It is difficult for the average American to understand what the fighting is about between the Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq. Even local experts have trouble unraveling the conflict between the two main sects of Islam.
The Sunni-led insurgents of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are trying to create an Islamic state in the Middle East. They oppose Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is Shiite, and Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is an Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
University of Hawaii history instructors who specialize in teaching Islam tried to provide a primer for Honolulu Star-Advertiser readers, but associate professor James D. Frankel acknowledged that "it’s very complicated." The clash is "religious but also ethnic and extremely political."
THE CONFLICT
Radical Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL — translated by some as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS — are on a bloody march of conquest toward Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, ruled by a Shiite majority. ISIL captured Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, and other areas last month.
Iraq is at its most critical juncture since the United States began withdrawing troops from the country three years ago. U.S. lawmakers are debating what role American can or should play in the conflict that threatens to topple the government that was installed with U.S. support.
"ISIS is exploiting it (the situation) and trying to drive a wedge between Sunni and Shia by emphasizing the difference between these two sectarian groups," Frankel said.
Abdul-Karim Khan, a Leeward Community College professor and coordinator of UH’s Global Studies Certificate Program, agreed: "ISIS, which became more of a monster than al-Qaida … is using sectarianism and religion as a factor to their success. In the past 500 years, nobody has seen this type of intensive Shia-Sunni bloodletting."
Khan said the Iraqi government under al-Maliki excludes Sunnis and another predominant ethnic group, the Kurds (who are also Sunni), from equal representation and the distribution of natural resources. The U.S. wants al-Maliki to step down and be replaced by "a broad-based government in Iraq that would include everyone, to stay peaceful, prosperous and (remain) a leading oil export country."
SUNNI-SHIITE DIVIDE
Among Muslims, Shiites make up the minority, only 20 percent, Khan said. But Shiites are the majority in the neighboring countries of Iraq (60 percent of the population) and Iran (90 percent), Khan added.
Frankel said the basic difference between Shiites and Sunnis can be traced back to the prophet Muhammad, who founded Islam and died in 632 C.E. The groups disagreed on how to appoint his successor: Shiites believed his successor should be from his bloodline and divinely appointed by God, while Sunnis opted to elect or choose qualified leaders and establish caliphates or Islamic states, which later were phased out.
COMPARING BELIEFS
Many political analysts have compared the Sunni-Shiite conflict to the Protestant-Roman Catholic split, though "it’s not a perfect parallel," Frankel said.
Shiites are strongly devoted to a traditional hierarchy of leadership by someone who is spiritually endowed — like the pope — and the veneration and intercession of saints, as in the Catholic faith.
The Protestant-Sunni comparison refers to the fundamentalist members of both sects, not the majority of their members today.
In this analogy the Protestants are those who denounced the Catholic Church and instigated the Reformation in the 1500s: They wanted to purify the church and return to the simple practices of the early founders — "you could say they were puritanical," Frankel said.
Likewise, within the fundamentalist or "salafi" branch of the Sunni sect, "there is a puritanical strain. … There’s not a lot of tolerance for any kind of innovation or reform," Frankel said.
He emphasized that "the vast majority of Muslims who happen to be Sunni are not fundamentalists, not extremists."
OTHER DIVISIONS
Khan said, "All Shia in Iraq are Arabs. However, not all Sunnis in Iraq are Arab; some are Kurdish Sunnis, and these are two different species because they speak different languages. So ethnicity becomes much more of a problem than sectarianism."
The Kurds’ traditional homeland is spread over four modern countries that include Turkey, Syria, Iran (ancient Persia) and Iraq, whose boundaries were re-established between the two world wars, Frankel said.
"Kurds are really quite distinct and different from their Arab neighbors culturally and linguistically," he said. There are three different factions involved in Iraq, which is an Arab nation: the Kurds, who are Persian-speaking Sunni; the Arab-speaking Sunni (a minority); and the Arab-speaking Shia (the majority).
"The Shia in Iraq also feel some affiliation with the Shia in Iran, which has a big role to play in the geopolitics," Frankel said.
"So when people reduce this to saying there’s been a bitter (sectarian) rivalry for a thousand years, there’s some truth to it — there hasn’t been so much bloodshed and warfare for over a thousand years. It’s religious but also ethnic and extremely political."
