Sunni vs Shia
Mar 15th, 2007, in News, by PatungHasyim Muzadi plans to cool the Sunni vs Shia conflict in Iraq.
Hasyim Muzadi, the leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, says he wants to be the mediator in the Sunni versus Shia bloodbath in Iraq. In Jakarta in early April 2007 Hasyim will lead a conference which seeks to find the best solution to the conflict, a conference which will include participants from many Muslim countries in the world.
Hasyim Muzadi.
The most important thing is that we sit at one table. We would like to know directly from both warring parties.
Hasyim admits to being bewildered as to the causes of the fighting and hopes to find out at the conference. tempo
April 4th 2007. None of the Iraqi clerics expected to attend the conference appeared, however fifteen Sunni and Shiite clerics from other countries such as Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, Syria, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as a representative from the Organization of the Islamic Conference, did join the conference.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda and Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin said they don’t why the Iraqi clerics failed to attend. The organizers of the meeting had invited Iraqi Sunni leader Mahmood Al Sumai Dai and Shiite Imam Sayed Qodruddin Al Qubbanji. Said Hassan:
We contacted Iraqi representatives in the United Nations. They said they would send five Shiite and Sunni ulema from Iraq to the meeting, but eventually they did not attend.
Iraq is being represented at the meeting, held at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, south of Jakarta, by some government officials.
In his opening speech, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said religious leaders have a great role to play in ending the conflict in Iraq. He said the process of reconciliation requires enormous self-restraint and resistance against impulses to avenge past wrongdoings, as well as needing many acts of forgiveness.
For that to be possible, the (Iraqi) community must call upon tremendous reserves of spiritual strength. Hence, this is a process that needs the guidance and encouragement of … religious leaders. National reconciliation is bound to succeed if it is launched by you.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Indonesia realized the conference was only a first step to finding a solution to the Iraq conflict.
We hope that this conference will contribute to international efforts to bring peace and harmony to Iraq. The conference will also serve as a preliminary step toward Indonesia’s greater engagement in Iraq.
Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Hasyim Muzadi called for Islamic brotherhood to be promoted in finding ways for reconciliation, and defeating the enemy.
We need to re-establish Ukhuwah Islamiyah (Islamic brotherhood) so that we don’t fight each other and let our enemy destroy us.
Speaking in Surabaya on 29th April 2007 Hasyim Muzadi, the leader of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU), defended himself against accusations that he was too close to Shia Islam, because he had recently travelled many times to Iran and Iraq in order to solve the Sunni Shia conflict.
Hasyim Muzadi.
I don’t go to Iraq and Iran to defend the Shia, I don’t defend Shia Islam as a theology, I defend Shiites because they are an oppressed people.
Hasyim said the Sunnis and Shias in Iraq did not really need to fight each other but that foreign intelligence agencies were using or provoking the conflict between them in order to make it easier to oppress and exploit Iraq.
Hasyim had invited Sunni and Shia leaders to come to Jakarta in early April for a peace conference but that Indonesia’s support for UN Resolution 1747 had ruined the plan and the Iraqi leaders didn’t turn up.
So I went back to Iraq to try to save the situation.
He added that Islam forbade any form of colonialism or imperialism by one country against another. This was the reason Muslims opposed Israel, he said:
Israel really wouldn’t like it if Hamas and Fatah were unified, America too, they also wouldn’t like it if Shias and Sunnis were united in in Iraq, Iran, and Palestine.
Moving on to another destination he said he had been the first Muslim leader in the world to visit ground zero at the World Trade Center in New York after 9/11. He had made this visit to show that Islam had no truck with terrorism and violence, and was a religion of peace.
Hasyim said these words while giving a speech in honour of the recently deceased cleric Yusuf Hasyim (Pak Ud). Hasyim said he was inspired by the thoughts of the late Yusuf Hasyim, who had said that Indonesia must reject the two international ideologies, liberalism, from the west, and Islamism, from the east. Ideological Islam had to be rejected, he said: antara
Ideological Islam in the Middle East is represented by such groups as Ikhwanul Muslimin, Majelis Mujahidin, Al-Qaeda, and so forth, but ideological Islam is not [real] Islam, because Islam is a religion that is not inclined towards any particular movement, especially in politics.
A few days later Hasyim returned to the topic of Iraq, saying in Jakarta on May 1st that America would only leave Iraq once it had gotten back the money it had outlaid in the invasion and occupation.
They haven’t gotten their money back yet so it’s hard for them to leave.
However Hasyim urged the world to keep up the pressure on the US, and said the currently being held Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference in Bali should issue a resolution condemning America. antara
13 Comments on “Sunni vs Shia”
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Ihaknt says:
Mmm, Yoda he looks like, if he was green. (I have no intention to insult Yoda to fans out there, no offence ok!)
Well the intention is good. But maybe he should actually see and take care his own backyard first, AKA Indonesia, instead of meddling in someone else’s crap who probably doesn’t want his help anyway! Again this is just a show for his social status! Sir, can’t you see that our country is increasingly and rapidly divided? Maybe while you’re at it you can throw a thing or two problems in our country? Stupid man!
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Mohammed Khafi says:
Well I wish him luck! This battle has been going on since The Prophet died, I can’t see a solution being found at a conference.
For a simple overview of the issue, for those interested, try here: Religion and Ethics News Weekly.
Ihaknt is right, he should try and fix what is recently broken at home, and which is at least in his power to do, instead of trying to fix a problem which has been going on for centuries with no solution.
Peace
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Aluang anak Bayang says:
haha .. you guys missed the amusing point. He sounded so naive.
Read here again: Hasyim admits to being bewildered as to the causes of the fighting and hopes to find out at the conference.
The reason he is ‘bewildered’ is that our brand of Islam is unique. The majority of Indonesian Muslims do not have a clue what real Islam is. When asked if they support shariah law, they will readily put their hand up in favour of it, thinking shariah means abolishing corruption. Give them a little hint about caning, stoning and amputation, they will give you the horrified look.
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Hey Aluang, no f**king way I support Shariah, I’d rather be a lesbian and be deemed sinful but happy, then to support something I don’t agree with. Either way, what’s the point to live in fear? Please remember that the ones who can think for themselves don’t agree with these so-called rules. If one wants to be munafik, then one should do it without involving God’s name. It will probably abolish corruption amongst the citizens, but for the government? JALAN TERUS! By the way, are you sure it’s the majority? Because I think it’s more the people who don’t (or refuse to) know or broaden their horizon. This Yoda look alike should really just tend to his backyard.
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Jamil says:
To live in fear of Allah you idiot! What is the country of Iraq doing to stop the violence? What is the new elected government doing to ease tension between both sides. At least this guy is trying to come up with something, all Iraqi’s are doing is blowing themself up. How do you justify that? You have no right to label Indonesian Muslims and what kind of name is aluang?
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Abdul Khalid al Jumhuri says:
Folks,
I am sick of this wiping the bottoms of the Arab/Persian affairs using my tax money. Those idiots should first fix the Sidoarjo mud problem, get Aburizal pay the farmers, and then execute the executive who refused the engineer’s request for casing when needed, and get a control of rice business in BULOG. In that order. If they still have time, they should fire the Minister of Transport for acting so imbecilly and making me so embarassed as an Indonesian.
The truth is, it is difficult to even keep the Arabs not at each other throat, let alone to get the Farsi in the mix. The Saudis hate the Jordanian (their arch nemesis in the war fighting to be the keeper of al-Haramain), both hate the Egyptians, who also hates the Palestinians (who came to Egypt as refugees in the aftermath of ’76 war they got rid of them in the ’83s). Don’t even dream that the Syrian loved them all. Syria is fighting for a leverage and was bitterly ousted from Lebanon with the assassination by bombing of Hariri, who is a native Lebanese and was supported by Arab Saudi. The Arab nations are not all that united. They only united in dreams, and boy, they dreams a lot.
Now the Farsi (Iran) is altogether a different language and culture. That is why Shia is so bitter, aside of the Karbala case in which Hussain was killed. No wonder they took it as a legitimation to establish the Shi’ite sect. Remember the Haj insident in the ’70s when the Shi’ite rioted in Mecca during Hajj and many got shot by the Saudis, and they impose a ruling of how many Shia moslem could go to Hajj? Remember history.
They all need Israel/ Zionist/ Kafir as their common enemy. Without them they will kill each other. They have done so in the establishment of the al-Saud dynasty in the ’20s and the ousting of the real keeper of the holy places Mecca and Medina (which is the Hashemite clan, now ruling over Jordan) until today. Fortunately there is Israel, so they could conveniently blame the Zionist for almost everything they could not do.
Want to learn how Palestine was established? Why Fatah fought with Hamas? Read history of how Amin al Huseini created the Arab Legions, worked with the Third Reich to get some money and supply of arms even established the Arab SS, assasinated Effendi Kabir, the remnants of the ruler of the old Ottoman Empire in the area (who is a Turk), and called himself the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem? Yassir Arafat is Huseini’s protege. Folks, read history!
We, Indonesian should learn from it.
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Ismayanto Prihandariyanto says:
There is no conspiracy of Jews or Americans on shifting the hatred I agree,but also there is no Muslim’s conspriracy of fueling the slaughter between the hutus and Tutsi in rwanda. The point is that all religion SH*T!
I think also that the problem of religious conflict also happens to the religion of love, How many killed during the hutus and Tutsi? That must have been Mohammedan’s conspiracy.
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Parvez hussain says:
Dear brother and sister if any one having any queries regarding shia faith pls ask may allah help me to resolve insha allah
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Ali says:
Guys,
I am not getting a clear picture what you guys are talking about. If somebody like “Hasyim Muzadi” has yaken a step towards betterment why don’t we support him in doing that. This difference within ourselves is not good when we share the same basics.
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I have read the Shia vs Sunni disagreements in this blog and I am slightly disheartened as a peacemaker.
However, I am reminded of the Legend of the Peacemaker – an Iroquois Legend from Canada and the United States – how he made peace between the 5 warring tribes – later called the six nations – THe peacemaker story tell how Peace might be made. It is worth reading about – foregiveness, is called for, understanding is called for, recognizing our common human values is called for.
Perhaps when the story of the Peacemaker is learned by the Sunni and the Shia and the Jews and the Christians we might have peace amongst the tribes that war against each other.
Today we all know that your g-d is my g-d is our g-d which we call the great mystery. The time for Peace is now – as we deplete the resources of the planet – one resource is not depleted – the human spirit and I call upon all my brothers and sisters to think deeply about peace, to plan for peace, to think about peace, and then – you know what we might have peace. Masha Allah!! Alah Akbar!.
Mitch GOld Peacemaker
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Mir Shourath Ali says:
People should be broadminded like you Mr Hasyim,Keep it up, There are many peace loving people in this world, We are not blind to neglect Americans and Israils,Yes the main agenda should be yahudis, Its is not easy to wipe cheap mentality people’s mind. Mr Parvez, Allah is with you.
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Hsargay says:
I must say that Abdul Khalid Al Jumhuri comments wich ndeed makes us look at history and understand the underlying issues whilst Mich Gold Peacemaker I entierly subscribe to and are so difficult to accept .
God or Allah to me is the same being one English and the other Arab.
Ibrahim / Abraham are the same persons and the God is the same , the interprestations are different of course but the God all refer to is the same entity .
This is hard to accept maybe for some people who think they own God and the other persons God is another entity .We might not agree on scripures and interpretatios but we mean the same God the God of Ibrahim or Ambraham as one wishes to call it according to his language .Tell me if I am wrong and if you should think Iam wrong
tell me why.
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