War and Peace

To my mind the single biggest puzzle about the disaster that is Syria - is why the  Muslim world is not more interested in addressing the root causes of a murderous, bloody feud - between the rival Sunni and Shia branches of Islam.

Now this seems a sensible question to pose - to me at least.

Yet you don't really see any sign whatsoever of Arab countries or the Islamic world, more generally, examining in a serious fashion why so many Muslims seem intent on either suppressing or killing each other - instead of learning to live in peace.

Maybe it's because peace - in the modern sense of the word at least - means accepting the rights of others who don't share your views or belong to your tribe to be able to live, work and thrive without fear of being victimised - or being treated as some kind of second-class citizen.

Which seems to be par for the course in some parts of the Muslim and Arab world - where the dominance of  one branch of Islam - Sunni or Shia - seems to spell very bad news for the other.

As far as I can see this is what's happening in Syria where a relatively small Alawite Shia clan completely dominates the government and oppresses the Sunni majority - and has led directly to the bloody civil war which has claimed close to 100,000 lives according to recent news reports.

In Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni branch of Islam held sway and showed no  interest in sharing power - with either the Shia Muslims in the south or the Kurds in the north.

The new Iraqi constitution enshrines the right of fair representation across all groups with the aim of ensuring that no single group can dominate society and all of its major institutions - for example the government, the army, the police and the civil service.

President Assad and his supporters have had the ability over the past two years to end the conflict by signalling their support for a new democratic settlement - but have chosen not to take that step as Russia continues to arm the Syrian regime which is also being bolstered by external support from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran's
Revolutionary Guards.

So the present deadlock will continue for a while yet at least, but the central issue remains the same - the ability of countries like Syria to move away from their tribal past and to embrace a more democratic society where people from different faiths and backgrounds can live together in peace and mutual respect.