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CHAPTER 2 Religious Leaders, Sectarianism, and the Sunni-Shi'a Divide in Islam
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29 ChapTEr 2 Religious Leaders, Sectarianism, and the Sunni–Shi’a Divide in Islam l NaDEr haShEmi Under what social conditions do Sunni and Shi’a religious leaders justify or catalyze violence along identity lines, and under what social conditions do they lay the foundation for, advocate for, and sometimes mediate peace? These are the overarching questions that this chapter seeks to explore.The relevancy of this inquiry is supported by two objective facts about the contemporary Islamic world that give this topic a pressing new urgency. Religion is a key marker of identity today in the Muslim world across the Sunni–Shi’a divide. While this has not always been the case, recent polling confirms that religion trumps ethnicity and national citizenship as the main source of self-identification across Arab and Muslim societies.1 Consequently, religious leaders are ideally suited to play a critical role in influencing norms and values, shaping political behavior, regulating conflict, and promoting peace and reconciliation .The 2003 US invasion of Iraq has marked a new phase of Sunni–Shi’a tension across the Middle East. Beyond the loss of life that has already occurred in Iraq’s civil war, a serious potential exists for a major human rights catastrophe in the aftermath of a US troop withdrawal that could rise to genocidal proportions.2 Should the situation in Iraq implode in this direction,fears of a regional war would increase as neighboring states (principally Iran and Saudi Arabia) would certainly intervene, giving this conflict a distinct Sunni versus Shi’a character. Focusing attention, therefore, on Sunni–Shi’a relations, is highly relevant to future political trends and areas of possible conflict in the Muslim world. Recent scholarship has also emphasized the pressing significance of this subject . In his critically acclaimed book, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam NaDer haShemi 30 Will Shape the Future, Vali Nasr has suggested that traditional concepts and categories used to explicate the Middle East, such as modernity, democracy, fundamentalism , and nationalism, no longer adequately explain the politics of the region. It “is rather the old feud between Shias and Sunnis that forges attitudes, defines prejudices, draws political boundary lines, and even decides whether and to what extent those other trends have relevance”(Nasr 2006, 82). Moreover, Nasr astutely observers that even though Shi’as comprise only 10 to 15 percent of the 1.3 billion Muslim population, in “the Islamic heartland, from Lebanon to Pakistan . . . there are roughly as many Shias as there are Sunnis, and around the economically and geostrategically sensitive rim of the Persian Gulf, Shias constitute 80 percent of the population”(34).Recent conflicts in Iraq,Afghanistan,Lebanon, and the Gaza strip, and the sectarian and regional tensions that have flowed from these events lend credence to Nasr’s claim. This chapter argues that the relationship among social conditions, religious leaders, and issues of peace and conflict in the Muslim world is not straightforward , clear, or uncomplicated. Social conditions vary across Muslim societies; Islamic religious leaders are not a homogenous group, and issues of peace and conflict vary in intensity, scope, and size. It will be argued, however, that one cannot understand Sunni–Shi’a tensions today and the accompanying behavior of religious leaders outside of the national, regional, and international context that shapes these tensions, fuels them, and contributes to their perpetuation. This is the critical analytical framework that informs this study and sheds light on how Muslim religious leaders can contribute to conflict resolution and peaceful relations among sectarian groups. Rather than a single or set of case studies, this chapter provides a broad overview of topic and seeks to frame how this topic can be approached and better understood. The discussion begins with some theoretical considerations on the relationship between religious mobilization and sectarianism. Drawing on the literature on ethnic political mobilization, this scholarship is useful in understanding Sunni–Shi’a conflict in our contemporary world due to the functional similarities between ethnic and religious mobilization. Then the critical social question “why now?” is answered. Why have Sunni–Shi’a sectarian relations deteriorated at this point in time and not before, and what factors have contributed to this outcome? In pursuit of an answer, the national, regional, and international context that has shaped the political environment in which religious leaders must operate is discussed . The rise of ultraconservative form of Islam in Saudi Arabia is explored, along with the consequences of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran on sectarian relations in...