Deciphering Islam's Sectarian Hatreds

"The best weapon against ISIL is good governance and inclusiveness."
"Military operations are a key component in defeating ISIL, but ultimately only political reconciliation and government inclusiveness will determine Iraq's stability and Iraq's future."
"Further, a lasting resolution to the crisis requires a supportive regional environment, where Iraq's neighbours support these goals of reconciliation and inclusiveness."
Department of Foreign Affairs memorandum, Ottawa

"[Canada has] heightened its engagement with regional leaders and we'll continue to work closely with them."
"Canada is pursuing a multi-faceted approach in the face of this crisis [unfolding in Iraq and Syria with the spread of Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham territory]."
"But the fact remains that in responding to this threat, Canada stands at a crossroads of history. We can either stand on the sidelines, or take real and measured actions."
Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson, Ottawa

"Does every Sunni family that pledges allegiance to ISIL to save their daughters from rape count as an ISIL member? And as horrible as ISIL is to our eyes, the Assad regime and Shia-backed militias are just as bad, if not worse."
"I have no problem with bombing the hell out of ISIL, but what comes after? The Harper government likes moral clarity, but in this situation, that doesn't exist. And short-term liberation of ISIL territory is actually a long-term problem."
Middle East expert Bessma Momani, University of Waterloo

Khalid Mohammed—AP Iraqi security forces prepare to attack ISIS's positions in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, Iraq, on March 26, 2015

Certainly that memorandum cited above speaks in simplistic terms toward the single most vexing problem in Islam today; the vitriolic, bitter and violent hatred and suspicion leading to conflict, between the two main sects of Islam; Shiite and Sunni. The spread of Shiite hegemony is the fulcrum of the Islamic Republic of Iran's threatening push to confront the Sunni majority with the superiority of Shiite Islam's legitimacy to lead the Islamic world. Direct lineage from Mohammad is their authority.

For a Canadian intelligence and diplomatic agency to state the obvious as though solving the thousand-year schism and hostility between the sects in Islam can be readily accomplished through the simple expedient of dialogue and reasonable accommodation with each side respecting the other's perspective when the perspectives themselves represent a hurdle that Islamic scholars themselves have been unable to breach, represents the height of simple-mindedness.

What is seen as an approachable solution to Western minds accustomed to the solving of misunderstandings and dilemmas through serious dialogue with a view of ending a stalemate, is to the Eastern mind resolutely invested in the Bedouin tribal, ethnic, clan customs of conflict solving disputes, capable of resolution only through bloodshed, where the last remaining belligerents to a huge conflict can claim victory.

The point that Bessma Momani made tellingly enough, is that there does not exist a 'good' or a 'reasonable' side, against an 'unreasonable' and 'bad' side, each of the belligerents is equally capable of mounting horrendously atrocious attacks on the other, and those that suffer are usually the civilian populations, as the millions of Sunni Syrians who have streamed out of Syria under attack of the Baathist Alawite regime can testify.

Analysts and regional experts identify the fact that ISIL has drawn its strength from the resentful attitudes of the Sunni Muslims in both Iraq and Syria who have ample reason to believe themselves having been short-changed in civil and human rights by the governing Shiite minorities. Not that the reverse doesn't occur in Sunni-majority countries, disenfranchising their Shiite minorities, but that is the case in point; the irreconcilable sectarian differences in Islam and the Middle East in particular.

Iraq's government relies on Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias to help in its battle against ISIS. The concern is what the outcome is likely to be once those Shiite militias penetrate sufficiently into ISIS-held territory and wreak vengeance on the Sunni population living there. With Canada preparing to extend its mission alongside the U.S.-led coalition with its air bombings of ISIS positions, now to include missions over Syria, the fear is that in so doing, Syria's regime will be a major beneficiary.

Canada views both Iran and Syria as loathsome in their barbaric interpretation of civil law through the lens of a fascist, totalitarian Islamism. And in the case of Iran, the foremost country now in support of terrorist groups and the exportation abroad of terror attacks, all the more so. The very thought of an international mission whose purpose it is to defeat the death-and-martyrdom cult of Sunni Islamic State, ending up benefiting the death-and-martyrdom cult of Shiite Iran is anathema.

A conundrum that goes as far as any other vexing problem arising out of intervention in Middle East affairs where Byzantine intrigues, ancient hostilities and surprisingly unexpected turn of events take place at dizzying speed in a geography volcanic in its eruptions of violent hostilities and mass slaughters reflecting allegiance to a faith whose followers insist it is a religion of peace.