BY RAMZI BAROUD, ARABNEWS.COM Iraqi Shiite fighters chanted “Labeiki ya Zaynab,” as they swayed, dancing with their rifles before TV news cameras in Baghdad on June 13. They were apparently getting ready for a difficult fight ahead. That chant alone is enough to demonstrate the ugly sectarian nature of the […]
Sykes-Picot is dead,” Walid Jumblatt roared at me last night – and he may well be right. The Lebanese Druze leader – who fought in a 15-year civil war that […]
STORY SUMMARY by David Ignatius Iraq appears to be slipping back into civil war, and Sheikh Zaydan al-Jabiri, one of the political leaders of the Sunni insurgent group known as the Tribal Revolutionaries, seems confident that his side is winning. Make no mistake: Brutal sectarian war has come again to […]
By Celine Fernandez A trial is scheduled to begin this week in a religious court in Malaysia against two Shia Muslims accused of possessing books that violate an edict that […]
Malaysia Insider: What do Shiites and final exams have in common? They are the two most popular topics as I scrolled down my Twitter timeline for the past week. Although I am supposed to be studying for my Environmental and Resources Economics final tomorrow, I can’t help but to be […]
In Indonesia, the Nahdlatul Ulama preaches the spirit of brotherhood to maintain peaceful coexistence among the country’s Muslim-majority, diverse ethnic society. THE Global Peace Festival (GPF) Malaysia recently interviewed Dr […]
by Khaled Diab, Journalist A recent poll on Al Jazeera Arabic’s website asked who was responsible for turning the Syrian revolution into a sectarian conflict: the Sunnis or the Shi’a? Around 95% of those who voted blamed the deterioration on the Shi’a. Although this result is shocking in its own […]
by Robert Fisk, The Independent, UK World Exclusive: US urges UK and France to join in supplying arms to Syrian rebels as MPs fear that UK will be drawn into growing conflict Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the […]
Biblical tradition holds that northern Iraq is the land of Cain and Abel. Across post-war Iraq, the ancient parable of fratricide seems to be playing out in a contemporary context: Muslim brothers killing Muslim brothers in spates of violence between the Sunni and Shia sects rippling out in waves across […]
In Syria these days, we are resorting to our racist little maps. The Alawite mountains and the town of Qardaha, home of the Assad family – colour it dark red. Will this be the last redoubt of the 12 per cent Alawite minority, to which the President belongs, when the […]
By Matthew Green KARACHI (Reuters) – When Aurangzeb Farooqi survived an attempt on his life that left six of his bodyguards dead and a six-inch bullet wound in his thigh, […]
by Daniel Burke, Religion News Service (RNS) Muslim and Christian views of the Apocalypse are remarkably similar, albeit with a different ending. As in the Bible’s Book of Revelation, Islamic tradition speaks of signs — unnatural disasters, wars and moral decay — that will portend the Last Days. And like […]
My childhood ignorance of differing Shia and Sunni prayer customs once caused humiliation where today it might risk death Nushin Arbabzadah GUARDIAN CO UK In the Kabul of the 1980s, […]
Top Sunni mufti and head of Sunni scholars in France Sheikh Sankoh Muhammadi has embraced Shia Islam after a visit to the holy city of Karbala in Iraq. It is […]
KARBALA, Iraq — Millions of Shiite pilgrims commemorated the birth of a central figure in Shiite Islam on Friday morning under heavy security measures after a series of recent attacks targeting worshippers. They gathered in the central shrine city of Karbala to commemorate Imam Mehdi’s birth, with children lighting 1,176 […]
Credit: Asia Times: Following the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq three moths ago, sectarian clashes between Shi’ite and Sunni groups have steadily increased. It’s the perfect environment for al-Qaeda to turn the region into the massive insurgent stronghold it used to be, while accusations mount that Iran is […]
BRUSSELS — Belgium’s Muslim community was in shock Tuesday after a man set fire to a Shiite mosque in Brussels, leaving the imam dead in an act some linked to tensions between Shiites and Sunnis. As investigators interrogated the suspect, a self-described Muslim in his mid-30s, members of the Shiite […]
Ulma Haryanto, Ezra Sihite & Dessy Sagita, Jakarta Globe A Shiite-run Islamic boarding school in East Java was set on fire on Thursday by a group claiming to be Sunnis, […]