.
.
.
We grow so weary of the public at large unable to separate various Muslim groups or think out of the box. If someone wears a turban they get called a Muslim….when in fact they are Sikhs. Hindu’s get called Muslims, Buddhists get called Muslims – the ignorance of knowledge is quite overwhelming. There seems to be a worldwide blackout when it comes to separating the two major Muslim sects: Shia and Sunni. The rumor of the day is that the whole thing is just politics………….because the Saudi’s and the Arab Emirates are not only funding the various Sunni Terrorist Groups – but are also supposed to be US Allies. None of the so-called forthcoming Republican candidates for President will address this issue either. Even “Howard Beal Trump” won’t identify the difference between what is a Sunni Terrorist and what is a Peace Loving Shia. Why not?
Here is a short list of Sunni Terrorist Organizations: Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Al Queda, ISIS/ISIL, South Yemen, Groups in Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Morocco, the Central part of Iraq, the Pashtoon Regions of southern Afghanistan and Eastern Pakistan and areas and groups in Malaysia…just for starters. These folks have been at war with the Shia faction of Muslim for over 1000 years. The Saudi’s and the Arab Emirates are also Sunni Muslims.
Then there is a list of non-sectarian Arabs and non-Arabs: The Kurds of Iraq, Syria, Iran and southern Turkey, the Christians, the Azzidi and Shia populations scattered throughout Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and a further list as long as your leg. The two groups which are picked on by the Israeli’s are Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and anyone non Jew. Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are considerd “Terrorist Organizations” by the US, primarily because Israel wants it that way. We have never heard or seen a spokesperson from any of these groups claiming responsibility for rocket attacks against little old ladies and children in Israel. We keep waiting. Politics? Money from the Military Industrial Complex – or maybe just a place to test new weapon systems? Above our paygrade. One thing is certain: Sunni’s cut people’s heads off – the Shia groups do not. One thing is further for sure: Fallujah, Erbil and Mosel in Iraq are home to the Sunni Iraqi’s that supported Saddam Hussein and gassed the Kurds and other folks in Iraq and in their war with Iran.
So whose side are we on? We are on the side on honest communication, against all terrorism, for a peaceful world, against suicide bombers, honor killings and barbarism in any form. Congrats to our US Military for taking out Jihadi Johnny. Congrats to our US Military for taking out those Somalie Pirates and saving Captain Phillips. Congrats to our US Military for having to separate the wheat from the chaff….on the go in three, five, ten various venues around the world and still being able to get home safe.
The Paris attacks today by ISIS…….are from Sunni Muslims not Shia, Sikhs, Hindu, Buddhist or even 7th Day Adventist. We do not need to blame the wrong folks. The ridiculous call to stop all immigration from any Muslims is extremely stupid. Yes, the Syrian refugees are infiltrated with Sunni Terrorist….but most are Christian or Shia Muslims and are just fleeing the horrors of war. Should be take them all? Absolutely not…….we need to vet each and every immigrant both into this country and anywhere in Europe. Do we need to seek out the locations of all Sunni Mosques throughout the United States and Europe? Absolutely! They must be on the watch list. Any of them are welcome to become Law Abiding Citizens…..but if they have terrorist connections…we may have to reboot Gitmo with some more bunks.
Sunni ISIS/Al Queda against the World! No free concert or soccer match tickets for those folks…EVER! Meanwhile, can be stop the stupid news blackout about who is a Sunni and who is a Shia? This is not Space Science…..this is just politics!
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27994277
We suggest going to this article…..because of the Administration trying to confuse
the issue even more. Dai’sh which Secretary Kerry refers to……..is bothersome and
certainly not necessary in the conversation.
“Some have also started referring to the group as “Da’ish” or “Daesh” a seemingly pejorative term that is based on an acronym formed from the letters of the name in Arabic, “al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Iraq wa al-Sham”.
The root of the Isil-Isis inconsistency is the Arabic word “al-Sham”.
At first, news outlets were unsure how to translate it into English, as it was not immediately clear what the group was actually referring to.
Al-Sham can be translated variously as “the Levant”, “Greater Syria”, “Syria” or even “Damascus”. *This is from the associated link above.
One other thing. Setting aside the inherent falsity of any racist premise such as yours, your post’s conclusions are false even by their own logic.
Shia’ militias were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops in Iraq. Iranian generals personally supervised the Shia’ war against Americans in Iraq. Muqtada Al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shia’ cleric, issued religious orders to Shia’ in Iraq to kill Americans.
Iran and Hezbollah, which is Shia’ and listed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, killed almost 300 U.S. marines and French servicemen in the 1983 bombings of a Marine barracks in Beirut.
The point isn’t to extend your presumption of guilt to include another group of Muslims.
But since you’re so fond of using patterns to assign blame to one group or another, notice the other common thread in the above examples.
Perhaps, just perhaps, U.S. and western invasions and bombings in the middle-east are triggering retaliation.
Like Bill Maher said last night right after the Paris attacks — the terrorists are always telling us to get out of Muslim lands.
Here’s a crazy idea.
Maybe we should get out of Muslim lands?
Your post started with a lesson on the dangers of profiling, a lovely and tolerant direction for the moral compass of any message. It quickly went south in the most ironic and bigoted way.
“We grow so weary of the public at large unable to separate various Muslim groups ..” –
No need to separate the radical Islamist terrorist groups – kill them all and let God separate them.
“… the public at large unable to separate various Muslim groups …”
“… No need to separate the radical Islamist terrorist groups …”
How did you get directly from “various Muslim groups” to “radical Islamist terrorist groups” again?
*Luckily this is not a strictly Israeli apologist site. Picking on Hamas and Hezbolah is typical of casting all the same snakes into the same cellar. Please get serious folks…
The Palestinians are not members of ISIS or Al Shabab or Al Queda….They are typical
of Native peoples around the world including our Native American Tribes who were given blankets with Small Pox and forced out of there native lands. This however has absolutely nothing to do with the explosion in Beirut, the downing of the Soviet Aircraft or the attacks in Paris…… Our point is very simple: The Cherokee Nation is far different from the Chiracowa Apaches. Lumping all Muslims into the same pot is equivalent to lumping all Christians into the same pot – from LDS to Christian Science to Catholics. You want to hate everyone – no problem, totally your right but don’t try and broad brush something as diverse as relgious beliefs. But as they used to say: “You can’t tell the players without uniforms and a program….can you?” The bad guys this time are Radical Sunni’s……not Shia.
You don’t see the irony in saying we shouldn’t put all Muslims in the “same pot,” a common phrase against profiling and stereotypes, only to turn around and paint all Sunnis as suspicious?
*One more thing: Anyone; that uses the race card is a racist. Put that in your peace pipe and smoke it.
Ron and Anna, you certainly provided a lot of information. Which was confusing, but frankly, I don’t care who is Sunni, Shia, Christian, Jewish, or R2D2. I do care about people freaking out, blaming refugees, and anyone who looks like the enemy (whom ever the flavor of the week is); brought on by mass media. We always have to hate someone…it seems to be the American way. The jihadists (crazy, power hungry humans) want you and I to react this way…to overreact. They want war. Armageddon. Its their ticket to paradise and access to all the virgin pussy they can handle.
The makers of war toys love this shit. It keeps them in business. Politicians will use this as their platform to stay in office and keep spending YOUR money to buy more weapons to make you “feel” safer. Bigots and narrow minded dimwits will use this to justify their hatred towards people who look different than them and who they don’t understand.
I refuse to listen to news channels who promote this crap…namely hysteria. I refuse to hate an entire group of people because of the actions of a few. The way I see it, too many sociopaths are in charge and I don’t mean terrorists. I mean politicians and we believe everything they say. We don’t stop and think. We have knee jerk reactions to manipulated information fed to us by news channels owned by corporations who are in bed with politicians. The rest of the time we’re playing Candy Crunch, checking our Face Book status or looking at porn sites.
Your comments are also confusing. Lumping all Muslims into the same pot is equivalent to lumping all Christians into the same pot – from LDS to Christian Science to Catholics… then you write: The bad guys this time are Radical Sunni’s……not Shia. What does a radical Sunni look like? Do you believe all Sunnis are radical extremists?
I see crazy people preying on ignorant poor people, convincing them to strap a bomb to their back and blow themselves up; my guess is their families get money for their trouble. Doesn’t everything always boil down to money and power?
I don’t have the answer how to stop extremists. Maybe if corporations stopped taking poor peoples lands for their own profits; governments stopped being corrupt; people in general stopped acting like selfish assholes, always wanting to feel superior to someone else; stop labeling each other; wanting more and more stuff to feel better about themselves… and chose to work together, respect our differences and heal this planet before Mother Nature kicks us all off (at this point we deserve).
*Inge, so great to hear your clicks….have wondered where you have been. We know how hard it is to actually read an article from top to bottom and then comment. It is far easier just to jump in and say “What>?”” Anyway, if we can put a stamp on this letter, let it be this: The Bad Guys are Sunni Muslims. They come from about 100 countries around the world. They blow people up, cut off their heads, drown them in tanks, take video of all of it and wear suicide vest. Not all Muslims are Sunni…..some are what they call Shiite or Shia. These folks only allow Sunni sympathizers to infiltrate their ranks and kill occasional police or military folks every once in a while. We know how complex this all sounds, but it really isn’t. We compare it Racism. Some people are racists and some are not. Some people believe in an open society and some don’t. We just think it is best to target “the Bad Guys” or what we call Muslim Racists. But, as you can easily see – we have Sikh Racists, Christian Racists, Hindu Racists, Buddhist Racists and the list justs keeps growing. We are from the “Live and let live generation!” that believes that you hang out with whoever you want and accept the others at arms length. Confusing …eh?
You realize that the Hamas you defended earlier is Sunni, right? How does that fit into your bizarre worldview?
What if I told you I was raised Sunni and I have no recollection whatsoever about suicide vests and beheadings?
Hey, you know what, Christians have the KKK, and George W. Bush said God told him to go to war. Does that mean Christians are to be feared as terrorists and war mongers?
Is it possible you don’t have a Sunni problem, but a problem of Western oppression in the middle-east that erupts in blowback like France? Or would we rather look anywhere other than the mirror?
*Hamas in not Sunni…sorry Charlie….either is Hezbollah. They are Shiite and always have been. As if that matters……the truth is that Iran and Syria both support Hamas(Palestinian and Lebanonese supporters!) and Hezbollah which offers Social Services along with their occasional rock throwing. Meanwhile, you seem to be stepping on the ants while the elephants get away. Saudi’s and the Arab Emirates are both Sunni and busy funding ISIS…and terrorist the world over…even in Indonesia.
Hamas is a Sunni organization Ron and Anna. Double-check your facts. There are no Shia’ Palestinians that I know of.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-hamass-embrace-of-sunni-saudi-arabia-a-slap-to-iran/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-rekindles-relations-with-hamas-1429658562
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/08/01/who-are-hamass-friends-these-days-its-more-complicated-than-you-might-think/
I think maybe you two shouldn’t be arguing with this Sunni about what’s Sunni and what’s not.
http://www.counterextremism.com/threat/hamas?gclid=CN7EwsPvl8kCFVKDfgodPssFGw
*The Jury is still out…
*There are two branches of Hamas…..one in Palestine and one in Iraq.
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas
This is political….and we can only say that if Iran and Syria are supporting Hamas in Palestine…..there are some very accepting members and would be considered “the Moderates”. Hamas of Iraq
however is totally Sunni from stem to stern.
Ron & Anna
Iran and Syria supporting Hamas doesn’t make Hamas “moderate.” It makes them allies of convenience.
Because unlike what the right-wingers are spreading, these conflicts are not rooted in religious ideology. They’re rooted in grievances between groups. Invocations of God are just the language of resistance and frustration used by oppressed peoples. It has nothing to do with “Wahabism” or whatever you want to call it.
This anger has been growing in the middle-east for decades due to the following:
The American invasion and occupation of Iraq, which killed tens of thousands of people.
The Shia’ group disenfranchising Sunnis after Saddam Hussein was overthrown, hence making the Sunnis of east Syria and western Iraq willing to host ISIS, which claims to be defending Sunnis.
The American sanctions on Iraq during the 1990s, which killed 500,000 children and were described by one of the officials enforcing the sanctions as “genocide” against Arabs.
U.S. arming of Israel, which has oppressed Palestinian Sunnis and Christians for decades and continues to steal their land.
The U.S. overthrow of a democratically elected government in Iran during the 1950s and replacing him with a brutal dictator who gave away the people’s oil.
France and England carving up the middle-east and creating oppressive states that persist to this day, despite a pan-Arab promise made to the rebels who helped topple the Ottoman empire.
The American Persian Gulf War, which continued to enforce these arbitrary lines drawn by England and France and also killed many innocents.
French imperialism in North Africa, which was brutal and only ended after a terrible war in which too many died.
French discrimination against North Africans and Muslims by banning headscarves for women and other cultural/religious displays in schools.
And on and on and on…
Your sarcasm is exactly what I refer to. Your comment drips with “superiority” and you assume I didn’t read your post. Maybe you should be a better writer…
*The President just spoke at a Press Conference at the G-20 Summit in Turkey. His positions are exactly right. We don’t need to send Ground Troops back to the quagmire. These ISIS/Sunni folks are a lot like Cockroaches. They only come out at night and the only time you see them is when you turn on the light by the refrigerator. We are not going to take “Assad” out and we are not going to go to war with Iran. These are the folks on our side – in this fight! Confusing….eh Inge? We know…..we know!
Assad and the Iranians are Shia and non-sectarian secularists!
*Twice Removed: “Iran and Syria supporting Hamas doesn’t make Hamas “moderate.” It makes them allies of convenience.”
Very good assessment of the situation. Good comments all. The branches of various religions tend to cloud almost every issue – always eluding their true identities. The People’s Temple…..was the Jim Jones church which ended with cool-aid. Was this a Christian organization? Sunni’s are the majority of Muslims, however the lack of so-called moderates to step forward damning the atrocities of ISIS and the other 25 worldwide terrorist organizations…..reminds us of the quiet in the Christian Community when various TV Preachers were outed for their sins….. We would love to see various Sheiks and Potentates put into jail by the Saudi’s, Arab Emirates and Qatar for funding these terrorist organizations. If they don’t – perhaps the International Courts could bet involved? Anyway, thanks Twice Removed for your very cogent comments.
Whoever wrote this blog post has little to no knowledge about the topic.
Whatsamatter, Rashad, you don’t like five rings of big top, addled stream of consciousness?
Almost every post contains some hilarious spoonerism or mixed metaphor or amazingly funny misspellings that create unintentional puns . Immerse yourself.
*So Dave…you know what Donald Trump calls a Radical Islamic Terrorist Zealot…..you guessed right – yea – a RITZ Cracker!
*So Rashad dude…great….educate us! Our two buddies Saleh and Ali were imprisoned by the Israeli’s back in the early 1970’s – but then they probably don’t know much….so educate us…please!
*OK Rashad Dude….since you evidently have no time to educate us….how about telling us which Mufti’s have issued Fatwa’s regarding ISIS/ISIL,Daesh or whatever….cutting off heads and such? Which Mosques have even asked for a Mufti to issue a Fatwa on these things? Just asking.
*Here is a concept for you War Lovers: Every Refugee Boat that arrives only with young Muslims aboard should be immediately shuttled to Saudi Arabia and fitted for Military Gear and require them to serve three years fighting ISIS in Syria or Iraq. That might slow down the rush of refugees…..ya think?
You’ve heard of refugee boats that have only young, male Muslims aboard? Remarkable!
I think that the plan is just to send the women and children. Pew! Pew!
Ron, I think that setting conditions on allowing people to flee from terror — terror that, sad to say, we instigated with the Ira War, is in bad taste. It’s also bad policy — it’s not like the rest of the world can’t see what we’re doing (and why.)