This is a good summary by @cybertosser of the factors for the timing of this sectarian upsurge. While the factors related to political economy are of course paramount, the role of social media has also created a novel situation that is particularly worrying because... 1/n
2/ Unlike earlier when rival scholars would have to pore over each others' dense technical volumes to find something that could be deemed heretic, now a lay Sunni sitting at home anywhere can watch a Shia majlis pretty much anywhere streamed live. And within a few hours...
3/ bite sized clips from the majlis are uploaded to social media for easy consumption. It may be possible for a well meaning Sunni to set aside the cursing of some of the Sahaba because those zakirs are often labelled "extremists" by orthodox Shias themselves...
4/ But there are some aspects of Sunni and Shia ideology that are just not compatible, and social media is bringing these differences right into the open at a vernacular level. So as we saw this year, a Shia zakir was arrested not for saying something "extreme"...
5/ but for reciting the Ziarat Ashura, a very mainstream Shia prayer attributed to Imam Baqir (the fifth Twelver imam and Hussain's grandson). The prayer includes sections cursing those responsible for the tragedy of Karbala and who opposed...
6/ the prophets's family generally according to tradition. The prayer specifically names Yazid, Muawiya, Abu Sufyan and the Umayyad clan generally and curses them for their actions. This opens a can of worms for the Sunni because it cannot be argued...
7/ that this prayer is only recited by "extremist" Shias. I dont want to get into the historicity of the sources, but suffice to say in the view of most Sunnis, Muawiya could not have been bad as he was a Companion of the Prophet and his chosen scribe.
8/ These contradictions in history are real. The Prophet's scribe Muawiya and the Prophet's dear cousin and son in law Ali went to war at Siffin. The Prophet's wife Aisha and his companions Talha & Zubayr went to war with Ali during Jamal...
9/ And these 1400 year old disputes are now playing out in the comments sections of youtube, facebook & twitter. The situation isnt symmetric. By virtue of being a minority community, Shias are generally more familiar with Sunni thought & practice than vice versa
10/ In fact, a few months ago when a dispute came to light on social media on the question of Fadak, zakir Asif Raza Alvi welcomed the threats of legal action because he wanted the 1400 yr old dispute of Fadak to be decided in a Pakistani court using historical sources!
10/ So while the state-backed gun-toting sectarian groups are the most immediate danger, I fear the potential of more widespread sectarian strife at a community level, when it will not just be the extremists of each side, but friends and neighbors fighting each other also ...
11/ because of this environment created by social media.
I might delete this thread later as I dont want to die 😬🙏
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