Iran and Syria - Living Shiite in a Sunni World
I know it sounds strange, given all the sectarian Sunni-Shiite animosity in Iraq, but there is something notable going on in Syria. Unlike Iraq and Iran, Syria is dominantly a Sunni population. What it is that is interesting there, though, is that the President and his closest advisors are Shiites. Also Iran has significant investments in Syria and has more planned in the pipeline to cement their business interests and influence there. So why, you might ask, is this important. Well, since the Ayatollah took over in Iran, Iran has been marginalized, in a business sense, in most parts of the world....but not in Syria. In fact Iran has learned more about doing international business and more about astute mainstream economic influence peddling from its relationship with Syria than it has from any other outside mainstream economic contact. In a way, this is because when Iran deals with Syria, it is a brokering between a superior (Iran) and a lesser nation (Syria). Except for this, Iran really does not have any other opportunities to explore effective means of economic influence peddling, because in its relationship with China, Russia, and countries in Europe, these other countries play the superior role and Iran has lesser nation status. Now this is not to say that Iran does not peddle influence informally, because it does; and you can see this through the actions of its Hezbollah agents. But the Hezbollah actions are not mainstreamers playing with mainstreamers on the world stage. To really be accepted on the world stage, Iran has to be able to go head to head with the major world powers, and it is learning how to do this, and very astutely I may add, through its investments in Syria.
So what does this mean with regard to being Shiite in a Sunni world? Well, the vast (and I mean VAST) majority of Muslims on the planet are Sunnis, not Shiites; and the Shiite Iranian government knows this. Just in terms of self preservation, it needs to gain enough influence and power that its sect will presevere and not be over-run by Sunni's. Interestingly enough, the US is helping the Iranian Shiites to gain an ever increasing influence in Muslim life and become the ruling Muslim subclass, through its deposing of the Sunni Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Sunni Hussein government in Iraq. Soon we will see a Shiite led government in Lebanon driven by Hezbollah-led supporters from southern Lebanon. I guess the big question is, is this something to fear? It is, if these governments harken to the leadership in Tehran and take their marching orders from them. If, in fact, these Shiite led nations have the well being of their local populations in mind, then I would say "no". The sorting out of the Sunni-Shiite religious tension will be the same as the Catholic-Protestant tension that exists today.
So what does this mean with regard to being Shiite in a Sunni world? Well, the vast (and I mean VAST) majority of Muslims on the planet are Sunnis, not Shiites; and the Shiite Iranian government knows this. Just in terms of self preservation, it needs to gain enough influence and power that its sect will presevere and not be over-run by Sunni's. Interestingly enough, the US is helping the Iranian Shiites to gain an ever increasing influence in Muslim life and become the ruling Muslim subclass, through its deposing of the Sunni Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Sunni Hussein government in Iraq. Soon we will see a Shiite led government in Lebanon driven by Hezbollah-led supporters from southern Lebanon. I guess the big question is, is this something to fear? It is, if these governments harken to the leadership in Tehran and take their marching orders from them. If, in fact, these Shiite led nations have the well being of their local populations in mind, then I would say "no". The sorting out of the Sunni-Shiite religious tension will be the same as the Catholic-Protestant tension that exists today.
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Posted by Anonymous | Thu Dec 28, 10:50:00 AM EST