* Dan masih saja banyak orang Indonesia yang memeluk agama najis yang
dari mula sejarahnya tidak henti-hentinya menjadikan dar al Islam itu neraka
bagi orang Islam sendiri..
* Sekali lagi: yang kudu diturutkan itu adalah para kafir yang sibuk
menjadikan dar al Kufr menjadi dar al Aman.
Last Update: Monday, 10 June 2013 KSA 13:23 - GMT 10:23
Sunni-Shiite rift on Syria risks regional chaos
Monday, 10 June 2013
The Iran-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah has openly said it is
fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. (File photo: AFP)
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AFP, Dubai
The foray into Syria’s civil war by Lebanon’s Hezbollah has fuelled a
Sunni-Shiite polarization that threatens to feed extremism on both
sides and export the conflict to the wider region, analysts warn.
The Iran-backed Shiite movement has openly said it is fighting
alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, while Shiite Iraqi
fighters are also reported to be in Syria, supporting the regime against
the mostly-Sunni rebels.
These interventions have prompted calls for a united Sunni stance against the
Shiite groups involved, particularly Hezbollah.
Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia’s top cleric Abdulaziz al-Shaikh has urged
governments to punish the “repulsive sectarian group” while Qatar-based
Sunni cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi called on Sunnis to join the rebels.
George Sabra, interim head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition,
charged Hezbollah, along with majority-Shiite Iraq and Iran, of pushing
the situation towards a “sectarian conflict.”
“What we are
fearing now is that the whole region could drown in a sectarian-fuelled
conflict which in effect is a series of civil wars including Lebanon,
Iraq, and of course Syria itself,” says Salman Shaikh, director of the
Brookings Doha Centre.
Fighters from Shiite Hezbollah openly
spearheaded a 17-day assault on the Syrian town of Qusayr near the
Lebanese border which culminated on Wednesday with its recapture from
the rebels by pro-government forces.
The battle for Qusayr further stoked the already-simmering sectarian tension
across the region, the analysts say.
Assad's regime is dominated by members of the Alawite minority, an
offshoot of Shiite Islam, while Sunnis make up the majority in Syria and
the Muslim world.
Hezbollah’s “association with the conflict
on sectarian lines is creating tensions in Lebanon and in the wider Arab
world,” says Shaikh.
The Iraqi storm
Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose Shiite government is facing a wide
Sunni-led opposition, warned Sunday of “a storm passing through the
region. It is a brutal sectarian storm.”
Funerals were held in Iraq last month for men killed in Syria fighting
alongside Assad’s forces.
Emirati political science professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla says that “the
sectarian line-up has recently reached worrying levels.”
Although a historical conflict, the Sunni-Shiite divide is “now
different... because it has become based more on a political background
than a religious one,” says Abdulla.
Saudi Arabia, home to
Islam’s holiest sites, is seen the regional power protecting Sunnis
while Iran has become a reference for all Shiites, he says.
Lebanese columnist Hazem Sagheye sees that the Syrian crisis “has morphed into
a cross-border Sunni-Shiite line-up.”
He argues that Damascus can stir trouble in surrounding countries through
“holding cards” - groups loyal to Assad’s regime.
Lebanon officially adopted a position of neutrality towards Syria’s
conflict but its people are sharply divided with Shiites mostly backing
Assad while most of the Sunnis support the rebellion.
Fighters from both sects have joined the battle on opposite sides.
This division is clearly reflected in frequent deadly clashes in
Lebanon’s second-largest city, Tripoli, between Sunni and Alawite
gunmen. The army warned on Friday of a plot to embroil Lebanon in the
26-month Syrian conflict.
And while Sunni figures roundly
condemned Hezbollah's involvement, news of the fall of Qusayr sparked
celebrations in Lebanon's Shiite districts.
Reaction from the Gulf
Reaction also came from the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain - the scene of unrest
between a Shiite opposition and the Sunni monarchy - with the Shiite
Unitary National Democratic Assembly issuing a congratulatory statement.
“What is scary is that the rise in sectarianism could once more ignite
Al-Qaeda and extremism, posing a danger to the region,” says prominent
Saudi columnist Tariq Alhomayed.
And a decades-long standoff
between Iran and Saudi Arabia appears now to be playing out by proxy in
Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and Lebanon, where the rivals are supporting
opposing political strands.
The Syrian opposition recently
charged that the battle in their country has even attracted Shiite Zaidi
rebels from Yemen to join the fight alongside Assad’s troops. Zaidis
have denied the claims.
But while Shiite armed groups fighting
in Syria are openly backed by Iran, Sunni Islamist fighters trickle
into Syria as individuals and mostly against the wish of their own
states.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly warned its citizens against taking part in the
conflict.
Damascus’ brutal repression of protests, in addition to Iran’s full
support to Assad and Hezbollah’s intervention, have “emphasized the
Sunni character of the other side,” says Sagheye.
With the
stirring of sectarian sentiment across the region and the mushrooming of
armed extremist Sunni and Shiite groups, the region risks “a collapse
of the concept of the state, with every group having its own media
outlets and militias,” warns Alhomayed.
“We are moving closer towards chaos in the Arab world.”
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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