Anti-Sunnism
Anti-Sunnism is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Sunni Muslims.[1]
It has also been described as "Sunniphobia", the "fear or hatred of Sunnism and Sunnites".[2]
War on Terror rhetoric[edit]
Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab was a Sunni Muslim reformer of 18th century Arabia.[3] The religious clergy of the Ottoman Empire considered him and his supporters to be heretics and apostates.[4] They were labelled with the term Wahhabi. During the 19th century, the British colonial government in India placed anti-colonial Sunni scholars on trial in what became known as the "Great Wahhabi Trials" to suppress an imagined "Wahhabi conspiracy".[5][6]
To be a Wahhabi is officially a crime in Russia.[7][8] In Russian aligned Central Asian dictatorships, the term "Wahhabi" is used to refer to any unsanctioned religious activity. As a result, any Sunni Muslim, whether modernist, conservative, political or apolitical, is a potential target.[9]
In response to 9/11 World Trade Centre Bombings, the United States and its allies launched a controversial policy of an unprecedented counter-terrorism effort on an international scale dubbed as the War on Terror.[10] It was characterised by the infamous words "You are either with us or against us".[11] Both this approach, as well as the purpose of a War on Terror has been questioned.[12][13] It has also been accused of inciting various forms of Islamophobia on a global scale.[14][15]
The "War on Terror" rhetoric has been adopted by other authoritarian regimes.[16] Israel, Russia, China, etc. has frequently invoked the "Wahhabi" label to target Sunni Muslims.[17][18][19] Russia has employed its own "War on Terror" in the Second Chechen War, in the insurgency in the North Caucasus, and currently in the Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War.[20]
In a sectarian twist, War on Terror rhetoric has also been weaponised by Shiite rulers of Iran[21][22] who adhere to Khomeinism, even closely cooperating with US frequently.[23] Iranian officials commonly invoke the "Wahhabi" label to further its sectarian identity politics in the region.[24] Even prior to the War on Terror, Iranian leaders like Ayatollah Khomeini and Rafsanjani had invoked the Wahhabi label describing Sunnis as "heretics" to stir up Sunniphobia and Iran's policy of exporting its Khomeinist revolutions.[25][26] The curriculum of Khomeinist seminaries in Iran are known for their sectarian depictions against Sunni Muslims, often portraying Sunnis and revered figures in Sunni history as "Wahhabis".[27]
Omair Anas argues that after the War on Terror, an imagined Wahhabi conspiracy replaced the United States as Iran's "Great Satan".[28] In this vein, Qassem Soleimani, the former chief of Iran's IRGC, said that Wahhabism had Jewish roots.[29][30] Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah labelled "Wahhabism" as "more evil than Israel".[31] In 2016, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote an article in The New York Times entitled "Let Us Rid the World of Wahhabism", wherein he described Wahhabism as a "theological perversion" and "a death cult" that has "wrought havoc", and argued that "virtually every terrorist group abusing the name of Islam" was inspired by Wahhabism.[32][33][34]
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