(JNS) Col. Lawrence Franklin - Iran's theocratic worldview is shaped by the Shi'ite belief that Muhammad's will was betrayed by the Sunni Caliphs who immediately succeeded the prophet. Yet Iranian efforts to recruit both Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims to join the anti-Zionist "resistance" have succeeded in capturing the passion of even some Sunni extremist groups, like Hamas. Sunni Muslims dominated the Islamic world in both power and population for centuries. All that changed with the U.S.-led destruction of the Sunni dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. The demise of Saddam liberated Iraq's Shi'ite majority, many of whom felt an affinity for Shi'ite Iran across the border. These Shi'ites, who make up the several terrorist gangs in Iraq, do the bidding of Iran's extremist regime. The overriding goal of Iran's Shi'ite clerics is finally to replace Sunni dominance; first in the Middle East and eventually throughout the Islamic world. Iranian muscle in the Persian Gulf has now outclassed the Arabian Peninsula's monarchial Sunni states in raw power. For the foreseeable future, they will all require protective guarantees from the cavalries of heathen states like America, Israel or China. The writer was the USAF Reserve Military Attache to the U.S. Embassy in Israel and the U.S. Defense Secretary's Farsi-speaking Iran Officer and Islamic terrorism specialist.
2024-08-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive