The false narrative of Sunni-Shi’a confrontation in the Middle East

Do You Really Want to Pull at That Thread
21 January, 2012 – IRD

Framing the regional power struggle as a Sunni-Shi’a confrontation could have dire consequences for the Middle East.

If you are a Tehran-based media correspondent, or a tourist having had the courage to defy anti-Iran stereotypes and visit our country, kindly take a walk in downtown Tehran, engage in a small talk with a religious Iranian and ask them a little bit of general knowledge quiz: what Islamic denomination does the Assad family follow? Fearless of the USD skyrocketing exchange rate in Tehran, I bet one hundred bucks that they identify the family as Sunnis. Should they be more informed, and know of Assads’ Alewite background, ask them if Alewites are Shi’as; two hundred bucks says that their answer is a no, and at that moment you may also observe a look of surprise on their face; despite the fact that Damascus is one of the most popular pilgrimage destination for the religious Iranian, as it hosts the tomb of Zeinab, daughter of the first Shi’a imam, Ali, and an iconic figure in the Shi’a history.

I’m not surprised if the Western media label the Syrian government as Shi’a. Their lack of knowledge on the Middle East fabric is sort of a given (even the Bush administration seemed to have no idea until it saw Iraq slide into a sectarian war.) But why has the BBC Persian, or the Turkish Today’s Zaman, taken a liking in equating Alewites and Shi’as? They could not be pardoned with this mistake. Or is it really a mistake? Noticing how this polarized framing could pay dividends, one has all the right to hesitate when calling it a mistake. After all, this narrative easily puts the struggle between the regional powers to take helm of the Arab Spring in their hands, and their fierce battle over Syria, into the age-old context of the Sunni-Shi’a schism. It gives substance to ferocious anti-Assad policies of Ankara, Riyadh and the biting-more-than-it-can-chew Doha. It turns painfully funny when even the Israeli Ha’aretz tries to aggrandize the rift, reporting of Hamas crackdown on Shi’a community in Gaza

But do you really want to pull at that threat? After all, the consequences of this divisive policy may happen to be less than beneficial for its propagators, at its best turning their Middle East conquest into a pyrrhic victory. A quick glance at demographics of the region won’t make us any harm: Iran, holds a substantial 89% of Shi’as, this figures amounts to (minimums considered) 65% for the Republic of Azerbaijan (deeply secularized under the Soviet rule –and later the Aliyevs, but showing a burgeoning interest in its ancestors’ faith), 65% in Iraq (as a de facto rule, the prime minister, the most powerful authority in the country, is Shi’a), 30% in Lebanon (largely represented by Amal and Hezbollah), 60% in Bahrain (whose uprising against institutionalized discrimination suffers media blackout, simply because they have made the unforgivable sin of following the wrong denomination) and 30% in Kuwait.
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