Shia Rights Watch would like to thank The Telegraph news agency for their article on June 2^nd, 2013 covering the Shia rights violation by the Muslim Brotherhood’s cleric. As the article explains, Yusef al-Qaradawi, one of the well-known Egyptian clerics based in Qatar, called for “Jihad” in Syria in his Friday lecture. He also degraded Shia Muslims by calling them infidels and said “there is no common ground between the two sides,” referring to Shia and Sunni Muslims. He justified his accusation by saying: “the Iranians, especially conservatives, want to eat the Sunni people.”

There are number of problems with this act of al-Qaradawi. SRW believes:

• Clearly al-Qaradawi is adding to the unrest in the area by turning the unrest into a sectarian conflict,
• Beside Syria, al-Qaradawi is spreading hatred among all sects of Islam in many different countries,
• Al-Qaradawi is associating Shia Muslims with Iran. Shia Muslims hold a variety of nationalities and they have no political bonds with Iran.
• If al-Qaradawi has opposition to Iran and Hezbollah he should use their names, not their faith, when addressing them. Shia faith is shared between millions of Muslims who are not Iranians or members of Hezbollah.

No opposition group should promote the killing of Shia Muslims and any other minority in Syria because they THINK, or ASSUME all Shia are dependent on Iran’s government and its political policies.

Because of al-Qaradawi and others like him, many civilian Shia have been killed in Syria during past two years. Shia Muslims in Egypt are under attack, Bahrain’s Shia cannot enjoy their basic human rights, and more than 500 Shia were killed in Iraq in May alone, and in Pakistan Shia Muslims are murdered in targeted killings every day.

SRW believes al-Qaradawi and others who share his ideology must look for wise solutions instead of inflaming the conflict by calling for “jihad” and more attacks on civilians. No true leader would call for more killings as revenge and no good leader associates a faith to a political party.

SRW believes al-Qaradawi and his colleagues are responsible for many of the war crimes that are taking place in Syria and ask international human rights committees to take legal actions to stop him from increasing crimes in Middle East.

Note: SRW wrote a thank you letter to The Telegraph and thanked the news agency for its coverage of Shia rights violations.

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 4^th, 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

Recently, 25 well-known Wahbbi figures issued a statement that call upon individuals to attack and create unrest in Shia led countries. The statement came after the regime’s offensive in Qusayr not long ago. Shortly after the statement was issued, series of bomb blasts attacked Shia Muslim communities in Iraq and Syria killing hundreds of civilians.

SRW believes it is inhumane and naïve to punish innocent civilians for political reasons. Oppositions in Syria are believed to be mostly foreigners paid by Wahhabi governments such as Saudi Arabia. They claim fighting for democracy as well as freedom and are in opposition with pro-Assad groups, YET they kill Shia Muslim civilians to show their anger!!!!

SRW suggests to all sides to exclude civilians from political interests; after all, all groups are fighting with political motivations not humanitarian interests.

SRW does not take any political side, but wherever and whenever Shia rights are violated we get involved.

There are some critical points that all groups must know:

One) Well-educated, wise thinking people would not label Shia Muslims to any certain governments. Shia Muslims DO NOT belong to any political or geographical region. There are hundreds of thousands Shia Muslim around the world and they have different nationalities, ethnicities, colors and languages and they are loyal to their countries.

Two) Human rights laws are INALIENABLE and no cleric, group or religion can exclude others from this law.

Three) Smart leaders guide by offering solutions not by promoting hatred and violence, such as Anti-Shia leaders do.
Four) All those who degrade human lives and values should be punished. Now that hatred and violations are happening as we speak, public punishment needs to be put into place immediately, this will send a grave message to the enemy’s of humanity.
In a world where human rights violators feel safe to publicize their hate messages, innocent victims are perpetrators and violators are considered heroes,
or maybe they are heroes!!!!! After all they are fearless !!!!!

It’s up to you, the wise reader, to conclude…

By: Hawraa, A Shia Rights Activist and Specialist – May 30th, 2013