Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Is there an anti-Shiite conspiracy in the Middle East?

"Newspapers are replete with assertions, some little more than incendiary rumors, of Shiite aggressiveness.
. . . [Lebanese] watched the rise of sectarian identity, railed against it, blamed the United States and others for inflaming it, then were often helpless to stop the descent into bloodshed.
. . . Over centuries, differences in ritual, jurisprudence and theology evolved, some of them slight. But the Shiite community . . . is shaped far more today by the underprivileged status it has often endured in an Arab world that is predominantly Sunni.
. . . [A] sense of Western manipulation is often voiced by Shiite clerics and activists, who say the United States incites sectarianism as a way of blunting Iran's influence. In recent years, some of the most provocative comments have come from America's allies in the region: Egypt's president questioned Shiites' loyalty to their countries, Jordan's king warned of a coming Shiite crescent from Iran to Lebanon, and last month King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia denounced what he called Shiite proselytizing."

source
Shadid, Anthony. (The Washington Post). Across Arab World, a Widening Rift. February 12, 2007.

posted: tuesday, february 13, 2007, 7:42 PM ET


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