Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed’s column in Asharq Alawsat takes on the intersection of religion and politics, particularly as it pertains to Sunni-Shi’a differences and conflicts. He says that people change their religions en masse only through losing a war or having a ruler who changes their religion for them. Thus, Shi’ite efforts following the Iranian Revolution to convert the Sunnism to Shi’ism were always going to fail. This fact did not affect Iranian efforts to promulgate the Iranian form of Shi’ism in places like Lebanon or Egypt, but it did result in the failure of those efforts. Those efforts did result, unfortunately, in suspicion toward the Shi’a in Sunni-majority states unfortunately, as well as in grand conspiracy theories about religion which were, in fact, always and only political differences.

Political Not Sectarian
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

Seldom has a political event passed without the involvement by Clergymen, and this is happening once again in the Arab-Iranian differences. A battle is being waged on rostrums and Internet websites. Why? Because this is politics and they are politicians.

In reality, there is no Shia/Sunni problem; there are only differences between governments. And, contrary to widespread rumors, neither the Shia are going to become Sunnis, nor are the Sunnis going to become Shia and neither party is going to change its religion. Nations change their religion on a large scale only when the ruling regime changes its religion, or when a political system falls into the hands of another. In other words, nations change their religion either by force of arms or when their rulers officially change their religion. Iran became Shiite in the 15th century when it was ruled by the Safavids, and the Egyptians changed their sect with the change of the ruling dynasty, from Tolons to Fatimites to Ayubites. The story is similar in other religions. The English abandoned Catholicism and adopted Protestantism when Queen Elizabeth, a Protestant, came to the throne in the 16th century. Apart from that it is merely a byzantine debate between the public and men of religion.

Soon after the success of its revolution, Iran discovered that despite its religious success, it has not become a leader in the Islamic world because 80% of Muslims are Sunnis. Iran thought at that time that it was possible to change the sectarian geography, and thus inaugurated its project by celebrating the conversion of an unknown Sunni who published a book in which he declared his conversion.
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Here’s an Associated Press story that’s making the rounds today, commenting on the arguments between Sunni cleric Yousef Al-Qaradawi and Shi’a cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah:

Clerics’ debate underlines Sunni-Shiite divide