differences that include the Shea and Sunni divide. Now before anyone goes off and starts Judging Islam please remember that little catholic/protestant conflict or that thousands of English settlers were driven to America (to steal other folks land) to get away from religious persecution or keep in mind the fact that it was not necessarily safe or cool to be a catholic in many parts of the southern united states of America during the early part of the 20th century.

So I am in no way suggesting that this behavior is reflective of what Islam as a whole is. This is what makes it hard to build a strong and self sufficient, modern and democratic society.. If you've got 30 tribes spread out over a land mass the size of say California with lands being separated by lakes, mountains deserts etc. When you add in a paternalistic culture and world view, then my folks, you've got a big ball of confusion and chaos because when members of one tribe/clan seek redress in court or are being held or sentenced under another tribes justice. What is justice to one tribe may be cause for jihad to another tribe/clan/nation, also many of these folks are ultra conservative and fundamentalist in their views of the world.


Over the centuries in the world of Islam their has always been tensions between Shea and Sunni but they have also lived together in peace for over a thousands years as well. After a thousand years of living together those divisions have been further split by clan, ethnic, race, country etc. This fundamentalist strain is found in most religions and most cultures and is still a problem even in America when you think about the Christians trying to force christian school prayer or their ridiculous theory of Intelligent Design on non believers of the christian faith it tells you exactly what is going on. Often times this fundamentalist ideology takes the most narrow and close minded view of religion which is never a good thing for the cause of tolerance and human advancement.


This is yet one more reason why I really dislike all religion, I mean Shea and Sunni have been living together, marrying each other and conducting business between one another for over 700 years in Lebanon but still Islam promotes a brand of religion so backwards that people who have lived together for ages are still referring to each other spiritual beliefs as fake.

Unbelievable, how backwards it is to follow any religion that promotes meaningless divisions when human beings by their nature are flawed and always looking to identify themselves based on the most obvious differences between ourselves. Especially when it comes to something as sensitive and controversial as spirituality. What a shame. What a shame.