Posted on 06/01/2004 11:31:25 AM PDT by nuconvert
THE IRANIAN HERESY
By AMIR TAHERI NY Post
June 1, 2004 -- RECENT actions by Tehran have led to questions about whether Iran was trying to play the Shiite card in Iraq's post-Saddam power game.
Tehran's state-controlled media have launched a campaign to incite Shiites in Bahrain against the kingdom's reform process. And Iran has ordered its clients, notably the Iraqi branch of Hezbollah, to step up disruptive activities to make the transition from occupation to Iraqi sovereignty as difficult as possible.
All this has led to suspicions against Shiites in several Arab countries. That is unfortunate.
The present Iranian regime is based on the ideology of Khomeinism - which is as far removed from Shiism as it is from other mainstream "ways" of Islam.
The first victims of that ideology have been Shiites. The Khomeinists have executed over 100,000 Iranians, mostly Shiites. They also caused the deaths of almost a million other Shiites in the eight-year long Iran-Iraq war. Over 3.5 million Iranians, most of them Shiites, have gone into exile.
That ideology has also divided Shiite communities everywhere.
When Khomeinism arrived in Lebanon for the first time in 1980, it immediately set out to destroy Amal, the united political movement of the Shiites. Having failed to do so, it created the Hezbollah as a rival to Amal.
By the 1990s, the Lebanese Hezbollah was showing some independence. Its religious leader, Sayyed Muhamad-Hussein Fadhlallah, refused to recognize the Iranian "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei as "the leader of all Muslims" as is claimed in the Khomeinist Constitution.
Tehran's response came in the form of support for splinter groups within Hezbollah. In a recent speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said that Tehran did not "limit its alliances in Lebanon" to the Hezbollah.
In Iraq, Tehran's policy over the past decade has aimed at splitting the Shiite community. Now Tehran is working hard to prevent a unified Iraqi Shiite front backed by the seminary at Najaf. The three-way split in the Dawa party was partly due to Iranian intrigues. And right now Iranian elements are working hard to split the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
It's no mystery that the shenanigans of Muqtada al-Sadr have been largely financed and encouraged by Tehran.
The Khomeinists were also responsible for splitting the Shiite community in Afghanistan. They backed the Shoeleh-Javid (Eternal Flame) group, a Maoist outfit whose members were of Shiite birth, against the Hazara Shiite establishment. During the communist rule in Kabul, the Khomeinists prevented the Hazara from fighting the Soviet occupation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
bmp
I think that some of us have figured out why Saddam was getting rid of the Shiites.
This makes sense; Islam is not compatible with a true theocracy. In order to form a theocracy you must have one man acting as the voice of god and who is the final authority on determining god’s will. In Islam the Koran is the final authority, the result is the need for interpretation. Men do the interpretation and the result is disagreements and different interpretations. Muslims may kill each other over interpretation and each claim a superior understanding but none can legitimately claim to speak for god in making new law.
Well put.
religion of peace
Khomeinism vs Shiism Pong
Very Good
Does anyone know anything about this Mossadegh person? I have a hard time believing that a region infested with dictatorships would allow any democratically inclined leader of any stripe to get a foothold so I'm very skeptical.
Here's some good background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mossadeq
Iran in fact used to have a democracy, under the person known as Mossadegh, and that the US sponsored a coup, removed him, and installed the Shah....
Your friend is correct. If memory serves it was in 1952, Mossadegh was supported by the soviets, so the CIA took him down.
As usual, the Left is fond of using 50 year old examples to prove America is evil.
As usual, the Left is fond of using 50 year old examples to prove America is evil.
You mean we're not? Damn I'm always that last to know. :-)
Cold war blowback.
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