RIYADH: A group of prominent Saudi clerics have called on Sunni Muslims around the world to mobilise against Shiites in Iraq, although a statement they issued fell short of calling for a jihad, or holy war.
The statement appearing on Saudi Islamist Web sites on Monday said Sunni Muslims were being murdered and marginalised by Shiites, backed by Iran, and the US-led forces.
Saudi Arabia, a bastion of Sunni Islam, backs the Shiite-dominated government of Nuri al-Maliki largely because it fears that sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites could lead to the break-up of its northern neighbour and spill over its borders.
"We direct this message to all concerned about Shiites in the world: the murder, torture and displacement of Sunnis ... is an outrage. We don't think you would accept to be treated like this," said the statement, dated Dec 7.
"Muslims must stand directly with our Sunni brothers in Iraq and support them by all appropriate, well-studied means ... Muslims generally should be made aware of the danger of the Shiites," it said.
"Clerics and intellectuals should not stand hands folded over what's happening to their Sunni brothers in Iraq; all occasions should be used to expose the Shiites' practices ... What has been taken by force can only be got back by force."
This is budding regional conflict is the responsibility of the Bush administration for taking on the War of Choice in Iraq.
And this outcome was entirely predictable. Given the history of Eastern Europe after the withdrawal of Soviet domination (see Czechoslovakia), we should have known that serious ethnic tensions were possible in Iraq, and, given this history of the Middle East, that those tensions could have spilled over from Iraq into the larger region.
I fear the worst is yet to come.
GP
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