Muslim Scholars Urge Iran to Prevent Sectarian Strife
Middle East-based news network AlArabiya reported Friday that a body of leading Sunni Muslim scholars urged Iran ‘to prevent sectarian strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims’ in a statement released the day before.
The International Union of Muslim Scholars released the statement on Thursday saying it “invites the Islamic republic of Iran to assume its responsibilities to stifle sectarian sedition and extinguish the flames of this sedition.”
Interestingly, the statement was released after a meeting in Qatar, which was attended by both Sunni and Shiite leaders. The meet was a response to a controversy ignited by Egyptian-born Sunni cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi who called Shiites “heretics” and accused them of “invading” Sunni Muslim countries.
In the statement, the Sunni scholars express their respect for Shiite Islam and call on Iran to stop playing Muslims out against other Muslims.
Although fundamentalist Sunnis consider Shiites to be heretics (it’s true, they do), Shiite fundamentalists are not exactly tolerant either. They believe that Islam took a turn for the worst at the moment Caliph Ali – the fourth Caliph and son-in-law of the Prophet of Islam Mohammed – was assassinated. Afterwards, Shiites believe, Islam was basically hijacked by people who cared only about material things, and not truly about Islam. As such, one could very well argue that Shiite Islam is inherently more fundamentalist than Sunni Islam.
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