CAIR Event on Sunni Shia Relations
The Council on American-Islamic Relations held an event with Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr on the topic “Shias, Sunnis, and the Future of U.S. Relations with the Muslim World.”
I attended the event this morning and I walked away quite impressed. While he did not speak exactly on topic, Dr. Nasr gave an overview to Shiism and was rather candid when discussing the roots of some of the mistrust (and violence) against Shias today.
Some highlights:
- He said that Shias number 14%-15% worldwide but that that number does not reflect the geographic distribution of where Shias live. He said from
- He made reference to the notion that Persians are always Shias and Arabs are always Sunni. I appreciated how he said that the terms Sunni and Shia were and are fluid. Some entire communities that are now Shia were once Sunni and vice versa.
- He applauded Ayatullah Sistani for his leadership and criticized
- I asked a question if sectarian violence in
Email CAIR to applaud them for a great event: cair@cair-net.org
2 Comments:
I had the honor of sitting next to Zahir at this lecture. Dr. Nasr made one other interesting point worth mentioning...and that is what impact a Shia dominated Arab government in the heart of the Middle East would have on the greater Sunni Arab world. In Washington DC the discussion of Sunni-Shia relations focuses on how much they will fight each other. However, in his comments Dr. Nasr said that a Shia Iraq (if it is stable, of couse) could have a very positive impact on its neighbors from an intellectual standpoint because for the first time in many generations, the Sunni Arab scholarly community will have a rival in its Shia counterparts. This rivalry will likely illuminate the weaknesses in the Sunni system, that since very early times, has been coopted by the caliph/state. In the shia world, the scholars had largely remained independent of the state and as a result have remained far more critical of institutions. At least this is how I interpreted what he had to say on the topic.
Hallo... Bengal to Japan virtually no shias? Humm... there are shias in Burma. There used to be a huge community many moons ago.
-zensufi-
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