Re: Egypt: Salafis protest against establishing ties with Iran because it's Shia
Well thats the point.. they're not safe in the gulf. They are oppressed and being killed/arrested for being shias. That is not happening in iran. Neither to sunnis or shias. What part of that is too hard to understand?
Okay I'll take your words for it. No oppression in Iran at all, right.
Now why is Iran supporting the Syrian government against the Sunnis?
Iran is supporting bashar al Assad, and US is supporting salafis.....both are supporting violence. Hence I don't think Iran is better than US, or salafis in this case.
Okay I'll take your words for it. No oppression in Iran at all, right.
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No.. Please dont take my word for it. Widen your news source, and read up on the situations of shias in qatif who are protesting daily, their homes raided, leaders arrested, the teenagers shot at; then honestly compare with iran.
Theres simply no excuse for ignorance in this day and age.
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Now why is Iran supporting the Syrian government against the Sunnis?
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You are assuming alot of things incorrectly here.
1) that all sunnis are against him: there are sunnis who are also pro assad, along with other faiths and sects. So his support is not exclusive or sectarian based. He is secular type.
2) that iran is supporting assad because he is shia. Wrong simply because iran would do so with any friendly neighbour regardless of wether it was a sunni or shia.. And thats exactly why its seeking warm relations with egypt.. And hence why the saudis and salafis are getting all twisted out of shape.
Assad is simply a (secular) neighbour with a history of good ties with iran.
iran is not hung up on sects ( unlike the arabs) as that would mean isolation that it cant afford ( albeit the arabs and west are trying hard).
3) iran is not supporting the violence in syria, they have repeatedly called for dialogue and peaceful election. It is the americans, Israelis, turkey and gulf arabs who are instigating and prolonging the violence, by training and financing the rebels, most of whom they were fighting in afganistan, and iraq, by the name of al qaeda and terrorists. Funny how they are all pals now. Two faces of the same coin imo.
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Iran is supporting bashar al Assad, and US is supporting salafis.....both are supporting violence. Hence I don't think Iran is better than US, or salafis in this case.
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One group (saudi/US group) is financing and training the rebels to bomb and maim, whilst the other is supporting dialogue and election. I believe theres a vast difference in the two.
Re: Egypt: Salafis protest against establishing ties with Iran because it’s Shia
Do you honestly think that it’s only the Saudi/US group who are fighting against the Syrian regime? I found a list of so many different groups on wiki…so I think it’s much more complicated than just US/Saudi against Assad/Iran.
[ul]
[li]The Syrian National Council is a coalition of Syrian opposition groups based in Istanbul, Turkey that was formed in 2011 during the Syrian civil war.[SUP][7][/SUP][SUP][8][/SUP]Key people are current chairman George Sabra and ex chairmen Burhan Ghalioun and Abdulbaset Sieda.[/li][LIST]
[li]Muslim Brotherhood: Islamist party founded in 1930. The brotherhood was behind the Islamic uprising in Syria between 1976 until 1982. The party is banned in Syria and membership became a capital offence in 1980. The regime of Bashar al Assad and others have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of being key players in the Syrian uprising that escalated into a civil war.[SUP][9][/SUP][SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP] Other sources have described the group as having “risen from the ashes”,[SUP][12][/SUP] “resurrected itself”[SUP][13][/SUP] to be a dominant force in the uprising.[SUP][14][/SUP] Current leader is Ali Sadreddine Al-Bayanouni.[/li][li]Coalition of Secular and Democratic Syrians: nucleus of a Syriansecular and democratic opposition that appeared during the Syrian civil war. It was created by the union of a dozen Muslim and Christian, Arab and Kurd parties, who called the minorities of Syria to support the fight against the regime ofBashar al-Assad.[SUP][12][/SUP][SUP][15][/SUP] The Coalition has also called for military intervention in Syria, under the form of a no-fly zone similar to that of Kosovo, with a safe zone and cities.[SUP][16][/SUP][SUP][17][/SUP] The president of the coalition, who is also a member of the Syrian National Council, is Randa Kassis.[SUP][18][/SUP][SUP][19][/SUP][SUP][20][/SUP][SUP][21][/SUP][/li][li]Damascus Declaration: Opposition bloc from 2005. Twelve members were sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in 2008. Syrian journalist and activist Michel Kilo launched the declaration, after the Syrian writer and thinker Abdulrazak Eid had written its first draft. Riad Seif, another democracy activist, was the first signatory.[SUP][22][/SUP] The “five small opposition groups” signing the declaration were the Arab nationalist National Democratic Rally, the Kurdish Democratic Alliance, the Committees of Civil Society, the Kurdish Democratic Front and the Movement of the Future.[SUP][23][/SUP] The Movement for Justice and Development in Syria (MJD) also subscribes to the Damascus Declaration.[SUP][24][/SUP] In a series of splits 2007-2009, most members left the Damascus Declaration, leaving the MJD and SDPP (see below) as the only remaining factions of any consequence, along with a number of independents.[/li][li]Syrian Democratic People’s Party: A socialist party which played a “key role” in the creation of the SNC.[SUP][25][/SUP] The party’s leader George Sabra (a secularist born to a Christian family) is the official spokesman of the SNC, and also ran for chairman.[SUP][26][/SUP][/li][li]Supreme Council of the Syrian Revolution: Syrian opposition group supporting the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad’s government. It grants local opposition groups representation in its national organization.[/li][/ul]
[li]Local Coordination Committees of Syria: Network of local protest groups that organise and report on protests as part of the Syrian civil war, founded in 2011.[SUP][27][/SUP][SUP][28][/SUP] As of August 2011, the network supported civil disobedience and opposed local armed resistance and international military intervention as methods of opposing the Syrian government.[SUP][29][/SUP] Key people are activistsRazan Zaitouneh and Suhair al-Atassi.[SUP][30][/SUP][/li][li]Free Syrian Army & Higher Military Council: Paramilitary that has been active during the Syrian civil war.[SUP][31][/SUP][SUP][32][/SUP] Composed mainly of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel,[SUP][33][/SUP][SUP][34][/SUP][SUP][34][/SUP] its formation was announced on 29 July 2011 in a video released on the internet by a uniformed group of deserters from the Syrian military who called upon members of the Syrian army to defect and join them.[SUP][35][/SUP] The leader of the group, who identified himself as Colonel Riad al-Asaad, announced that the Free Syrian Army would work with demonstrators to bring down the system, and declared that all security forces attacking civilians are justified targets.[SUP][36][/SUP][SUP][37][/SUP] It has also been reported that many former Syrian Consulates are trying to band together a Free Syrian Navy from fishermen and defectors to secure the coast.[SUP][38][/SUP][/li][ul]
[li]Al-Tawhid Brigade: an armed group of the Free Syrian Army active in the Battle of Aleppo.[/li][li]Liwaa al-Umma: a paramilitary group fighting against the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war. The group was previously led by Mahdi Al-Harati, an Irish-Libyan who led Libyan rebel Tripoli Brigade during the Battle of Tripoli. In September 2012 it came under command of the Free Syrian Army.[/li][/ul]
[li]Other opposition groups[/li] This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
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[li]National Coordination Committee for the Forces of Democratic Change (NCC or NCB, for National Coordination Bureau): Syrian opposition bloc chaired by Hassan Abdel Azim[SUP][39][/SUP]consisting of about 13 mostly left-leaning political parties and independent political activists, including three Kurdish political parties, and youth activists, operating within Syria and abroad.[SUP][40][/SUP]The NCC gathers a large proportion of the secular political parties in the pre-revolutionary Syrian dissident movement, mainly leftists and Arab nationalists. Many of its leaders are veteran dissidents, some of them famous former prisoners of conscience. It was the first major coalition formed during the revolution, in summer 2011. It was originally considered a chief rival of the SNC, and portrayed itself as Syria’s “internal opposition” (in contrast to the exile-backed SNC), but it has lost influence as the conflict has become more militarized.[/li][LIST]
[li]National Democratic Rally: Banned opposition alliance formed in 1980 comprising five political parties of a secularist, pan-Arabist, Arab nationalist and socialist bent; Democratic Arab Socialist Union, Syrian Democratic People’s Party, Arab Revolutionary Workers Party, Movement of Arab Socialists, Democratic Socialist Arab Ba’ath Party. In 2006, Communist Labour Party joined the coalition. The Rally originally signed the Damascus Declaration, but most members later split from the group. Among the Rally parties, only the SDPP is now active in the SNC, while most others have joined the NCC, a rival opposition alliance.[/li][/ul]
[li]Syrian Revolution General Commission: Syrian coalition of 40 Syrian opposition groups to unite their efforts during the Syrian civil war that was announced on 19 August 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.[SUP][41][/SUP][/li][li]Syrian National Democratic Council: formed in Paris on 13 November 2011 during the Syrian civil war by Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of Bashar al-Assad. Rifaat al-Assad has expressed wishes to replace Bashar al-Assad with the authoritarian state apparatus intact, and guarantee the safety of regime members, while also making vague allusions to a “transition”.[SUP][42][/SUP][/li][li]Syrian Liberation Army: an armed insurgent group fighting against the Syrian government in the Idlib province of Syria.[SUP][43][/SUP] It is a loose coalition of localized forces, mostly composed of armed Syrian civilians who have joined the uprising.[SUP][44][/SUP][/li][li]Syrian Liberation Front: Formed in Syria in September-October 2012, the Front brings together numerous armed Islamist Brigades active in the Syrian civil war, under the command of Suquor al-Sham commander Ahmed Abu Issa. The Front aims to establish a state with an Islamic reference.[SUP][45][/SUP][/li][li]Syrian Islamic Front: Formed in Syria on 21 December 2012, the Front brings together 11 armed Islamist rebel groups including Ahrar al-Sham, with the aim of overthrowing the Syrian Government and establishing an Islamic state. [SUP][46][/SUP][SUP][47][/SUP] Many of the Islamist groups are more radical than those that make up the Front to Liberate Syria.[/li][li]National Salvation Front in Syria: Founded in 2005 by former vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam who was exiled to Belgium, not a member of the SNC but supportive of its goals.[/li][/LIST]
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The fact that ‘sunnis’ are the main in opposition is not the point. They are the majority in the country, so that much is a given. But the fact that they are not all against assad, (and the ones that are, are not all supporting the violent rebellion either.. ) goes to show his support base is not sectarian based… It is a mixture from all background.
The sectarian narrative of a shia leader against sunni pop. is false and sold in the media solely for the reason to establish sectarianism where it didnt exist before… Simply with the reason to de-stabilise and destroy a country.
Syria was a secular country; with little hint of sectarian issues that we see in countries like pakistan, bahrain or saudi. If people had an issue, it was with the lack of democracy as opposed to anything else. And that is what the public initially came out for.
What they didnt bet on was the the saudi funded rebels in syria. the al qaeda groups, and west, turkey israel gulf arabs ( who ironically always disliked syria for their friendly ties with iran and hizbullah) sticking their oars in and hijacking their cause so eagerly, so spectacularly that the narrative turned on its head and all main intents, spirit and purpose was killed and buried beneath.
These ‘well wishers’ had been waiting for so long to get into syria., this was where their sole window of opportunity.
Please learn from iraq, how they instigated sectarianism to divide and destabilise a whole country. The narrative initially was poor oppressed shias by cruel sunnis.
Saddam was sunni yes, but his enemies was anyone who opposed his leadership, and the shias happened to be in the majority, ( there were so called shias in his gov).
But Saddam himself was secular, detesting religious ppl on both sides, however the official narrative took on a sectarian one, of sunni against shia as opposed to a dictator against its population. The media lapped it up and sold it over and over.
Surprise surprise, the west were itching to invade again to ‘save’ the poor shias (funny how they get blinkered on bahrain) and find the wmd, the arabs publicly opposed the invasion, yet they detested saddam and privately provided the logistics for the west, but it was iran that refused to support the invasion despite being the main (albeit unexpected) beneficiary…
They refused not least because of the expected collateral damage and destruction, but also because the last thing they wanted was the hostile west (axis of evil crap) setting up camp in its neighbourhood, and an unstable iraq with alqaeda on the run …yes they wanted saddam gone but def. not in this fashion. They didnt see anything good from the invasion at the time.
But look how fast iraq deteriorated into chaos, with people who were living together peacefully, intermarrying etc. to turning against each other to this day.
Now the shias are in power, the narrative in iraq has changed to the oppressed sunnis and oppresser shia.. Whilst the sectarian killings and bombings are still on going, on a daily basis.
They would not support saddam no, but they didnt support the invasions either. And if Assad had been as hostile as saddam, he would have been kept at arms length.
Bottom line is; it doesnt matter who is leading syria, iran would rather be on good terms and prefer peace than violence. If it was so hung up on sectarian issues, why is she trying to seek relations with sunni egypt, whilst saudi/arabs and salafis are dead against it? It is quite obvious who has the sectarian beef here, and it def. isnt iran.
So tell me, why haven’t any of these 50,000 strong force gone in to bahrain?
If this was about shia and sunni as you claim, where is the same military support for bahrain?
The shias are a majority in bahrain after all and and are relatively powerless compared to assad in syria, they would be the priority… But iran supporting their unarmed protest, even though many outside wish it was opposite, goes to show their policy is of restraint.
Still… the link you have posted quotes an israeli general throughout, who seems to be espousing his fears or agenda as opposed to reality.
Do you honestly think that it's only the Saudi/US group who are fighting against the Syrian regime? I found a list of so many different groups on wiki....so I think it's much more complicated than just US/Saudi against Assad/Iran.
No i mention them as a group, but saudi/west/ turkey/gulf / israelis are main financiers, trainers pulling the strings behind the curtains. They are establishing a narrative they want, including the chemical warfare...etc and the media is playing the same game it did with iraq whilst the people are lapping it up again. History is simply repeating itself...