by Sina

Created on: August 23, 2009   Last Updated: September 17, 2009

"The rift between Sunni and Shia and how it affects politics in the Middle East"

In December 2004 King Abdullah of Jordan spoke of "Shia Crescent," stretching from Iran to Lebanon and encompassing Syria and Lebanon. The argument he made was that this Crescent would serve as vector to expand Iranian influence, destabilize the region, and generally act contra to the interests of the United States. The following July, in Lebanon, two Shiite political groups won all the seats in southern Lebanon giving them 23 out of 128 seats in the parliament. The wider national bloc won approximately 30% of the seats in the parliament. This was a very strong showing and allowed for a significant delegation of power to this coalition. One of those Shiite political parties part of this coalition was Hezbollah, the resistance and terrorist group that is supported by Iran. Because the coalition had such a strong showing Hezbollah was admitted to the cabinet of the government much to the consternation of the United States backed Sunni parties. In February 2006, a series of massive explosion occurred that resulted in the collapsing of the al-Askari Mosque in Samara, Iraq. No one was injured in the initial blast but as a direct result, retaliatory and reprisal killings took place between Sunni and Shia. These killings pushed Iraq strongly in the direction of a civil conflagration. The explosion was caused by Al-Qaeda in Iraq those leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, thought the best way to maximize violence, destruction, and destabilize the region was to turn Sunni against Shia and vice versa. As a result the Untied States was caught up in the ensuing violence, slowing down and frustrating the ability to pursue its goals in Iraq. The rift between the two sects of Islam shapes not only state to state relations but also groups within states and finally transnational actors.

The rift between Sunni and Shia Islam began upon the death of the Prophet Mohammad. With no written method of succession the ummah (community) found itself split into two groups. On one side there was those who argued that the ummah should be lead by someone elected by the greater group based on character and leadership with the process being rooted in the tribal customs of the time. The chosen leader didn't necessarily have to be directly related to the Prophet. Those who made this argument were primarily based in Mecca and their leader was the Prophet father in law, Abu Bakr. In Medina, the argument was being

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