We’ve been sold this line for a long time – that the violence raging across the Levant, most obviously in Syria and Iraq, is of a sectarian nature. It is Sunni against Shia, Muslims against fellow Muslims and non-Muslim minority religious groups, and as such is something we ‘Westerners’ can’t be expected to understand.
In Iraq’s case, this narrative has now been coupled with one suggesting that the US pulled out of Iraq too soon. If only US army had held its ground in Baghdad all would be joy and peace!
Both narratives are equally ridiculous!
As Mahdi Nazemroaya makes clear in the Mint News interview below, trying to understand political alliances and conflicts in the Levant along purely sectarian lines is entirely misleading. Iran, Syria and Hezbollah didn’t form an alliance because they all share a common faith. If it was all about religious tribalism how did Russia squeeze its way into the mix?
These countries are allies because they share common political goals. Conversely, those countries in the region who are working for their destruction (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, etc.) do so to further their own political ambitions.
The sectarian whitewash is a propaganda technique aimed at masking the all too obvious motivating forces of money and power that are driving all the players in the region, from the US on down.
Perhaps one day soon the media will blame Australia’s treatment of refugees on the fact that it has a Catholic government.
Father Dave