Saudi king warns Iran over alleged attempts to convert Sunnis to Shiism

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has issued a veiled warning to Iran over the weekend to quit what he said were efforts to spread Shiite Islam in the Arab world, adding that the kingdom was keeping an eye on the issue. In an interview with Kuwait's As-Siyassah daily published on Saturday, the king said that Saudi Arabia told an Iranian envoy that Iran was putting the Gulf region in danger, in a reference to Tehran's conflict with Washington over Iraq and nuclear policy.

"We are following this issue [Shiite conversion] and we are aware of the extent of Shiite proselytism and how far it has got," the king said.

"But we don't think it will achieve its goal because the huge majority of Muslims who are Sunnis would not change their faith and sect ... We know our role as the state where the message [of Islam] began," he said.

"[Concerning attempts to] exploit religion and fuel sectarian division between Sunnis and Shiites, we are alert but we don't see it as an [immediate] danger," the king said. "If we demonstrate the knowledge to deal with this matter, things will be good and there will be no danger. But if we fail ... there could be some dangers hitting here and there. We pray to God this will not happen."

Arabs also fear that Iran, locked in a dispute with the international community over its defiance in pursuing a nuclear program, is using Shiite populations in Iraq and Lebanon for political leverage.

"Saudi leaders and the Saudi state have always known their limits in dealing with nations, east and west. I explained this to [Iranian nuclear negotiator] Ali Larijani and advised him to pass it on to his government and its followers, with regard to foreign dealings," he said. "The dangers it [the Iranian government] could fall into will fall upon all of us."

Saudi sources have said Larijani visited Riyadh this month to seek help with Washington and reassure Saudi Arabia over the nuclear program.

King Abdullah also appeared to accuse Iran of exploiting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for its own ends.

"The Arabs alone should solve the issue of Palestine," he argued. "We don't want anyone to trade in our issues and become stronger through them." http://www.dailystar.com.lb

Arab states have had difficulty persuading the United States to restart peace talks leading to a state for the Palestinians.

In the wide-ranging interview, the king also denied talk of rifts within the royal family.

He said a heavily publicized appearance of numerous leading figures of the royal family at the return of a prince from a British hospital aimed to dispel talk of disputes.

"The reception was a response to any talk abroad concerning the cohesion and solidarity of this family and to Internet sites and forums that talk of an alleged rift," he said.

"Our people understand, and this talk will not take their attention ... The whole Saudi family is together ... I advise the media not to listen to the stories of troublemakers."

It was not clear what possible rift the king was referring to. He took steps in October to ensure consensus among a group of Saudi royals, including some younger princes, on who would succeed his half-brother Crown Prince Sultan as king by setting up a new succession committee.

Kings have so far been chosen from among the 44 sons of Abdel-Aziz bin Saud, the founder of the modern Saudi state. There has also been talk among diplomats and influential Saudis of policy disputes among the royals concerning Iraq.

Saudi Arabia fears a resurgent Iran and is concerned about the Shiite state's influence growing when US troops eventually quit Iraq, which like Iran has a Shiite majority.

In December, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, suddenly resigned. That followed comments by a Saudi security adviser suggesting Riyadh could send troops to protect fellow Sunnis in Iraq and lower world oil prices to pressure Iran. Diplomats have also said that recent publicity over a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia that Britain feared losing over an investigation into corruption had been a cause of dispute.

King Abdullah, thought to be in his early 80s, came to power in 2005 promising reforms. He is seen by ordinary Saudis as keen to clean up government, where corruption is believed to be widespread. - Agencies

It is important ot know. Sorry it's so long:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0117/p25s01-wome.html

Islam's Sunni-Shiite split

A look at the historic divide within the Muslim world.

By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
To the outsider, the differences between the Sunni and Shiite Islamic sects are hard to recognize.

The five pillars of Islam – daily prayer; fasting during Ramadan; alms giving; the pilgrimage to Mecca; and belief in one, unitary god – are at the core of both faiths, and most mainstream clerics in each denomination recognize adherents of the other side as "legitimate" Muslims.

The Koran is the sacred text for both. They believe Muhammad was the prophet and that there will be a resurrection followed by a final judgment when the world ends.

Adding to the potential confusion is the insistence of many Muslims not to be identified as Shiite or Sunni, saying they are Muslims and Muslims only.

But, as recent events in Iraq and Lebanon have shown, the differences between the believers are not only seen as important by the communities but now, as they have for centuries, rest at the core of bloody political struggles.

While there are superficial differences between the sects – differences in prayer and carrying out ritual ablutions, for instance – the arena of conflict between the two has long been political.

The split between the two main branches of Islam is nearly 1,400 years old, and started with a fight over who should lead the faithful after the prophet Muhammad's death in 632. One side believed that direct descendants of the prophet should take up the mantle of the caliph – the leader of the world's faithful. They were known as the Shiat-Ali, or "partisans of Ali," after the prophet's cousin and son-in-law Ali, whom they favored to become caliph. In time, they came simply to be known as Shiites.

The other side, the Sunnis, thought that any worthy man could lead the faithful, regardless of lineage, and favored Abu Bakr, an early convert to Islam who had married into Muhammad's family. "Sunni" is derived from the Arab word for "followers" and is shorthand for "followers of the prophet."

The Shiites were the eventual losers in a violent struggle for mastery that lasted decades, a fact now reflected in their minority status within global Islam.

But while the civil war now raging between Shiite and Sunni in Iraq is sometimes cast as an extension of this age-old religious struggle, today's conflict is about something slightly different.

While religious differences are real and remain important, the breakdown over Shiite and Sunni in Iraq is about group identity as much as it is about disagreements over proper worship.

In Iraq, many Sunnis and Shiites who are not particularly devout are participating in the bloodshed, fighting to advance group interests.

"I think that Sunni and Shiite group identifiers have become more important in a lot of ways that are not essentially religious,'' says Barbara Petzen, an expert at Harvard University's Middle Eastern Studies Center.

Nevertheless, there are some key religious differences. Shiite veneration of the holy family, that is, the descendants of Muhammad, has contributed to a much more centralized and hierarchical clergy than in the Sunni world.

All religious Shiites nominally observe the advice of an ayatollah on how to follow the law of Islam, or sharia, in the modern context. For many in Iraq, this role is fulfilled by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Sunni Islam is much less centralized. In this respect, the differences between Sunni and Shiite Islam superficially approach the differences between the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant denominations.

Though a majority in Iran and Iraq, Shiites make up just 15 percent of the world's Muslims. Their history of defeat and frequent subjugation has also led to a cult of death and martyrdom within Shiism.

The major Shiite holidays celebrate the glorious defeats and martyrdoms of Imam Ali and Imam Hussein, Ali's son, as typified by the preeminent Shiite holiday of Ashura, which marks the slaughter of Hussein and his followers outside the Iraqi city of Karbala by a Sunni caliph in 680.

In Iraq and Iran, the holiday is marked by elaborate processions of men reenacting their own passion play, many of whom self-flagellate with chains to the beat of drums.

Such expressions of piety are looked at with disgust by hard-line Sunnis like the clergy in Saudi Arabia, who view the veneration of Hussein and other members of the prophet's family as a violation of monotheism. This view has frequently led extremist groups like Al Qaeda to attack Shiites as heretics.

The fact that Shiites have long been oppressed – first under the Ottoman Empire, later under states like Iraq and Saudi Arabia – has led to a strong identification with the injustices suffered by Hussein, and have lent a political dimension to Shiite worship. Ashura celebrations, for instance, were banned under Saddam Hussein, who feared they could lead to spontaneous uprisings.

One of the most important distinctions between Shiite and Sunni belief is veneration of the imams.

Most Shiites believe that there were 12 legitimate successors to Muhammad as caliph, and that the final imam, now called the Mahdi, disappeared when he was taken up in the arms of God. Many Shiites believe the Mahdi will return to earth one day and play the role of savior. A battle between the forces of good and evil will ensue, ending in a thousand-year reign of peace and the end of the world.

In practice, this leads to occasionally apocalyptic rhetoric from leaders like Iraq's Moqtada al-Sadr and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

• Staff writer Matt Bradley contributed reporting.

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