User:Riyadh Al-Hakim/sandbox

The Shia Introduction In the name of Allah, the All-compassionate, the All-merciful “O mankind! Indeed, We created you from a male and a fe-male, and made you nations and tribes that you may identify yourselves with one another. Indeed the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most God wary among you. Indeed Allah is all-knowing, all-aware.” (Quran, 49:13). “Indeed those who have faith and do righteous deeds—it is they who are the best of men.” (Quran, 98:7). In reference to faithful and righteous of this verse, the Prophet said to Imam Ali, “They are you and your Shia.” Since the dawn of time, mankind has endured the tyranny of dictators and braved the consequences of discrimination and prejudice – be it religious, national, racial or ethnic. With the progression and advancement of humanity, culturally and economically, intellectuals projected the gradual decline of despotic regimes along with the discriminative policies orchestrated by those in power. Nonetheless, genocide and terrorism have still prevailed to this day. Iraq is a particular example of being ravaged by such senseless oppression and tyranny. The mass murder of innocent civilians carried out by Saddam Hussein’s dictator regime and the extremist Salafist organizations that terrorized the Iraqi people since his fall are still vivid in the hearts of Muslims across the world. Oppressive movements like these, with the consideration of today’s day and age, became a deep concern for all those affected in and outside the region. Discussions on religious extremism and combating terrorism have taken a front row seat in political, social, economic, and religious dialogue across the globe. Unfortunately, Islam is often the target of finger pointing by some pundits who are quick to associate the terrorists with the religion itself simply because the terrorists claim that their actions are in Islam’s name. In contrast, impartial observers have noted the resurgence of the Shia, specifically after the fall of Saddam’s oppressive re-gime in Iraq. Despite a long history of suffering, oppression, and persecution prior to, during and after the fall of Saddam’s brutal regime in 2003, judiciousness and moderation have re-mained prominent characteristics of the Shia jurists in Najaf, Iraq. The rise of Shia Islam has since become a hot topic of research and dialogue in various circles amongst researchers, intellectuals and think tanks. Thus, to add to this dialogue the idea for this book was born, to briefly introduce Shia Islam – its beliefs, culture and history – from three dimensions: 1.	The Shia Identity 2.	Persecution and Oppression 3.	Prospects for the Future In addition to this book serving as an introduction to Shia Islam, the reader should note several key points: 1.	The existence of various schools of thought within Islam today is fundamentally due to differing views and understandings of the religion, its principles and its teachings, from its earliest days. This disparity is not limited to a few ritual practices; rather, there exist significant differences in some of the most foundational principles of Islam and its primary teachings. This reality was clearly evident during the Umayyad Empire, a dynasty that reigned for over a hundred years commencing only 50 years after the Prophet’s death. Umayyad rule was responsible for many of the negative ra-mifications on various social and theological values integral to Islam. Moreover, it is misguided to burden Islam with the responsibility of the practices of a fringe element that proclaim themselves to be Muslim when their actions directly oppose the true teachings of Islam practiced by the over-whelming majority of Muslims around the world. 2.	Shia, who represent a sizable portion of Mus-lims worldwide, have systematically been the victims of terrorism in all of the countries where terrorists are known to be active, most prominently Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The animosity terrorists hold against Shia started long before the clash of interests between Western countries and terrorist groups. 3.	The suffering Shia endured through genocide and terrorism has been common not only in modern times but throughout history as well. Historically, Shia have long been subjected to campaigns of terrorism and genocide at the hands of ruthless rulers and extremist groups. This book will briefly touch on some of these cases. 4.	Most genocidal practices have happened, and continue to happen, through the careful planning or initiation of oppressors who do not adhere to any religion. Their tactics include compelling those in power and/or leveraging extremist groups to execute their plans. Today, terrorists are provided with great financial and logistical capabilities along with immense media coverage by oppressive dictator regimes pulling the necessary strings behind the scenes. 5.	The Shia’s steadfastness in the face of persecu-tion and genocidal campaigns is primarily due to the nature of their ideological and cultural foun-dation. These structures are built firmly on commonly held values such as patience, perseverance, discipline, logic, and above all, a culture of peaceful coexistence. 6.	The independence of the Shia religious establishment, particularly in Najaf, from the influence of governments and dictatorships, despite the heavy price paid for that independence, is worthy of serious study. Such a study will help us learn and save religious institutions from the control of authoritarian regimes and their attempts to expedite their plans through those institutions in the name of the religion. In conclusion, I pray that I have succeeded through this humble work towards the overall goal of the Quran, that of bringing nations and societies together. “O mankind! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you nations and tribes that you may identify yourselves with one another. Indeed the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most God wary among you. Indeed Allah is all-knowing, all-aware.” (Quran, 49:13) I pray for the day when truth, justice and peace reign.

Riyadh Al-Hakeem 3/29/1432 AH; 2/3/2011 AD