Why do followers of "traditional Islam” consider Shia supporters to be heretics?

Author: Kirill Popov, exclusively to VK

Three weeks ago, two armed men broke into the Shiite mosque in Khasavyurt and opened fire, leaving eight people injured. The incident is likely to become part of the confrontation between Shia (the second most important branch of the tree of Islam) and the various groups of Salafis, generally called Wahhabis in Russia. Note, however, that the balance between the Salafis and Wahhabis is closer to the balance between the whole and part, not between synonyms. 10% to 20% of all Muslims in the world define themselves as the Shiites, and the rest are the Sunnis. Shia supporters can be found in all the Islamic countries, but they make up the majority only in Iran, Iraq and Bahrain, and a significant number of them live in Azerbaijan.

History knows many examples of violence against the Shiites. Let us mention a few, the details of which can be easily found in the "Wikipedia". April 20, 1802 Wahhabis raided Karbala, desecrated, destroyed and looted the tomb of Imam Hussein and massacred thousands of Shiites, including old men, women and children. In 1925, the Ikhwan (military militia of the first ruler and founder of Saudi Arabia, Ibn Saud) destroyed the tombs of imams of the cemetery (the Shiite shrine) Jannat al-Baqi in Medina. In February 2006, there was an explosion at the Golden Mosque (Al-Askari Mosque) in Samarra; as a result, the golden dome of the building was destroyed. Although it is much smaller in scale, the attack on the mosque in Khasavyurt is very similar to the previous attacks. But the question arises: what caused such hatred for Shiites, and why this hatred, if it exists, flames only at the level of small religious groups, not covering the whole grand mass of the Sunni world?

There were large-scale wars between Sunni and Shia before. However, this was a case of bygone days, when the Muslim world was young, the caliphate was just created, and the recognition or non-recognition of the rights to the leadership of a successor of the Prophet was not only a theological issue, but also an acute political problem. Looking back, the main sticking point between Sunnis and Shiites is that Shiites consider Ali ibn Abu Talib and his descendants of the Prophet's daughter Fatima to be the only legitimate successors of the Prophet. Because of this, Shiites cast doubts on the Sunnah (Sacred Tradition of Islam), because they find its description of the role and importance of the righteous Caliph and Imam Ali biased. As a result of the political nature of the question of the inheritance of the Caliphate , the Shiism has become a universal doctrine of the opposition from its earliest days, which was used in the cases of social, economic, and ethnic oppression. However, over time, this level of confrontation between Sunnism and Shiism has outlived its usefulness. At least, it is almost never mentioned in official circles. So we only have dogmatic differences between these branches.

In addition to the different attitude to the first caliph and the Sunnah (which, incidentally, the Shiites in any case do not deny) the differences are as follows: the Shiites consider imams to be an infallible authority. As a result, the highest spiritual leaders enjoy authoritarian influence on the Shiites and are considered to be the “locum tenens” of the absent Imam. They have the sole right to resolve important theological questions which Sunnis respond by finding a consensus in the community between authoritative theologians and spiritual leaders. This rigidity is compensated by flexible approach to philosophy, extensive use of philosophizing, allegories and parables in the interpretation of the Koran. In contrast, the Sunnis believe that the sacred text can be interpreted only by means of the sacred texts, and philosophical shifts have no theological value. Finally, the Shiism find it acceptable to hide religious views in the moment of danger. The Sunnis do not accept this.

However, the above differences do not interfere with the dialogue and the peaceful coexistence of the main mass of Sunnis and Shiites. Concerning the main pillars of Islam (Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran) both branches are in agreement that allows them to find common ground.

Sharp conflict exists only with the Salafi Islam. It calls for focus on the life and faith of the early Muslim community, the righteous ancestors, qualifying all the subsequent innovations in these areas, since the methods of symbolic and allegorical interpretations of the Quran and finishing with all kinds of innovations introduced into the Muslim world as a result of its contacts with the West as bid'ah (innovation on the verge of heresy). The Shiism, from this point of view, is the very first innovation distorting the early faith. The Salafis do not recognize the Shiism literally anything from their philosophical interpretations of the Quran and the attitude to Imam Ali (as perceived by the Salafis, Shiites revere Ali and his descendants more than the Prophet) to the concealment of their views (as a result, in the view of the Salafis, the Shiites are like the Masons: they represent invisible, and thus powerful, threat). As a result, the Shiism in the eyes of "the followers of traditional Islam" is a dangerous and widespread heresy with which they are struggling both by preaches and by attacks in defense of the faith.

Unfortunately, when conflicts are associated with such delicate matters, they are difficult to be solved from the outside, only by means of political will. It is hoped that the hard work of Muslim theologians and philosophers of all the directions will finally get fruit in the form of reconciliation of radical and moderate factions or at least will turn the fight for the purity of faith and religious ideals into cultural debate, not underground war. These changes are very important for the North Caucasus, which is a complex mixture of small nations, which are often differentiated according to the forms of worship. Thus, any religious conflict could easily turn into the national one and vice versa. In the North Caucasus, the Shiism is practiced by Tats living in Dagestan, Lezgins of the village of Miskindzha, and Azerbaijani communities. The latter makes an attack on the mosque of Khasavyurt particularly threatening because the mosque was attended by Azerbaijanis. If the threat to their security becomes regular, the international community will try to solve this problem at the new level