Zionism-Imperialism after igniting civil war among Muslims: Analyst A prominent analyst and Imam of Washington D.C Islamic Center tells Press TV that the Zionist-Imperialist axis seek to ignite a kind of Sunni-Shiite civil war among the Muslims at a time when Muslim Ummah needs unity to free the Palestinian lands. The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned against the conspiracies of the global hegemonic powers to divert the tide of the popular Islamic Awakening in the region. In his annual message to 2012 Hajj Pilgrims on Thursday, the Leader lauded the popular uprisings and revolutions across the Arab countries as “one of the most crucial issues of the Muslim world” and noted, “If Muslims let go this great opportunity without using it to reform the Islamic Ummah, they would incur great losses.” “The aggressive and interventionist arrogant powers are making every effort to divert the course of these significant Islamic movements,” Imam Khamenei pointed out. Press TV has interviewed Muhammaed al-Asi, Imam of Washington D.C Islamic Center from Washington to shed more light on the issue at hand. He is joined by two additional guests: Imam of Masjid al-Islam Abdul Alim Musa from Washington and the Beirut-based Political Analyst Ibrahim Mousawi. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview. Press TV: One of the quotes by Iran’s leader, “Muslims must be aware of enemy plots aimed at derailing the uprisings that toppled dictators in the region.” Your thoughts on that in which he also accused the United States and Israel fomenting divisions among Muslims to undermine the Islamic uprisings across the Middle East? al-Asi: Yes, my understanding of the statements by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Republic is obviously in the context of the Hajj. The Hajj is an expression of utter unity and equality among the Muslims of the world and that has to be contrasted with the areas of the Muslim World, in which there is a thought out policy and strategy to divide the Muslims. [the holy city of] Mecca, the Hajj and [the Persian Gulf peninsula of] Hijaz are a magnet therein the Muslims express their solidarity and their common purpose as well as their universal togetherness. But then we look at, in light of Imam [Seyyed Ali] Khamenei’s speech, we look at what is happening in particular in Syria, where is a concerted effort by imperialism and Zionism and their extensions in the region to divide the Muslims through warfare and this has been going on in the course of the past, almost, 19 or 20 months. So the issue here is, I think, the Muslims have to put more rationale input in the performance of the Hajj and say that if we are coming here to express our solidarity and our unity, as it were, then it should not be confined to Mecca; it should extend and permeate all of the other countries as a ripple effect emanating from Mecca and extending throughout the different directions of the world and that should be inclusive of Syria. So if there are troublemakers in Syria, I think there should be a redline for foreign forces who are entering Syria, of course this begins with intelligence operatives and Special Operations Service members. These are the ones who are at the Syrian frontier and may, in certain instances, make a presence inside the Syrian country and I think the Muslims, if they work to up their thoughts about the Hajj, should express to the world that there is a redline here, we Muslims, whether we are Sunnis or Shiites, come all together to the Hajj, there is no exemption there, no one is saying that a particular Muslim because of his or her school of thought, his or her denomination, are [is] not permitted to come to the Hajj. So if we Muslims all together have access to the Hajj, that means that there is no discrimination among Muslims and there is no justification for one Muslim killing another Muslim. So if that is the reality of the Hajj, it should also be the reality of these other areas such as Syria. Press TV: Muhammed al-Asi this unity that Iran’s Leader [Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei] has referred to, amongst Muslims; are you optimistic that perhaps it would be forged stronger than ever, given the landscape? let me use his quote; Iran’s Leader has said: “campaigns to demonize Shiites and Sunnis pitting them against each other so that Muslims shed each others’ blood. The West seems to be using that for a political game”, for lack of a better word, and our guest there in Washington, Abdul Alim Musa, quite rightly pointed out to Bahrain for example, of which the sectarian card is introduced, even in Saudi Arabia, the Shiites in the east of Qatif region are marginalized. Do you think that perhaps optimism can be seen here, given this year’s Hajj and what Iran’s leader has said for the Muslim unity? al-Asi: Well, against all odds I remain very optimistic. Of course I am and I believe that this night of sectarianism is going to come to an end. Let me try to explain the Imam’s [Khamenei] words a little more because there are certain programs that want us to absent our minds from the Islamic activities such as the Hajj that we are involved in. To put it into a few words there is a sectarian or there is an imperialist exploitation of sectarianism that has the objective of dividing the Muslims. It has been played out in two particular areas in a concentrated fashion. Those [areas] are Syria and Bahrain. It also has its fallouts in other areas such as Pakistan from time to time, India from time to time, etc. etc. So the Muslims have to understand that this is what is at play right here. It is an imperialist-Zionist grand design to exploit sectarianism to break it down as a Sunni Shiite internal civil war. That is what is going on and they hope that they can make mileage out of that. I know that it is going to come to a dead end. Unfortunately there is going to be a lot of lives that are going to suffer in the process. On the other hand, and this is very crucial to understand, there is an Islamic usage of secularism to liberate Palestine and this has been the policy and the objective or the strategy of the Islamic leadership and the Islamic Republic [of Iran] for the past 30 years [since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution] and in this type of set up, the Syrian government is a secular government but it is being utilized for the objective of liberating Palestine. So these are the counter efforts that right now are playing out the imperialist-Zionist strategy of utilizing or subjugating sectarianism for their own ends and in the process, Muslims by the definitions of this strategy are going to have to be polarized and are going to have to fight and kill themselves. And then on the other hand, there is the Unity Strategy of the Islamic leadership and the Islamic Republic [of Iran] that manages to use the secularism such as the case in Damascus for the overall Islamic objective of liberating Palestine. This is how the Muslims should understand what unity means in the context of our time and what it means to have this Islamic Solidarity for the common denominator that brings all the Muslims together and that is the ultimate goal of liberating al-Quds and then liberating Palestine and liberating the Harams of Allah [houses of god], so that they belong to the Muslims regardless of their school of thought, regardless of their historical affiliations and regardless of their denominations. presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/26/268816/zioimperialism-after-muslim-civil-war/
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 23:05:06 +0000
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