Friends and enemies and Islam’s schism

For all the preaching about Islamic unity, tension and often outright violence between Sunni and Shia sects in the Arabic world is nothing new.

Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad’s historic trip to Egypt this week, the first top-level visit in 34 years, has brought out a rare display of public, mutual, political contempt.

Witness this meeting between the Iranian leader and Sheik Ahmed El-Tayeb, head of the Sunni world’s most prestigious religious institution, Al-Azhar.

At a press conference Tuesday, al-Azhar cleric Hasan al-Shafie speaks up for the rights of minority Sunnis in Shia Iran, Ahmadinejad whispers an aside, picked up by microphones, threatening: “If he speaks about political issues I’ll leave.”

The Iranian leader then interrupts the cleric outright, declaring they both agreed to talk about unity and brotherhood. After al-Shafie gets back on message, Ahmadinejad snaps, “Well done.”

(For rough comparison’s sake, imagine UK Prime Minister David Cameron meeting with Pope Benedict at the Vatican, this exchange between Catholic and Protestant leaders.)

The patronizing tone and tension was not ignored by Egyptian commentators, or regional Arabic newspapers; this morning, “Arab street” coffee shops and hookah bars were buzzing with talk.

All the more so since Sunnis proudly claim the majority of Islamic followers, the spiritual heart of the religion Mecca and Medina, the oil wealth of the Gulf States, and cultural capitals like Cairo and Beirut.

Yet, the Iranian leader is also fresh off of claiming nuclear readiness and the ability to launch a monkey into orbit. As empty as those boasts may be, post-revolution Iran has successfully transformed a long-suffering Shia’s inferiority complex, into powerful geopolitical and military gamesmanship.

A worry not just to the West, but a threat to Sunni regional powers.

Islam and Arabic politics, long defined and viewed through the lens of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is shifting to sectarianism. The power play between Sunni and Shia now simmers below almost all of the Mideast’s political and security crises.

And in some places threatening to erupt outright.

In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad’s Iranian backed regime (allegedly geting direct suport from Iran’s al-Quds Revolutionary Guards) now faces serious and sustained attacks from foreign-born Sunni jihadists (allegedly funded and armed by Sunni Gulf states), operating on the edges and often outside of any Free Syrian Army rebel control.

In Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, “Arab Spring” protests largely led by Shia dissidents have been brutally crushed with little international outcry, as the Sunni-led regimes claim Iranian interference.

In Iraq, a sectarian-split Shia-dominated government rules; in many ways closer to Iran, than to the western powers that spilled so much blood and treasure to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s secular, Sunni-backed, dictatorship.

In Lebanon, Iranian-backed Shia Hezbollah is finding its anti-Israel raison d’etre being torn by its support for Syria among many muslims.

In Gaza, the ruling Sunni Hamas party has simply closed its Damascus offices, abandoned and condemned its long-time Syria backers.

If there is a winner in all this, Israel may very well claim it. Its old terror enemies Hezbollah and Hamas, now divided but still an undeniable threat, are trying to figure a away through this changing landscape; increasingly searching for political legitimacy rather than military gains.

Syria, whatever the outcome, will be a diminished military force. Put in this context, Israel’s primary preoccupation and fear of a nuclear-powered Iraq comes as no surprise.

Yet, another situation this week underscores how old enemies and old enmities in the Mideast never die.

When Israel, allegedly, bombed regime rockets in Syria bound for Hezbollah, the Sunni world reacted without pause.

Sunni rebels in Syria, who have been clamouring for foreign military intervention, condemned the attack as a violation of Syrian (and indirectly the hated regime’s) sovereignty. Even NATO ally Turkey, trying to position itself as a new power in the Islamic world, pounced; Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that Israel engaged in “state terror.”

Iran seemingly shrugged, simply mocked the Israeli attack as a sign of “Zionist weakness.”

As deep as the Sunni-Shia schism may run, the enemy of an enemy in the Mideast is still a friend.

Unless it is Israel.

Tom is Global National’s Mideast correspondent based in Beirut. Follow him on Twitter: @TPopykGlobal.