This is a response to an article published on TheNational.ae called “The rise of Shia jihadism in Syria will fuel sectarian fires” by Hassan Hassan on June 4th, 2013.
The article represents Hizbollah as a Shia militant group, however readers and writers of the agency should be aware that Hezbollah is not representative of the Shia Muslim faith. It is a political interest group and their entrance into Syria does not mean Shia jihad.
Shia Rights Watch, the Washington DC based human rights organization, believes Shia Muslims have to protect their historical and holy sites just as any other population would when under attack. Syria has many historical sites that represent Shia Muslim history and many of them have been under attack since the Syrian uprising. Most Shia protecting the sites are local and have no political affiliation. Associating Shia Muslims with Iran is one of the biggest mistakes that politicians and media outlets do. Almost 20% of all Muslims around the world are Shia Muslims and they have always been peaceful.
We urge the media outlets and journalist to distinguish Shia Muslim from the Iranian government and to protect their human rights, which are under targeted attack in many countries of the world.
SRW asks all sides not to violate Shia rights based on the faulty assumption that Shia Muslims are dependent on Iranian political interests.
By the way, this article was published on June 4, 2013 and on the web is it dated as JUN 5, 2013!!!
By: Hawraa, A Shia Rights Activist and Specialist
