Shia Muslims and ongoing oppression in Sunni Muslim dominated nations
25th January, 2012 – Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker – Modern Tokyo Times

Shia Muslims don’t face persecution in mainly Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, and secular nations. However, throughout the Sunni Muslim world the Shia community faces daily discrimination and deadly attacks often erupt in Bahrain, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and other nations. This reality needs to be debated more openly and international pressure needs to be felt and this applies to a new motion put before the United Nations.

On January 23 in Iraq more Sunni Islamic terrorist attacks killed innocent Shia Muslims and bystanders who happened to be in a mainly Shia part of Baghdad. This threat is constant because of homegrown Sunni Islamic terrorism in Iraq and international angles. This applies to Sunni religious zealots from Saudi Arabia and other nations instigating mass hatred towards the Shia. Of course, Sunni Islamic terrorists in Iraq also target the Christian community and because of this vast numbers have fled to other nations.

In Pakistan you have many Sunni Islamic terrorist networks which deem the Shia to be infidels and only recently major terrorist attacks killed many Shia Muslims. It matters not if political leaders in Iraq and Pakistan come from the Shia community because elements within the Sunni extremist terrorist networks clearly desire to install fear and instigate sectarianism.

It must be remembered than when Al-Qaeda played a more prominent role in Afghanistan that this Sunni Islamic terrorist network along with the Sunni Taliban movement, targeted and killed Shia Muslims in the tens of thousands. Therefore, many Shia Muslims fled this Sunni onslaught against their beleaguered community.

Bahrain and Yemen are two other nations whereby the Shia are marginalized and betrayed by the dominant Sunni Muslim forces in both nations. More alarming, many Shia villages have been bombed in Yemen whereby women and children have been killed. Also, in Bahrain outside nations like Saudi Arabia have boosted the Sunni ruling leadership with the results being more innocent deaths of Shia Muslims and ongoing persecution of Shia religious leaders.

In Saudi Arabia, a nation which supports killing apostates and whereby not one single Christian church or Buddhist temple is allowed, is also anti-Shia and fanatical Sunni extremists, organizations, and wealthy business individuals, are intent on spreading the anti-Shia theme throughout Saudi Arabia and to other nations. Indeed, the Shia community faces enormous discrimination in this draconian society but of course the oil issue for Western political leaders maintains’ a firm silence. The upshot of this is more oppression of the Shia in regions like Qatif and ongoing restrictions on all non-Muslim religions throughout the nation.

Indeed, while Malaysia is often praised in the “naïve Western media” for being modern and open, the stark reality is that in this nation the Shia faith is illegal. Therefore, Shia Muslims in Malaysia are in constant fear of being arrested and monitored for merely belonging to a different branch within Islam. However, what international pressure is being put on Malaysia internationally and within the Commonwealth nations? …more

Thomas Carothers is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of the report “Democracy Promotion Under Obama: Revitalization or Retreat?”

Washington’s bow to Mideast monarchs
By Thomas Carothers – 04 February, 2012 – Washington Post

Just after the first anniversary of the onset of the Arab Spring, the Obama administration announced in December an enormous arms sale to Saudi Arabia, with a price tag greater than the annual gross domestic product of more than half the countries in the world. The administration hailed the sale as a “historic achievement” that “reinforces the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.” The close juxtaposition of the anniversary and the apparent repair of the temporary rough patch in U.S.-Saudi relations highlights crucial overlooked realities about the Arab Spring and the U.S. response.

Although accounts of the Arab Spring often refer to a wave of political change washing across the Middle East, the reality is otherwise. The wave has bisected the region, swamping one half while leaving the other barely damp. Governments in the majority of the region’s republics, namely Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen, have been toppled or have faced serious domestic siege. In startling contrast, however, all of the region’s monarchies appear secure, with the possible exception of Bahrain. Most have enough oil money to keep their citizens well off, and some have a special religious legitimacy.

We should keep in mind that the various autocrats in the region who fell from power last year also looked to be well-entrenched, for all sorts of solid and frequently elaborated reasons, right up until the moment they no longer were. In this time of political surprises, which often stem from sudden, roiling popular protests, betting on reliable autocrats is more perilous than ever.

President Obama says that he recognizes this reality. He declared in May that “after decades of accepting the world as it is in the region, we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be” and that it will be “the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region.” And it is true that where political upheaval has hit, the United States has usually backed democratic change, sometimes actively, as in Libya; sometimes hesitantly, as in Egypt. But where autocratic stability continues to reign, the administration sticks to the decades-old U.S. policy of uncritical support for friendly dictators who are helpful on matters of security and economics.

When the government of Bahrain cracked down harshly on the massive protest movement within its borders last spring, the administration basically folded. The United States was unwilling to risk jeopardizing the convenient Persian Gulf home of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet for the sake of its commitment to Arab democracy. Saudi Arabia’s military participation in Bahrain’s crackdown and its steadfast opposition to even a glimmer of liberalization within its own borders has not deterred the administration from enthusiastically reaffirming the intimacy of U.S.-Saudi ties. Consider also that, despite having taken no serious steps toward democratic reform in response to popular demands for change, Jordan’s King Abdullah has received only praise and aid from Washington. ...more