Rising Conflict
TimeWatch Editorial
January 5, 2016
Just yesterday it was reported that 47 individual, including Shia leader Nimr al-Nimr, who led anti-government protests, and al-Qaeda figure Faris al-Zahrani were executed as terrorists in Saudi Arabia. Those executions caused protests in a number of countries on Saturday. In Iran, the demonstrators broke into the Saudi embassy and started fires. The BBC also reported that Saudi Arabia then broke off diplomatic ties with Iran. The BBC account also reported that:
“Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that the Sunni Muslim kingdom would face "divine revenge" for the execution - an act which also angered Shia Muslims elsewhere in the Middle East. Ayatollah Khamenei called Sheikh Nimr a "martyr" who had acted peacefully.” BBC, Saudi Arabia breaks off ties with Iran after al-Nimr execution, January 3, 2016
For those who are unaware, all Muslims are not friends. The division between these two groups has been long and bitter. But what caused the division? Perhaps the most detailed explanation is found in an article by John Harney on “The Hindu” International website, dated January 5, 2016. This is what he says:
“A schism emerged after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632. He died without appointing a successor to lead the Muslim community, and disputes arose over who should shepherd the new and rapidly growing faith.
Some believed that a new leader should be chosen by consensus; others thought that only the prophet’s descendants should become caliph. The title passed to a trusted aide, Abu Bakr, though some thought it should have gone to Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. Ali eventually did become caliph after Abu Bakr’s two successors were assassinated.
After Ali also was assassinated, with a poison-laced sword at the mosque in Kufa, in what is now Iraq, his sons Hasan and then Hussein claimed the title. But Hussein and many of his relatives were massacred in Karbala, Iraq, in 680.
His martyrdom became a central tenet to those who believed that Ali should have succeeded the Prophet. (It is mourned every year during the month of Muharram). The followers became known as Shias, a contraction of the phrase Shiat Ali, or followers of Ali. The Sunnis, however, regard the first three caliphs before Ali as rightly guided and themselves as the true adherents to the Sunnah, or the Prophet’s tradition. Sunni rulers embarked on sweeping conquests that extended the caliphate into North Africa and Europe. The last caliphate ended with the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War-I.” John Harney, “What is the difference between Sunnis and Shias” “The Hindu” January 5, 2016.
But their differences stretch beyond the political. The modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came into being in 1932. This was an alliance between the House of Saud the disciples of the Sunni Islamic scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. 80 to 90 percent of Saudi Arabians are Sunni Muslims. They believe that Muslims should restore the interpretation of the true Islam found in the classical texts, the Quran and the Sunnah. They also believe that Muslims who seek intercession from holy men, such as the imams revered by Shia, are not true Muslims. Commins, David (2009). The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. I. B. Tauris. pp. 155–6.
It is therefore easy to imagine the ongoing tension that exists between these two groups who provide no compromise regarding their stated positions but are adamant that each is absolute. As if the conflicts that already exist are not filled with sufficient animosity, tribal and international complexity continues to multiply. No wonder the prediction found in Testimonies Volume 6 page 14 says the following:
“We are standing upon the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecies are fulfilling. Strange, eventful history is being recorded in the books of heaven. Everything in our world is in agitation. There are wars, and rumors of wars. The nations are angry, and the time of the dead has come, that they should be judged. Events are changing to bring about the day of God which hasteth greatly. Only a moment of time, as it were, yet remains. But while already nation is rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, there is not now a general engagement. As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle.”-- Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 14.
The curtain is indeed being opened, that we might see, understand and be prepared.
Cameron A. Bowen
