Since the dawn of Islam, there has been a bitter war between the Sunnis, who today comprise about 85% of the world's Muslims, and the Shiites, who make up 10 to 15% of Islamic believers and were always a persecuted minority. This war, which stems mainly from the theological question of who deserves to lead Islam and bring it to power over the entire world, is raging throughout the Muslim world and is now breaking out in Yemen, where the Shiite Houthi insurgents, supported by Iran and who represent about 40% of the population, are leading a violent revolution and trying to take over the country, which has a furious Sunni majority. Saudi Arabia is feeling the threat to its very existence, and in the face of the inefficacy of the West, under the leadership of the U.S. -- which withdrew its forces from Yemen and is not denouncing Iran's involvement -- is taking its fate into its own hands and launching air strikes on Houthi targets in neighboring Yemen. The Saudi initiative did what it was supposed to, and the U.S. started to supply intelligence and logistical aid to the Saudis in their war against the Houthi. As Sen. John McCain put it, the U.S. is conducting bad policy: simultaneously supporting Saudi Arabia against Iran in Yemen while supporting Iran in its war on the Islamic State group. Indeed, the Shiite militias in Iraq, which form the backbone of the regime and are supported by Shiite Iran, are fighting bitterly against the Sunni Islamic State. The war between Shiite and Sunni Islam is underway in Syria, too, where Hezbollah and Iranian forces are helping the Alawite regime (the Alawites split off from mainstream Shia and the stream is considered pagan and traitorous by the Sunni majority), which represents barely 15% of the population, against its war against the Sunni majority, which itself is split between the Islamic State, the Nusra Front, and opponents of President Bashar Assad's government from all ends of the religious spectrum. The same struggle is also taking place in Lebanon, where about one-quarter of the population is Shiite and represented by Hezbollah, which is taking over the entire nation by force, to the dismay of the Sunni Muslims (also a quarter of the population) and the various Christian sects (about 40% of the Lebanese people). The Shiite-Sunni battle is also swallowing up Pakistan, where suicide bombings at both Shiite and Sunni mosques cause dozens of casualties each time. It's spreading to Bahrain, which has a Shiite majority but is ruled by the Sunni. The centuries-old intra-Muslim hatred is not expected to die out in the near future, but at the same time does not prevent cooperation against a common enemy, particularly Israel. Take, for example, Iran helping the Sunni Islamic Jihad and Hamas, a Sunni group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. We are familiar with the deep-seated hatred the orthodox Sunni sects have for Israel and the Jews: the Hamas charter called to wipe out all the Jews; Saudi Arabia stands out in teaching hatred of Jews -- the biggest enemy of Islam after Satan and the people accused of murdering Islam's founder, the Prophet Muhammad. We are familiar with the hatred Shiite Iran holds for Israel, which its leaders describe as a cancer that must be removed. We know the hatred of Hezbollah for Israel -- its leaders seek to invade it and kill all its Jewish residents: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that "our slogan is to wipe out Israel." The meaning of "Hezbollah" is "Allah's Party" -- part of a Quran verse that appears four verses before Jews are compared to monkeys and pigs. Hatred for Israel is keen even in countries where there are barely any Jews. The Houthi slogan is "Allahu akbar, death to America, death to Israel, Allah's curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam." The Shiite tradition of the 12th Imam is less well-known, and holds that at the end of days the 12th Imam will return and Islamicize the entire world, killing all the Jews. In the face of this limitless hatred for Jews, the mere fact that Sunnis and Shiites are killing one another throughout the Muslim world isn't enough. The State of Israel must be especially strong, follow developments closely and track planned attacks against Jews worldwide (remember the bloody Hezbollah bombings in Argentina) and work to condemn anti-Semitism in Muslim countries, as well as prevent the Muslim states from acquiring nuclear weapons -- Iran first and foremost. Dr. Ephraim Herrera is the author of "Jihad -- Fundamentals and Fundamentalism."
Sunnis, Shiites, and hate for Israel
מערכת ישראל היום
מערכת "ישראל היום“ מפיקה ומעדכנת תכנים חדשותיים, מבזקים ופרשנויות לאורך כל שעות היממה. התוכן נערך בקפדנות, נבדק עובדתית ומוגש לציבור מתוך האמונה שהקוראים ראויים לעיתונות טובה יותר - אמינה, אובייקטיבית ועניינית.