Prior to the invasion of Iraq, did you ever hear of mosques being bombed? Or Sunni and Shia clashes?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.daily.pk/world/middle-east/83-middle-east/3912-america-never-invaded-iraq-to-bring-peace.html

America never invaded Iraq to bring peace

Prior to the American invasion of Iraq, did you ever hear of mosques being bombed? Or Sunni and Shia clashes?

Many copies of the Holy Qur’an were destroyed when mosques were bombed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prior to the American invasion of Iraq, did you ever hear of mosques being bombed? Or Sunni and Shia clashes?

Have you ever heard of divide and rule?

America never invaded Iraq to bring peace and stability, just the complete opposite.

As long as the Americans occupy Iraqi land, the Iraqis will continue fighting until their lands are free from their occupiers!

[malaise]

1. Bingo

Chaos theory is very profitable.

[Squatch]

2. Clashes between Sunnis and Shias have been occuring since 632AD

[CJCRANE]

3. It isn't some kind of general on-going war

as some seem to imagine (just like the Protestant vs Catholic schism isn't).

[riderinthestorm]

6. Actually, I think it has been an on-going low level war

that at times has flared hot, for centuries. I've been involved in women's issues for a couple of decades and first heard about the bitter enmity that exists between the two groups via RAWA - the women's group that tracks events in Afghanistan. This has been a historically bad conflict for a loooooonnnggggg time.

I can't say anything about bombing of mosques - I hadn't heard about that sort of stuff specifically - but I'd guess that's not a new technique either.

Saddam repressed the Shia pretty brutally. We didn't hear about it cause we're Americans but that doesn't mean it wasn't happening.

I think the OP's point reflects American indifference to global events rather than any attempt to portray the Sunni/Shia as some kind of happy family before we invaded Iraq.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Intermarriage between the different sects in Iraq used to be common

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/73103/

The Myth of Sectarian Violence in Iraq

By Dahr Jamail, International Socialist Review. Posted January 8, 2008.

If the U.S. leaves Iraq, the violent sectarianism between the Sunni and Shia will worsen. This is what Republicans and Democrats alike will have us believe. This key piece of rhetoric is used to justify the continuance of the occupation of Iraq.

This propaganda, like others of its ilk, gains ground, substance, and reality due largely to the ignorance of those ingesting it. The snow job by the corporate media on the issue of sectarianism in Iraq has ensured that the public buys into the line that the Sunni and Shia will dice one another up into little pieces if the occupation ends.

It may be worthwhile to consider that prior to the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq there had never been open warfare between the two groups and certainly not a civil war. In terms of organization and convention, Iraqis are a tribal society and some of the largest tribes in the country comprise Sunni and Shia. Intermarriages between the two sects are not uncommon either.

Large mixed neighborhoods were the norm in Baghdad. Sunni and Shia prayed in one another's mosques. Secular Iraqis could form lifelong associations with others without overt concern about their chosen sect. How did such a well-integrated society erupt into vicious fighting, violent sectarianism, and segregated neighborhoods? How is one to explain the millions in Iraq displaced from their homes simply because they were the wrong sect in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Back in December 2003 Sheikh Adnan, a Friday speaker at his mosque, had recounted a recent experience to me. During the first weeks of the occupation, a U.S. military commander had showed up in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province located roughly twenty-five miles northeast of Baghdad with a mixed Sunni-Shia population. He had asked to meet with all the tribal and religious leaders. On the appointed day the assembled leaders were perplexed when the commander instructed them to divide themselves, "Shia on one side of the room, Sunni on the other."

[global1]

4. Yeah - Maybe - But I Think Saddam Hussain Put A Big Damper On That......

this is why it was so important for *Co to take out Saddam.

[Malikshah]

10. Wrong. This "conflict" has not been going on since 632 CE

Not in the least.

Hugh Kennedy's "The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates" is a decent college-level textbook on the subject.

Numerous other's abound-- Madelung's the Succession to Muhammad, MGS Hodgson's Venture of Islam trilogy. Lapidus' History of Islamic Societies.

As for books that focus on the specific issues, Momem's History of Shi'i Islam.

All these works and some basic research show that there have not been "clashes" ongoing between Sunni Muslims and Shi'a Muslims since 632. Occasional conflict, uprisings, riots, etc. yes, but overall it is not some Hatfield-McCoy style feud.

[eShirl]

5. only in a song by THE Clash. n/t

[JackRiddler]

7. And who says who's doing which bombing?

There were hundreds of incidents, but the key in getting what is now termed the "civil war" going was the series of horrific bombings on Shi'a gatherings and mosques attributed by the US to "Al Qaeda in Iraq" under "Al Zarqawi," neither of which existed necessarily in the way described by the propaganda. "Al Qaeda in Iraq" was trotted out as a coming threat in the US propaganda before a single attack was attributed to it. Then, for nearly two years, every attack was attributed to it.

The US arms different factions in the current conflict and effectively sponsors the death squads of the Interior Ministry.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. I read this wrong. Misquitoes being bombed? Well, yes.

I don't know about the bombing but this stuff has been going on nonstop since the beginning of time. Seems like everyone is against everyone else and has been for generations and generations.

I was reading a book on Biblical archeology about the razing of the Temple in Jerusalem in about 70. That was so incredibly awful that it took my breath away. The Romans were crucifying about 500 Jews a day. Thousands and thousands more were just slaughtered. And the rest were starving. About 17,000 were sent off to work the Egyptian mines. They figure about 1.1 million Jews died before it was all over. And that was before there were Muslims. Later it all got even worse.

And that was just one incidence. The history of that area is just a very violent one.