Diplomacy & Crisis News

In a hostile world, Pakistani minorities face many threats; each new atrocity brings with it reams of analysis and no shortage of finger pointing towards the perceived culprits. But general public opinion might be just as much to blame as terrorism.

The United States is taking aim at future World Cups in Russia and Qatar.

The Syrian regime is gearing up for a counteroffensive that relies on Iran’s money and Shiite foreign fighters from as far away as Central Asia to push back against the Islamic State.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today warned that the “unnecessary loss of innocent lives cannot go on” and spotlighted the increasingly dire medical situation in Yemen, where it says the health and lives of millions of people are at risk, and health facilities, staff and patients are under attack in widespread violations of international humanitarian law.

It’s a safe bet that neither Cy Tokmakjian or Stephen Purvis will be attending a Brookings Institution event next week on doing business in Cuba. Canadian and British businessmen, respectively, they each suffered through Kafkaesque ordeals in Cuba after they did just that, somehow running afoul of some regulation in Cuba’s opaque and arbitrary judicial system. After being imprisoned for months ...

As corruption indictments swirl, soccer’s governing body prepares for a vote of confidence in its CEO.

Life in the People's Republic can be trying -- but for a young American, it's also transformative. FP surveys a rising generation of cross-cultural natives.

“Many times the Vietnam was called a ten-year war fought one year at a time.... which actually wasn't true though most service members rotated through one year at a time. Units remained and had members who had served different lengths of time, with those with longest service in country able to pass on lessons learned to those just arriving. Afghanistan and Iraq, unlike Vietnam truly were long wars fought one year at a time.”

"That China is one of the world’s four Great Powers is an absolute farce. I have told the President I would be reasonably polite about this American obsession.”

En 1917, l'empire des Romanov s'est effondré sur lui-même, mais certains voient dans la révolution d'Octobre le résultat d'une cabale ourdie par des forces occultes aspirant à la mort de la Russie d'ancien régime. / Allemagne, Russie, Armée, Communisme, Conflit, Désinformation, Histoire, Idées, Parti (...) / Allemagne, Russie, Armée, Communisme, Conflit, Désinformation, Histoire, Idées, Parti politique, Personnalités, Politique, Presse, Révolution russe 1917, Monarchie - 2015/06

S'ils parviennent à empêcher une nouvelle partition de l'Ukraine, les seconds accords de Minsk, si fragiles et ambigus soient-ils, pourraient offrir une chance ultime de rénovation de l'ordre européen, en jetant les bases d'un modus vivendi avec la Russie. / Allemagne, États-Unis (affaires (...) / Allemagne, États-Unis (affaires extérieures), Europe, Europe de l'Est, France, Géorgie, Russie, Ukraine, Conflit, Géopolitique, Relations internationales, Biélorussie, Moldavie, Diplomatie, Guerre civile, Frontières - 2015/06

The number of the world&#39s chronically undernourished has dropped below the 800 million mark as an increasing number of countries hit their Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets on hunger, according to a new United Nations report released today by the Organization&#39s three food agencies.

The United Nations entity dedicated to promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women announced today a partnership with Valencia Club de Fútbol, the first time ever that UN Women will collaborate with a professional sports team.

The United Nations rights office called today on the Government of Kyrgyzstan to ensure that the freedoms of expression and association are protected in line with international human rights standards as the country’s Parliament prepared to hear the first reading of draft law that could negatively affect the work of civil society organizations there.

As Serbia and Kosovo aim to overcome the legacy of conflict, the two countries must avoid procrastination on implementing the remaining steps of the April 2013 Accord and allowing older issues to shackle opportunities to open new ground, the United Nations Security Council was told today.

The World Health Assembly wrapped up its work today after giving the greenlight for the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) to reform its emergency and response capacity to better tackle future disease outbreaks like Ebola, and agreeing to address antimicrobial resistance and air pollution, as well as improve access to affordable vaccines and set global nutrition targets.

Narendra Modi is poised to add another chapter to the ugly history of government-assisted land grabs in India.

Israel’s coalition government is a shaky mess. But Bibi’s wheeling and dealing have cemented his hold on power.

The Irish referendum on same-sex marriage was the first time such rights were granted by popular vote.

An Aga Khan health center in Afghanistan.

By Hussein Rashid

The recent attack against Ismaili Muslims in Karachi, Pakistan, will be read by most as part of a simple narrative of an ongoing Sunni-Shi’ah conflict. Unfortunately, as consistent fear-mongering has demonstrated with Sharia, bandying about non-English words conveys a facade of knowledge without any guarantee of any actual understanding. As is the case with most political violence, here is more to this attack than a simple retelling of a religious clash. There is a deeper history that is masked by using inappropriate vocabulary, and misusing it is allowing the most extreme voices to set the agenda.

Contrary to popular opinion, history shows that there is not a 1,400-year old conflict between Sunni and Shi’ah. Instead, we need to understand the violence in Pakistan as having a strong political rationale. To miss what this attack was about allows slogans about Islam to triumph over real knowledge of the religion and region, dishonors the victims of terrorism and ultimately weakens U.S. national security.

The Ismaili community is a small Shi’ah community that is different from the Ithna’ashari, or Twelver, Shi’ah community that dominates in Iraq and Iran. It is the only Shi’ah community to have a present, living Imam, (a divinely appointed successor to Prophet Muhammad) in the Aga Khan.
The office of the Shi’ah Imam, not to be confused with the Sunni imam, or prayer leader, represents one of the greatest threats to movements like Daesh, otherwise known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Daesh has a nihilist vision of an Islam that can only destroy, not construct, and their use of grandiose titles like “Islamic State” and “caliph” are flailing attempts to show they can build, not just kill. Shi’ah communities, like Sufi orders, offer an alternative authority structure and vision of what it means to be Muslim to the nihilists. There are important theological differences, and these are manifest in the histories that are told and the actions that communities take.

The key is that as long as Shi’ah and Sufi groups exist, with their structures, hierarchies, and well-established means of interacting with the outside world, nihilists cannot claim to be the sole and logical representation of “Islam” in the world. The Aga Khan, for example, established one of the largest hospital networks in Pakistan, a constructive and ethical engagement with the faith. This story is less often told in the media when juxtaposed against ISIS’ atrocities.

Even a week after the attacks in Pakistan, we still do not know who is responsible for them. There are many groups who want to claim credit for these attacks because these nihilist groups offer nothing but death, and they reap political benefits if they can say they are the most destructive. They are operationally interchangeable and can only compete in the realm of body counts. They benefit when we describe Muslim communities as “sects” because that implies a true Islam to which they can lay claim. This naming is not part of the Muslim tradition — it only gives the nihilists legitimacy.

All of these groups are the spawn of the Wahhabi movement. This movement, which originated in the 18th century, and eventually rose to power by allying with the British Empire to kill rival Muslims, cannot be considered Sunni. It represents an innovation, creating a new community of interpretation.

The terrorist attack that killed 47 Muslims, many women and children, continues to demonstrate the depravity of nihilist groups. However, to read it as part of an ongoing conflict rooted in theology makes too easy an analogy between Christianity and Islam and misses the deeper lessons. We need to move beyond simple labels of Sunni and Shi’ah, and not give the most depraved elements of a society and opportunity to claim legitimacy for themselves.

Hussein Rashid is a professor of religion at Hofstra University, a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow with the Truman National Security Project. He works at the intersection of religion, art and national identity. Views expressed are his own.