By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
The West has so little understanding of the Islamic world that they do not realize the enormous enmity and visceral hatred that exists between Islamic groups.
Egyptians hate Iranians. They hate Iranians because Sunnis hate Shiites. Simple and straight forward. Egyptians are Sunnis and Iranians are Shiites.
Egyptian society is very upset with their new president because it appears that Morsi may be on the verge of normalizing diplomatic relations with Iran. Commercial air flights between the two countries have just begun. Flights mean tourists. And the way Egyptians see it, the arrival of Iranian tourists in their country signals the beginning of an Iranian effort to convert Sunni Egyptians over to Shia Islam.
There have been violent protests outside the Iranian diplomatic presence in Cairo. Videos show graffiti being sprayed and rocks and fire bombs being thrown.
People are heard shouting slogans similar to the written graffiti.
Protesters cried out: "Jihad against Shiites and Hezbollah" --- "Morsi, you promised us Sharia, not Shia" --- "Muslim Brotherhood sold us to Iran."
These are powerful expressions. And the word play between "Sharia" which means Islamic law and "Shia" is a very good pun in Arabic.
The words sound very similar but they are very different. Shia means follower, in this case a follower of Ali, son in law of Mohammed. Shariah means legislation, that is, the law as decided by Imams spiritual/leaders/scholars.
This is actually the essence of the tension between the two forms of Islam. It is an argument over Mohammed's successor. Shia believed that Ali was divinely chosen. Sunnis, from the word Sunna, means tradition/teachings (of Mohammed) and Sunnis believe that the Imams chose the best leader.
This is just another example of the internal divisions and serious conflicts in the new Middle East. It is complicated. But it behooves the West to make the effort to understand what is truly going on in the world of Islam.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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