by When the Ummah Has Family Drama
In news that surprises absolutely no one who’s paid attention to Middle Eastern history for the past 1,400 years, Muslims are fighting other Muslims again, continuing a tradition as old as Islam itself and proving that religious unity is a beautiful concept that works much better in theory than in practice. The latest sectarian conflict involves disputes over theology, territorial control, and apparently which country makes the best hummus, though that last one might just be a contributing factor.
The conflict, which erupted last month in a region we’re legally required to describe as “complex,” centers on fundamental differences between groups who agree on approximately 95% of their religious beliefs but have decided that remaining 5% is worth decades of violence. “We worship the same God, revere the same prophet, read the same holy book, but they pray with their hands in the wrong position,” explained one militant, gesturing with a Kalashnikov for emphasis. “This cannot stand.”
Western observers have expressed confusion about why people who share so much common ground continue killing each other, displaying the kind of historical amnesia that conveniently forgets about Protestant-Catholic violence, which only ended in Ireland relatively recently. “It’s complicated,” explained Dr. Fatima Hassan, a scholar of Islamic studies who spends most of her time explaining to Westerners that Muslim-on-Muslim violence is neither uniquely Islamic nor particularly surprising given how humans generally behave. “Every religion has this problem. Muslims just happen to be going through their version right now, and they have oil, so everyone pays attention.”
The current conflict features the usual cast of characters: Saudi Arabia and Iran engaging in proxy warfare while pretending they’re not, various militias fighting for control of resources while claiming divine mandate, and a bunch of foreign powers selling weapons to everyone while expressing deep concern about regional stability. According to United Nations conflict documentation, this pattern has repeated so consistently that analysts have developed a bingo card for Middle Eastern conflicts. Current squares include “sectarian violence,” “oil interests,” “historical grievances from the 7th century,” and “America somehow involved despite promising not to be.”
The theological differences at the heart of many Muslim-versus-Muslim conflicts often baffle outsiders, who can’t understand why the identity of Muhammad’s rightful successor 1,400 years ago matters enough to justify modern warfare. “It’s not about the history,” explained one Shia scholar. “It’s about what the history represents.” When pressed on what it represents, he gave a 45-minute answer that essentially boiled down to “it’s complicated and also those other guys are wrong.”
Sunni-Shia tensions, the most prominent intra-Muslim conflict, have escalated from theological disagreement to full-scale warfare in multiple countries, proving that humans can weaponize literally anything if given enough time and resources. The split, which occurred shortly after Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, has resulted in 1,393 years of arguments over who should have been in charge, making it possibly the longest-running disagreement in human history aside from debates about the correct pronunciation of “gif.”
The situation is further complicated by the fact that most Muslims just want to live their lives in peace but keep getting caught between extremist factions who insist their interpretation of Islam is the only correct one. “I just want to run my shop and feed my family,” said Ahmad, a shopkeeper in Baghdad who declined to give his last name for safety reasons. “But every few years, someone shows up claiming God told them I’m not Muslim enough and I need to choose sides. God never told me anything about this. I’ve asked.”
According to research on global Muslim populations, the vast majority of Muslims worldwide are more concerned with everyday problems like employment, education, and healthcare than with fighting each other over theological minutiae. However, this majority is consistently drowned out by well-armed minorities who have convinced themselves that violence is spiritually mandated.
Western interventions have consistently made things worse, as foreign powers keep backing different sides while claiming to promote stability. “We’re trying to bring peace to the region,” explained one Western diplomat while approving another arms sale. “By selling weapons to multiple sides and hoping they achieve balance through mutual destruction. It’s called realpolitik.” When asked if this strategy has ever worked, he replied, “Define ‘worked.'”
The conflict has created bizarre situations where Muslims in one country send aid to Muslims in another country while simultaneously funding militias that fight Muslims in a third country. The contradictions are only explainable through a combination of geopolitics, historical grievances, economic interests, and the human capacity for cognitive dissonance so profound it could be classified as a superpower.
Peace initiatives have been launched by various international organizations, all featuring the same basic formula: bring opposing sides together, let them yell at each other for a few days, issue a joint statement about “commitment to dialogue,” and then watch as nothing changes. One peace negotiator, speaking anonymously after their seventeenth failed mediation attempt, said, “At this point, I think they prefer fighting to the alternative of admitting they’ve wasted decades on grievances that no longer make sense to anyone under 70.”
As the conflicts continue, the global Muslim community remains divided between those actively fighting, those trying to make peace, and the overwhelming majority just trying to live normal lives while everyone else argues about who represents “true Islam.” The irony that the religion literally means “peace” is not lost on anyone, except apparently the people doing the fighting.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/muslims-fighting-muslims/
SOURCE: Muslims Fighting Muslims (Aisha Muharrar)
