Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Origin of the Shia Sunni Conflict - posted by Speedy Media

Saturday, February 11, 2012

SPEEDY MEDIA

1) Have you ever thought why there's conflict between Shia and Sunni?
2) Have you ever thought how can "brothers" hate each other so much?
3) Have you ever thought about why they kill each other?
4) While both sects are massacring each other, have you ever wondered how they can claim that Islam is the Religion of Peace???

The origins of the Sunni-Shia conflict was always violent, and that appears to be giving way to another period of spreading conflict in the Middle East..

That struggle is most violent and dangerous now in Iraq, but could spread to many Arab nations in the Middle East and to Iran, which is Persian.

Shiites constitute 80 percent of the native population of the oil-rich Persian Gulf region.

Shia predominate where there is oil in Iran, in Iraq and in the oil-rich areas of eastern Saudi Arabia as well.

The Partisans of Ali

The original split between Sunnis and Shia occurred soon after the death of Muhammad, in the year 632.

"There was a dispute in the community of Muslims in present-day Saudi Arabia over the question of succession," says Augustus Norton, author of Hezbollah: A Short History. "That is to say, who is the rightful successor to Muhammad?"

Most of Muhammad's followers wanted the community of Muslims to determine who would succeed him. A smaller group thought that someone from his family should take up his mantle. They favored Ali, who was married to Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah.

The Sunnis prevailed and chose a successor to be the first caliph.

Eventually, Ali was chosen as the fourth caliph, but not before violent conflict broke out. Two of the earliest caliphs were murdered. War erupted when Ali became caliph, and he too was killed in fighting in the year 661 near the town of Kufa, now in present-day Iraq.

The violence and war split the small community of Muslims into two branches that would never reunite.

An Historic Battle

The war continued with Ali's son, Hussein, leading the Shia. "Hussein rejected the rule of the caliph at the time," says Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival. "He stood up to the caliph's very large army on the battlefield. He and 72 members of his family and companions fought against a very large Arab army of the caliph. They were all massacred."

One of the fundamental differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims concerns Ashura. On the tenth day of Muharram, in 680 C.E. Hussein was decapitated and his head was carried in tribute to the Sunni caliph in Damascus. His body was left on the battlefield at Karbala. Later it was buried there.

The Shia called their leaders imam, Ali being the first, Hussein the third. They commemorate Hussein's death every year in a public ritual of self-flagellation and mourning known as Ashura.

It is the symbolism of Hussein's death that holds so much spiritual power for Shia.

"An innocent spiritual figure is in many ways martyred by a far more powerful, unjust force," Nasr says. "He becomes the crystallizing force around which a faith takes form and takes inspiration."

Some of the Sunnis believe that some of the Shia are actually attributing almost divine qualities to the imams, and this is a great sin because it is associating human beings with the divinity.

Political Power Fuels Religious Split

"Why has there been such a long and protracted disagreement and tension between these two sects?" asks Ray Takeyh, author of Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic. "It has to do with political power."

I have nothing else to add, but good luck to the both sides!!!






Trends in Headlines .... What about Iran?!

Iran says can hit U.S. interests worldwide if attacked
A new medium-range missile is fired from a naval ship during Velayat-90 war game on Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran January 1, 2012. Iran test-fired a new medium-range missile, designed to evade radars, on Sunday during the last days of its naval drill in the Gulf, the official IRNA news agency quoted a military official as saying. REUTERS/Jamejamonline/Ebrahim Norouzi
A new medium-range missile is fired from a naval ship during Velayat-90 war game on Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran January 1, 2012. Iran test-fired a new medium-range missile, designed to evade radars, on Sunday during the last days of its naval drill in the Gulf, the official IRNA news agency quoted a military official as saying.
Credit: Reuters/Jamejamonline/Ebrahim Norouzi

(Reuters) - Iran is capable of carrying out military strikes on U.S. interests all around the world if the Islamic Republic is attacked by the United States, Iran's ambassador to Moscow said on Wednesday.

The United States has tried to force Tehran to scrap sensitive nuclear work by imposing sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and giving U.S. banks new powers to freeze Iranian government assets.

Iran's ambassador to Moscow said that the United States would be making a serious mistake, akin to suicide, if it risked a military strike on OPEC's No. 2 oil exporter.

Washington has announced no such plans, but has said a military option is always on the table if Iran cannot be otherwise prevented from developing atomic weapons.

"The Americans know what kind of country Iran is. They are well aware of our people's unity," Iranian ambassador Seyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi told a news conference in Moscow.

"And that's why Iran is fully able to deliver retaliatory strikes on the United States anywhere in the world," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

"Even if it attacks, we have a list of counter actions. (The United States) would be disappointed with their huge mistake."

Iran has increasingly issued threatening statements against the West in recent weeks as tension has increased over its uranium enrichment program, which it moved last month to a mountain bunker better protected from possible air strikes.

Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful while Western powers fear Tehran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.

"The issue of a military attack from America on the Islamic Republic of Iran has been on the agenda for several years," said Sajjadi, adding that Iran would never strike first.

Iran has warned its response to any such strike would be "painful," threatening to target Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf, along with closing the Strait of Hormuz used by one third of the world's seaborne oil traffic.

Russia, the world's biggest energy producer, opposes further U.N. Security Council sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program and has sharply criticized U.S. and European Union sanctions.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman and Guy Faulconbridge)

Bee's Note:
During the past month, not a day went by when the headlines did not center around Iran and whether or not Israel would attack Iran's nuclear sites and, not a day went by when our own administration did not "leak" some information they thought Israel may be planning for Iran, expressing their deep concerns about the "timing" and of Israel's urgency to prevent Iran from obtaining their final "goal".
Then, suddenly, headlines changed and we find Obama in the middle of an un-Constitutional religious war with the Catholic Church and all of America, thanks, once again, to our very own Congress allowing Obama to rule America like a damn dictator, ignoring America's laws of the land, including that of separation of church and state.
But is Obama that ignorant, or was there some hidden agenda in suddenly bringing attention back to his health plans (also un-Constitutional) and taking the heat off of his inexperience with foreign policy and the threats from Iran?  He has tried to have the liberal media make Iran an Israeli problem - not our problem - nothing to see here, move on!  Israel, on the other hand, has warned the US time and again, that a nuclear Iran will be the end of civilization as we know it .... 
Well, here's the latest news about Iran's capabilities .......... our churches, synagogues, economy, will all take a back seat to Iran's threats being fulfilled, if this administration does not bring attention and speak LOUDER to Iran about what will happen to them if they dare attempt to strike the USA.   What constitutes a Declaration of War?  Iran comes close, if it hasn't already, of declaring war against the USA with its threats and any other President would be on national TV giving a clear WARNING to Iran - not sitting at home, attacking America's religious freedoms.
It is not about Iran's threats to Israel, Mr. Idiot in Chief - it's about Iran's threats to the United States of America!  Get the hell out of all your little civil wars throughout the ME and focus on the Head of the Snake, Iran.
Obama may be the most deceitful president this country ever had the misfortune of voting into the White House; his leadership both here and abroad are a complete failure; ... but someone in Washington had better wake up fast!






Say goodbye to Egypt's tourism industry: 3 more kidnapped in Sinai


Friday, February 10, 2012

ELDER OF ZIYON
From Ma'an:
Armed men kidnapped three Korean tourists and an Egyptian guide in St. Catherine in the southern Sinai on Friday, an Egyptian security official said.

Maj. Gen. Muhammad Najib, director of south Sinai security, said a group of armed Bedouins stopped a bus of Korean tourists and kidnapped three in addition to the guide in Wadi Firan area.

Security sources predicted that the kidnappers may be the same who kidnapped three Americans in order to negotiate releasing Bedouins imprisoned for weapons and drugs violations.
If tourists are in danger on a tour bus, you can kiss the entire industry goodbye.

Egypt does not have a bright future. The Muslim Brotherhood will not be able to fix Egypt's financial woes; the newly powerful Salafists will push their 8th-century morality; and the Egyptian people now have the idea that they can simply protest their problems away.

Whoever is in charge will need a strong security force - whether it is SCAF or a successor - to be able to even do day-to-day governing.

And that force is going to end up killing a lot of people. 

Syria - "Iran's Proxy War" ..


PERSONAL LIBERTY DIGEST

Has World War III Begun?

February 10, 2012 by  
Has World War III Begun?
UPI
The new Syrian flag of independence covers the body of Syrian girl who was allegedly killed by Syrian government forces.
A “Libya-styled” NATO attack on Syria grows closer by the day. Already, British and French Special Forces are on the ground in Syria providing logistical support to the opposition. And U.S. commanders aremaking plans for military action there.
Fighters from the NATO-backed al-Qaida opposition group that just fought in Libya — and once fought American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq — are being airlifted into Syria as I write and are fighting with the opposition forces in Syria.
Iran is now sending fighters and material into Syria to support the Bashar Assad regime. Russia and China support Syria and Iran and are opposing NATO intervention.
Syria is about to develop into a proxy war between the West and Iran. What explodes from there is anybody’s guess.
There are unpleasant certainties. The regime of President Barack Obama will benefit from war with Syria, Iran and, if it comes, Russia and China. American jingoism will push his approval numbers up in the short term and possibly hold through the election. The military-industrial complex and the banksters pushing for the New World Order will also benefit.
The American people, however, will suffer. U.S. troops will again be used as cannon fodder, the U.S. deficit will balloon and the people will be further impoverished. The authoritarians will find new excuses to steal our liberty. The military-industrial complex will grow more powerful. Banksters’ coffers will fill.
Governments love war because it masks its debasing of the currency. War is used to stave off collapse; money printing and increasingly confiscatory taxes can be implemented in the name of war. Karl Marx long ago suggested that capitalist economies escape from their “internal contradictions” by going to war.
__________________________________________________________________________
Update: Fox News has cancelled Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Freedom Watch show.
Contact Fox News at:
Irena Briganti, Senior Vice President
Media Relations
Phone: 212-301-3608
Fax: 212-819-0816
E-Mail: irena.briganti@foxnews.com
Be respectful but be sure to convey your outrage at this matter, and state that you and many others will boycott the network if the show is taken off the air.


VIDEO: Father of the Week?

THE JAWA REPORT
February 10, 2012


Maybe not Father of the Year, but he could run for that title as well. I wasn't going to bother posting this because it's already viral and you've probably seen it. However, the usual chickens have started clucking about how horribly horrible a person this guy is. Of course, it's assumed that they peck on our side of the wire, but I've never been all that convinced of that.

I don't stroll through their coops too often, so I'm not sure, but I'm going to guess that they neither have kids nor own a firearm. With that said, judging by the response I've seen on Facebook, this guy could hang out with Ferris Bueller.

Because he's a righteous dude.

Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen.




11,948,980 
   
Uploaded by  on Feb 8, 2012
Warning: Since this video seems to have gone crazy, I figure I'll post this notice. I'm going to read a letter my 15 year old daughter wrote. There ARE some curse words in it. None of them are incredibly bad, but they are definitely things a little kid shouldn't hear... not to mention things MY KID shouldn't say!
If you want to see the original Facebook thread, it's located at:
http://www.facebook.com/tommyjordaniii/posts/299559803434210
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------­--------------

My daughter thought it would be funny/rebellious/cool to post on her Facebook wall just how upset she was and how unfair her life here is; how we work her too hard with chores, never pay her for chores, and just in general make her life difficult.

She chose to share this with the entire world on Facebook and block her parent's from seeing it. Well, umm... she failed. As of the end of this video, she won't have to worry anymore about posting inappropriate things on Facebook...

Maybe a few kids can take something away from this... If you're so disrespectful to your parents and yourself as to post this kind of thing on Facebook, you're deserving of some tough love. Today, my daughter is getting a dose of tough love.

Bee's NOTE:
This video was shown on Fox News early this morning - Fox noted it has almost 12 MILLION hits since first posted ... !!  Maybe this father should run for President!



Iran: “Crippling Sanctions”, Cries of Victimhood and Genocidal Jew-Hatred


WINDS OF JIHAD

by SHEIKYERMAMI on FEBRUARY 10, 2012
Simon Wiesenthal Center:
Look out for the inevitable MSM stories about “crippling sanctions” and “babies dying in maternity wards” 
Al Reuters of the Bleeding Hearts:
 PARIS/TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran is turning to barter – offering gold bullion in overseas vaults or tankerloads of oil – in return for food as new financial sanctions have hurt its ability to import basic staples for its 74 million people, commodities traders said Thursday.   From Yahoo News thanks to Vlad
Related:
Sowdi Barbaria wants the bomb 
“In the name of Allah, Iran must attack Israel by 2014.”
Mullahs with guns? Imagine for moment they were Jewish rabbis or Catholic clergy! Ah yes, and don’t forget this:   Mosque Scholar Charged with Molesting Boys…
Difficulty paying for urgent import needs has contributed to sharp rises in the prices of basic foodstuffs, causing hardship for Iranians with just weeks to go before an election seen as a referendum on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic policies.
New sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union to punish Iran for its nuclear program do not bar firms from selling Iran food but they make it difficult to carry out the international financial transactions needed to pay for it.
Reuters surveys of commodities traders around the globe show that since the start of the year, Iran has had trouble securing imports of basic staples like rice, cooking oil, animal feed and tea. Grain ships have been held at its ports, refusing to unload until payment can be received for cargo.
With Iran’s rial currency tumbling, the prices of rice, bread and meat in Iranian bazaars have doubled or more in dollar terms in recent months.
Iranian grain importers have in the past side-stepped sanctions by booking business through the United Arab Emirates, traders said, but this option was cut off by the UAE government in response to sanctions.
Wiesenthal Center
Continued:
The Simon Wiesenthal Center charged today that recent statements by Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei along with a detailed blueprint for the destruction of the Jewish people posted on a website run by the head of the Iranian Parliament’s research center, constituted a pre-genocidal crime against humanity, unparalleled since Nazi Germany.
WND, an online news service revealed that the Iranian website Alef has posted a long, detailed plan to wipe out Israel’s infrastructure, annihilate the Jewish State and murder Jews worldwide: http://www.alef.ir/vdcepw8zwjh8ewi.b9bj.html?142262
In his speech last Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again called Israel “a cancerous tumor” that had to be removed. Now Iranian analyst Alireza Forghani writing on the Alef website (and posted on the official FARS news agency) details a plan for Iran to remove “this corrupting material” to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel.
“This is the first time since the Nazis’ Final Solution that such explicit plans for a genocide against the Jewish people is being promoted,” charged Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, dean and founder and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights NGO.
Just last week, the United Nations convened a ceremony on International Holocaust Memorial Day. But what good are moments of silence for the dead, if the world powers — including Russia and China fail to take action to protect the living from a new genocide targeting Jews. A nuclearized Iran, controlled by religious Nazis would not hesitate to mass murder Jews,” Wiesenthal Center officials continued.
“While we applaud President Obama for ratcheting up sanctions against the Mullahtocracy, much more must be done, including an international effort to pursue an indictment against Iranian leaders who are guilty of inciting genocide — which is a crime against humanity,” they concluded.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe, and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
For more information, please contact the Center’s Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

Iraq: Oh oh ... You mean Al-Qaeda is still in Iraq?!

WEASEL ZIPPERS

U.S. Intelligence Says Al-Qaeda In Iraq Behind Bombings In Syria, Acting On Orders of Ayman Al-Zawahiri…


Doesn’t this put Obama and al-Qaeda on the same side? Ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
WASHINGTON — The Iraqi branch of al Qaida, seeking to exploit the bloody turmoil in Syria to reassert its potency, carried out two recent bombings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and likely was behind suicide bombings Friday that killed at least 28 people in the largest city, Aleppo, U.S. officials told McClatchy.
The officials cited U.S. intelligence reports on the incidents, which appear to verify Syrian President Bashar Assad’s charges of al Qaida involvement in the 11-month uprising against his rule. The Syrian opposition has claimed that Assad’s regime, which has responded with massive force against the uprising, staged the bombings to discredit the pro-democracy movement calling for his ouster.
The international terrorist network’s presence in Syria also raises the possibility that Islamic extremists will try to hijack the uprising, which would seriously complicate efforts by the United States and its European and Arab partners to force Assad’s regime from power. On Friday, President Barack Obama repeated his call for Assad to step down, accusing his forces of “outrageous bloodshed.”
The U.S. intelligence reports indicate that the bombings came on the orders of Ayman al Zawahiri, the Egyptian extremist who assumed leadership of al Qaida’s Pakistan-based central command after the May 2011 death of Osama bin Laden. They suggest that Zawahiri still wields considerable influence over the network’s affiliates despite the losses the Pakistan-based core group has suffered from missile-firing CIA drones and other intensified U.S. counterterrorism operations.
U.S. officials said that al Qaida in Iraq, or AQI, began pushing to become involved in Syria as Assad’s security forces and gangs of loyalist thugs launched a vicious crackdown on opposition demonstrations, igniting large-scale bloodshed. Growing numbers of lightly armed army deserters and civilians have joined an armed insurrection, and perhaps thousands of people have been killed.
Zawahiri finally authorized AQI to begin operations in Syria, the officials said, in what’s believed to be the first time that the branch has operated outside of Iraq.
“This was Zawahiri basically taking the shackles off,” said a U.S. official with access to the intelligence reports. Like others interviewed for this story, he spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue involves classified information.
U.S. officials believe that the Sunni Muslim AQI was looking to expand beyond Iraq, where it has been stepping up attacks on majority Shiites. In Syria, Assad heads a regime dominated by Alawites, a minority Shiite Muslim sect that has ruthlessly ruled the Sunni Muslim-majority country since Assad’s father seized power in a 1963 coup.
Fears of AQI’s widening ambitions are one reason why the United States wants to maintain good relations with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki despite concerns over his increasingly autocratic rule, a second U.S. official said.
“We desperately need to partner with him (Maliki) to go after al Qaida. We think we can,” the official said. “Because these guys are already spreading. They did the two attacks in Damascus.”
The first Damascus attack occurred Dec. 23, when suicide bombers detonated cars packed with explosives outside intelligence agency compounds in the Syrian capital. At least 44 people were killed and more than 160 wounded.
Then, on Jan. 6, at least 26 people were killed and dozens injured in a bombing against a second intelligence agency compound.
As regime forces continued pummeling the opposition stronghold of Homs on Friday, two suicide bombers driving explosives-packed vehicles attacked security compounds in Aleppo, killing at least 28 people. It was the first significant violence to strike the commercial center, which has largely remained loyal to Assad.
NOTE:
So, one month after the last of the USA troops leave Iraq, .... "Al-Quada" is once again busy, or were they just awaiting the moment when the troops said their final "Good-byes"?  Who would have guessed?!


Oh wait, there's more .... 

U.S. To Scale Back Diplomatic Staff In Iraq


February 8, 2012U.S. combat troops are gone from Iraq and soon, up to half the diplomatic staff will leave too. State Department officials say it's part of a plan to scale back embassy operations there. But conflicts with the Iraqi government may also be driving the decision. Tim Arango, a reporter with The New York Times, talks to Steve Inskeep about the decision. .... read transcript ..