Can't Tell The Players Without A Scorecard. Who's Sunni? Who's Shia?

This essay includes a lineup up of who are Sunni and who are Shia Muslim countries. Recent history is included. Helps to have this scorecard as you read about events in the Middle East.



[From article]
But the current turmoil is only a small aspect of a greater struggle that is as old as Islam itself. Probably the most important aspect of the schism between the Sunnis and Shiites (Shia) was the succession after the death of the prophet Mohammed. The Sunnis believed that Mohammed's confidant Abu Bakr should succeed him, while the Shiites have insisted that Ali ibn Abi Taib, Mohammed's son-in-law and cousin, should be the new leader of Islam.
In A.D. 661, Ali was killed by a Sunni faction while at prayer in the Great Mosque of Kufa. Ali's murder cemented the division between the Sunnis and Shiites.
The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War would essentially create the endless chaos we see today. In that context, the single most consequential event with regards to Middle East politics is the Sykes-Picot Pact. The secret agreement between England and France partitioned much of the former Ottoman Empire into direct-rule regions and spheres of influence. The two Great Powers attempted to partition the land among tribal and religious lines. However, according to Tarek Osman of BBC News, "the thinking behind Sykes-Picot did not translate into practice. That meant the newly created borders did not correspond to the actual sectarian, tribal, or ethnic distinctions on the ground."
The Pew Research Center conducted a poll in 2012 that showed that among most of the Sunni Muslims of the Middle East and North Africa, at least forty percent do not accept Shiites as fellow Muslims.
[. . .]



Politically, the recent crisis between Saudi Arabia and Iran will only add to the notion that President Obama is weak and feckless. The entire world seems in disorder and taking on water, and no one is at the helm. The United States, under Obama, is not in a position to defuse the situation. Iran, after getting what it wanted from the nuclear deal, has no reason to listen to our president about a decades old feud with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia doesn't believe that the United States will have its best interests at heart, given the détente between the U.S. and Iran.
The next president, Republican or Democrat, will have a full plate – make that a buffet – of problems to face, and to face quickly. The Democrats don't have any solutions, so the Republicans should be talking more about how they can bring order back to the world.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/saudi_arabia_and_iran_behind_the_rivalry.html

January 16, 2016
Saudi Arabia and Iran: Behind the Rivalry
By Derek DeLuca

Bulgarian Woman Predicted 'Great Muslim War in 2016'

Baba Vanga (pictured) warned of the rise of ISIS by claiming there would be a 'great Muslim war' in 2016.

[From article]
A Bulgarian clairvoyant who died 20 years ago warned of the rise of ISIS by claiming there would be a 'great Muslim war' in 2016, it has been reported.
Baba Vanga died in 1996 at the age of 85 and was known as the 'Nostradamus of the Balkans' because of her success rate which was supposedly as high as 85 per cent.
The blind pensioner, who has previously been credited with predicting the 9/11 terror attacks and the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, warned of an invasion of Europe by Muslim extremists next year.
Vanga is said to have made hundreds of predictions in her lifetime, including that there would be a 'great Muslim war' which would start with the Arab Spring in 2010.
She predicted it would take place in Syria and would come to a conclusion in 2043 with the establishment of a caliphate with Rome at its centre, News.com.au reports.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3350753/Did-blind-Bulgarian-clairvoyant-predict-rise-ISIS-Nostradamus-Balkans-died-20-years-ago-said-great-Muslim-war-2016.html#ixzz3tjryBj4e

Did a blind Bulgarian clairvoyant predict the rise of ISIS? ‘Nostradamus of the Balkans’ who died 20 years ago said there would be a ‘great Muslim war’ in 2016
Baba Vanga made the predictions before she died in 1996 at the age of 85
Pensioner warned that Europe will 'cease to exist' by the end of next year
Also credited with predicting the 2004 tsunami and attacks on Twin Towers
By JULIAN ROBINSON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 05:12 EST, 8 December 2015 | UPDATED: 13:02 EST, 8 December 2015

Changing Middle East Alliances

[From article]
Bibi Netanyahu must know how Chiang Kai-shek felt as he watched his old friend Nixon toasting Mao in Peking.
The Iran nuclear deal is not on the same geostrategic level. Yet both moves, seen as betrayals by old U.S. allies, were born of a cold assessment in Washington of a need to shift policy to reflect new threats and new opportunities.
[. . .]
But as U.S. and Iranian interests converged, those of the U.S. and its old allies — Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey — were diverging.
[. . .]
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown in the Middle East today.
The Israelis, too, see Iran as their great enemy and indispensable pillar of Hezbollah. For Bibi, any U.S.-Iran rapprochement is a diplomatic disaster.
[. . .]
Clearly the United States and Iran have overlapping interests.
Neither wants all-out war with the other.
[. . .]
For Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel all want the Assad regime brought down to break up Iran’s Shiite Crescent and inflict a strategic defeat on Tehran. But the United States believes the fall of Assad means the rise of ISIS and al-Qaida, a massacre of Christians, and the coming to power of a Sunni terrorist state implacably hostile to us.
Look for the Saudis and Israelis, their agents and lobbies, their think tanks and op-ed writers, to begin beating the drums for the United States to bring down Assad,
[. . .]
Any U.S.-Iran rapprochement would be dead, and we will have been sucked into a war to achieve the strategic goals of allies that are in conflict with the national interests of the United States. And our interests come first.

http://buchanan.org/blog/a-mideast-game-of-thrones-16275

A Mideast Game of Thrones
Tuesday - July 21, 2015 at 12:09 am
By Patrick J. Buchanan

What Motivates Military Fighters?

[From article]
Disgusted U.S. military officers say the 1,000 ISIS fighters who overran Ramadi were outnumbered by the defenders 10 to 1.
Why did the Iraqi army run? And what motivated the fighters of ISIS to attack a city whose defenders so vastly outnumbered them?
According to battle reports, the assault began when dozens of captured U.S. armored vehicles and trucks, laden with explosives, were driven by ISIS volunteers to blast huge holes in the defenders’ lines.
[. . .]
In Yemen, the Houthi rebels came down from the north to seize Sanaa, drive the president into exile, occupy Aden, and capture huge stockpiles of American weapons. The U.S.-backed army crumbled.
[. . .]
Tribe and faith. Those are the causes for which Middle Eastern men will fight. Sunni and Shiite fundamentalists will die for the faith. Persians and Arabs will fight to defend their lands, as will Kurds and Turks.
But who among the tribes of the Middle East will fight and die for the secular American values of democracy, diversity, pluralism, sexual freedom and marriage equality?
“Expel the Crusaders from our lands!” — there is a cause to die for.
[. . .]
Murderers and would-be murderers all. But according to a new Al-Jazeera poll, the warriors of the Islamic State have many Muslim admirers.
In Afghanistan, we have fought the Taliban for 13 years. Yet still they fight. And many fear the Afghan army we trained and armed at a cost of tens of billions will disintegrate when we go home.
[. . .]
But if the future belongs to those willing to fight and die for it, or to volunteer to become martyrs, the future of the Middle East would seem fated to be decided by Sunni tribesmen, Shiite militia, ISIS and al-Qaida, Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
In the Middle East, the time of the True Believers appears at hand.

http://buchanan.org/blog/secularists-vs-suicide-bombers-16081

Secularists vs. Suicide Bombers
Friday - May 29, 2015 at 12:42 am
By Patrick J. Buchanan

Can't Tell The Middle East Players Without A Program

[From article]
The forces that do not want a U.S. nuclear deal with Iran, nor any U.S. detente with Iran, are impressive.
Among them are the Israelis and their powerful lobby AIPAC, the Saudis and their Sunni allies on the Persian Gulf, a near unanimity of Republicans and a plurality of Democrats in Congress.
[. . .]
First, the alternative to a truce — breaking off of negotiations, doubling down on demands Iran dismantle all nuclear facilities, tougher sanctions — inevitably leads to war. And we all know it.
[. . .]
Why Iran wants to avoid war is obvious. Given U.S. air, missile and naval power, and cyberwarfare capabilities, a war with the United States would do to Iran what we did to Iraq, smash it up, set it back decades, perhaps break up the country.
Some mullahs may be fanatics, but Iran is not run by fools.
[. . .]
In the war to expel the Islamic State from Iraq, we and Iran are on the same side.
[. . .]
Consider Yemen.
This week, the Saudis sent their air force against the Houthi rebels who had seized the capital of Sanaa, driven out the president, and have now driven south to Aden to take over half of the country.
Why is the Saudi air force attacking the Houthis?
The Houthis belong to a sect close to the Shiite and are supported by Iran.

http://buchanan.org/blog/the-enemy-of-my-enemy-15787

The Enemy of My Enemy
Friday - March 27, 2015 at 1:32 am
By Patrick J. Buchanan

Why Is Fighting Sunni Terrorists, America's Job?

[From article]

There are reasons why Sunni nations like Turkey and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have not committed more openly and decisively to the war on ISIS, and instead prod the Americans to send their troops to eradicate the Islamic State.
To many Sunni nations, Assad and the Shia Crescent of Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut are the greater threat.
Indeed, until recently, as Joe Biden pointed out last October, the Turks, Saudis and United Arab Emirates were providing clandestine aid to ISIS.
Biden was forced to apologize, but he had told the truth.

[. . .]

neither the Turks nor any other Arab nation has volunteered the troops to defeat ISIS in Syria.
And if the Turks and Sunni Arabs are unwilling to put boots on the ground in Syria, why should we? Why should America, half a world away, have to provide those troops rather than nations that are more immediately threatened and have armies near at hand?
Why is defeating 30,000 ISIS jihadists our job, and not theirs?

http://buchanan.org/blog/whose-job-is-it-to-kill-isis-15567

Whose Job Is It to Kill ISIS?
Friday - February 6, 2015 at 1:55 am
By Patrick J. Buchanan

Saudi Arabia Imposes Death Sentence By Crucifixion

[From article]

Nimr Baqer al-Nimr, a reformist cleric, has repeatedly called for an end to corruption and discrimination against minorities. He has a wide following, particularly among young people in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, home to most of the country’s minority Shiites, who are considered heretics by the Sunni-ruled government.
After being imprisoned for nearly two years, al-Nimr appeared in Riyadh’s Specialized Criminal Court Wednesday with his lawyer and two brothers. Charged with terrorism offences and “breaking allegiance to the king,” the judge upheld the country’s harshest sentence — “crucifixion” — where the decapitated body is publicly displayed. His brothers were reportedly detained after the sentencing.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/10/15/saudi_court_sentences_highprofile_shiite_cleric_to_death.html

Saudi Arabia sentences reformist Shiite cleric to ‘crucifixion’
Saudi court sentences iconic Shiite cleric Nimr Baqer Al-Nimr to death, sparking fears of sectarian unrest in region.
By: Shenaz Kermalli

Special to the Star

Published on Wed Oct 15 2014

Brief History of Muslim Religious Divisions

[From article]
The dramatic arrival of Da'ish (ISIS) on the stage of Iraq has shocked many in the West. Many have been perplexed -- and horrified -- by its violence and its evident magnetism for Sunni youth. But more than this, they find Saudi Arabia's ambivalence in the face of this manifestation both troubling and inexplicable,
[. . .]
Many Saudis are deeply disturbed by the radical doctrines of Da'ish (ISIS) -- and are beginning to question some aspects of Saudi Arabia's direction and discourse.
[. . .]

The American author and journalist, Steven Coll, has written how this austere and censorious disciple of the 14th century scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, Abd al-Wahhab, despised "the decorous, arty, tobacco smoking, hashish imbibing, drum pounding Egyptian and Ottoman nobility who travelled across Arabia to pray at Mecca."
In Abd al-Wahhab's view, these were not Muslims; they were imposters masquerading as Muslims. Nor, indeed, did he find the behavior of local Bedouin Arabs much better.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/isis-wahhabism-saudi-arabia_b_5717157.html

Alastair Crooke
Fmr. MI-6 agent; Author, 'Resistance: The Essence of Islamic Revolution'
You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia
Posted: 08/27/2014 11:56 am EDT Updated: 08/28/2014 3:59 pm EDT

Sunnis and Shiites Agree, Death To Jews

[From article]
In the Sunni/Shia regional showdown between ISIS and Teheran's various subsidiaries, the two warring parties agree on little except that dead Jews brighten everyone's day.
[. . .]
The Middle East. It's all very complicated, isn't it? Fatah, Hamas, Hizb'Allah, the Muslim Brothers, ISIS, Alawites... Who can keep track? And why worry your pretty little head about it all when the easy and cool thing to do is blame the Jews?
[. . .]
The post-Christian Euro-left think they've built a secular society where gay marriage and gender fluidity are to be celebrated; significant percentages of young Muslims want to live under Sharia and believe apostasy should be punishable by death.
[. . .]
one issue there is remarkable comity between the aging ethnic Europeans and their young surging Muslim populations: A famous poll a couple of years back found that 59 percent of Europeans regard Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.
[. . .]
The demonstrators-almost all of them of North African or Subsaharan African origin-shouted explicitly anti-Semitic slogans, notably "Itbah al-Yahud!" (Slaughter the Jews, in Arabic.)
[. . .]
Think about what that's like for an octogenarian Jew. When you were in short pants, the mob was all around and the guy with the police megaphone was yelling, "Heil Hitler!" Now the mob's all around and the guy with the police megaphone is yelling, "Allahu Akbar!"
[. . .]
even as synagogues and kosher butchers are besieged and firebombed, the Euro-left will continue to make common cause with the Muslims in blaming the Jews.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0714/steyn072114.php3#.U93MOd0--yN

Jewish World Review

July 21, 2014 / 23 Tammuz, 5774
Finally, a Rare Point of Agreement
By Mark Steyn

Sunni Muslims Continue Atrocities In Iraq

[From article]
beheading of children" and other horrendous crimes committed by ISIS. He said that the Sunni extremists are committing genocide against Christians in Iraq and with the aim to instill the Sharia Law as the law of the land. In the interview with CNN's Jonathan Mann, Chaldean-American businessman Mark Arabo said that the "world hasn't seen an evil like this for generations." "There is a park in Mosul, where [ISIS] they actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick and have them in the park," he explained. "More children are getting beheaded, mothers are getting raped and killed, and fathers are being hung."

http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/52128/20140806/chaldean-christian-leader-isis-systematically-beheading-children-in-iraq.htm#sthash.jmKKU7bU.dpuf


Chaldean Christian leader: ISIS 'Systematically Beheading' Children In Iraq

New York Times Discovers History

Has NYT Discovered history? Is nationalism and culture really alive and well?

But Bahrain’s experience now appears to have been a harbinger of what was to come as centuries old but newly inflamed rivalries between Sunni and Shiite Muslims tear apart much of the region — threatening to erase the borders of states like Syria and Iraq, destabilizing Bahrain and Lebanon, and accelerating a regional contest for power and influence between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.
Scholars and activists say that the sectarian violence gripping the Middle East is not simply the unleashing of religious rivalries once suppressed by the secular autocrats who ruled the region. Instead, they say, the religious resentments have been revived and exploited in a very earthly power struggle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/world/middleeast/power-struggles-in-middle-east-exploit-islams-ancient-sectarian-rift.html?_r=0

Power Struggles in Middle East Exploit Islam’s Ancient Sectarian Rift
New York Times
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

JULY 5, 2014

Extremist Sunni ISIS Not Strong Enough To Control Iraq

[From article]
In locations wherein they’ve been able to raise their flags, it was primarily because of lack of interest and resistance on the part of the local population, which at times even assisted the organization because of the deep resentment against the administration of Nouri al-Maliki, who is perceived as a corrupt tyrant that blatantly discriminates against the Sunni citizens.
[. . .]
It is clear that a force such as this isn’t enough to conquer and administer Baghdad, which the Maliki administration, not to mention its residents, has a fundamental interest in protecting. Furthermore, in actuality, ISIS does not have the ability to fully control the other regions in Iraq, to say nothing of imposing upon the residents the traditional Islamic regime to which they aspire.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/ISIS-Beyond-the-regional-instability-360874

ISIS: Beyond the regional instability
By YORAM SCHWEITZER
06/28/2014 22:58
Since the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria organization, the media has been disseminating an apocalyptic portrayal of the situation.

Obama Needs Congress To Approve Another War in Iraq

[From article]
we may be witnessing the end of Sykes-Picot.
That was the secret 1916 treaty by which the British and French carved up the Ottoman Empire, with the Brits taking Transjordan and Iraq, and the French Syria and Lebanon.
Sykes-Picot stuck in the craw of Osama bin Laden. Now his most fanatical followers have given him a posthumous triumph.
[. . .]
Who wants U.S. troops back in Iraq? The American people do not. Congress does not. Tehran does not. The Shia extremists do not. The Sunnis do not. And ISIS does not.
We would be fighting in a war with enemies in all directions.

http://buchanan.org/blog/make-congress-vote-war-6515

Make Congress Vote on War
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Tuesday - June 24, 2014

Thoughtful Strategy For Iraq

[From article]
No doubt, the Islamophilic administration will want to step in, and save Islam from itself once again. Let me advocate a course of action that will make sense to all sides in America; the left and right; from militarists to pacifists: Let the Muslims kill each other.
After the administration blundered on Benghazi, on the Arab Spring, and Syria, Heaven itself has afforded it one last chance to set itself right. It is almost impossible for the administration to screw it up. All it has to do is nothing.
[. . .]
Let them ask for Russian help, or Chinese assistance. I am sure the Russians and Chinese will be more than happy to make their nations targets for Islamic revenge. Nothing makes Muslim group A angrier than knowing that you have helped Muslim group B. And if the Russians or Chinese do intervene, good for them. Maybe international terrorism will re-direct their wrath eastward. Tell them it will be like the Chechnyans on steroids.
[. . .]
we should encourage all Euro-Muslim males to join the fight, and when they are gone, revoke their right of return to the West. Tell them, Allah Wants You; and send them off with halal meat and enough weapons to keep the Mideast in turmoil for another hundred years.
[. . .]
When the Mideast is a flaming wreck, the administration should encourage Putin or China to intervene. Nothing sinks empires faster than trying to tame the Muslims. We will get out, and avoid our own collapse.
[. . .]
Let the Shia and Sunni kill each other. In the words of the late Mayor Ed Koch, “root for whoever is losing.”

http://americanthinker.com/2014/06/let_them_kill_each_other.html

June 16, 2014
Let Them Kill Each Other
By Mike Konrad

George Bush Anticipated Results of Obama's Policies

[From article]
In 2007, President George W. Bush warned that if America withdrew prematurely from Iraq, American troops would eventually have to return:
To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready … would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous. [EMPHASIS ADDED].

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/06/bush-warned-this-would-happen-in-iraq/

Bush warned this would happen in Iraq
Marc Thiessen

June 12, 2014, 4:09 pm

Shiites and Sunnis Open New War in Iraq

[From article]
It is therefore relying on Iran-backed militias to engage in an ideologically-driven fight to the death of the type the army just ran away from in Mosul.
Iraqi government forces have fought alongside those Shia militias in Samara to defend the shrine and are fortifying Baghdad, Balad and other places.
[. . .]
As many as 500 British citizens have travelled to Syria to join rebel forces fighting President Assad, Security Services fear. Many are feared to have joined Jihadi groups.
The prospect of radicalised and battle-hardened Britons returning from the Syrian front to commit terrorist attacks on British soil are the country’s single biggest security threat, MI6 believes.
[. . .]
ISIS has up to 12,000 fighters. The Peshmerga has up to 190,000. the Iraqi government commands 193,000 troops
[. . .]
Iraq's parliament has failed to reach a quorum, officials told AFP, preventing it from voting on a request to announce a state of emergency to deal with the major jihadist offensive.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10892299/Iraq-crisis-al-Qaeda-militants-push-towards-Baghdad-live.html

Iraq crisis: al-Qaeda militants push towards Baghdad - live
US and UK speak of deep concern as al-Qaeda take swathes of northern Iraq, sparking exodus of Civilians - follow latest developments
By Barney Henderson, Andrew Marszal and Steve Wilson
5:30PM BST 12 Jun 2014

Dissecting The Middle East

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/08/07/pat-buchanan-the-natural-map-of-the-middle-east/

THE NATURAL MAP OF THE MIDDLE EAST
By: Patrick J. Buchanan
8/7/2012 05:22 AM

Legalized Rape?


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97AFVQ00&show_article=1

or

http://tinyurl.com/c9mlan

Critics assail Afghan law that 'legalizes rape'
Apr 2 01:11 PM US/Eastern
By FISNIK ABRASHI
Breitbart.com
Associated Press Writer