Skip to content

Iranophobia and the Sectarian Fifth Column

By Iqbal Suleman

Imam al Shafi (R.A) was asked, “How do we know the people of Righteousness during the time of fitna (Oppression) and he replied “Follow the arrows of the enemy and they will guide you to them”.

The learned Imam provided a very clear and brilliant answer.  He did not say that the righteous people are those who wear long robes, have very long beards, pray throughout the night and fast every day. Rather he says that the most righteous people are the ones who are resisting injustice and who are being attacked and killed by the enemy oppressors.

What is the fitna in the contemporary world we live in? It is the Genocide in Gaza.

Who is the enemy? Israel.

What are the arrows of today?  They are the F35 fighter jets, armoured tanks, drones, missiles, bombs and guns.

Who is the enemy targeting with its “arrows”? If we follow these “arrows”  weapons  of the enemy we see who they target, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Ansarullah (Houthis of Yemen), the Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq and the Islamic Government in Iran.

What have the other Governments in Muslim majority countries done during the time of this (fitna) Genocide? Recently the Gulf Arab states financed Trumps American Government with four trillion dollars. They have also allowed the land of their countries to be used as American military bases.

Apart from not providing any support for the people of Gaza, these Gulf fiefdoms have been secretly collaborating with the Zionist Regime. The extent of their collaboration with Israel and their animosity towards the Palestinian Resistance has been extensively documented by Bob Woodward, an author and investigative journalist in his book “War”.  Non state military formations like Al Qaeda, ISIS, and and HTS have not fired a single bullet towards the Israeli Military Forces and Israel has not sent any arrows to attack these formations. They too know who their enemies are.

The former Isis and Al Qaeda chief Jolani, now politically reincarnated as Ahmed Al Sharaa, the current ruler of Syria recently responded to a question from the Jewish Journal asking him about future relations with Israel and he replied “We have common enemies and we can play a major role in regional security””.  Al Sharaa’s Syrian government considers Iran and not Israel as it’s enemy and has been doing Israel’s bidding by stopping weapons from Iran flowing to the resistance movements fighting Israel and arresting leaders from Palestinian Resistance group Islamic Jihad.

On Friday the 13th June 2025, Israel launched an unprovoked, unlawful and all-out war against Iran. Why? According to the Hamas released statement on Friday 13th “Iran is today paying the price for its steadfast position in support of Palestine and its resistance and its independent national decisions”.

Saleh Al Arouri, the deputy chief of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine who was martyred by Israel made a very sober statement on Iran in which he emphasised that he as an Arab, a Sunni, and a Palestinian acknowledged and appreciated that the most hostile government in the world to Israel was Islamic Iran which has consistently and unconditionally supported the Palestinian resistance in a way that no other country in the world has.

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for the Islamic Resistance in Gaza denounced sectarianism and pleaded with the Muslims to immediately stop this sectarianism which is an obstacle to Palestinian national liberation.

But right now when Israel is at war with Iran, sectarians in South Africa and elsewhere are spreading hatred towards Iran and its people. These self-righteous types think that they are more pious and intelligent than the leadership of the Palestinian Resistance which is why they arrogantly preach and practice sectarianism that the Resistance has denounced.

Israel and America have been spreading hatred and fear about Iran ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 when the people of Iran liberated themselves from the Pahlavi Monarchy.  After losing its client state, the Empire went on a campaign to demonise Iran.  This Iranophobia has spread like wild fire by the media apparatus of the West. One of the major tools of the Iranophobia project was sectarianism, to sow a divide between Muslims along Sunni and Shia lines.  The real reason for the Empire to have designated Iran as an evil enemy was because the Iranian people chose a system of government that wanted to be independent from the tentacles of Empire and support the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. Divide and rule has always been a policy of Imperialism and Zionism. It knows how to exploit fault lines in order to keep the people subjugated.

Sectarianism in our communities is propagated by comfortable elites who are alienated from the Muslim Street. What does the Muslim Street see? After twenty months of Genocide they see more than fifty five thousand Palestinians killed, all of Gaza reduced to rubble, Palestinian captives raped and tortured to death in Israeli detention centres, children starving to death, graveyards desecrated, hospitals bombed, every human rights law violated and the Occupation acting with impunity while the powers of the world do nothing.

Who are the heroes of the Muslim Street? The people of Gaza, every one of them, who continue living, day in and day out, in the midst of the bombs, the blood, the tears, the horrors and the torture. The doctors, the nurses, the journalist, the first responders who are all in the line of fire. The Resistance. The fighters who defend Gaza against the Zionist Occupation forces. The Axis of Resistance. The ones who join in the fight in solidarity with the Resistance, who sacrifice their lives for Gaza, who are martyrs in the resistance to Genocide. The street watches the weapons of the enemy attack all formations of the Axis of Resistance.

Iranians are being demonized and dehumanized by sectarians. In this all- out war on Iran which may result in the deaths of thousands of innocent Iranians, the sectarian mind will rejoice and say “Rather all of these disbelievers die, even the little kids so that they don’t grow up to be Shias” The same way that Israelis and Western racists think about Palestinians “Rather all of these evil barbarians die even if they are kids so that they don’t grow up to be terrorist”.  Sectarianism and Zionism are both sides of the same coin in that both advocate religious exclusivism and demean and denigrate people who are not from the same tribe. It’s the most primitive form of reactionary tribalism that serves and advances the interests of Imperialism.

Blinded by sectarianism and sailing in your self-righteous ego trip, you cannot see the “arrows” of Israel. Isn’t it a tragic comedy, that today you the sectarian Muslim and the son of Milaikowsky, Benjamin Netanyahu have so much in common and are on the same page, you both hate Islamic Iran with violent vitriol?

The freethinking masses on the Muslim streets, don’t need to follow the sermons of celebrity muftis and famous leaders of charitable organisations in South Africa who tell us that Iranians are all disbelievers and that there is nothing Islamic about Iran.  The blood of the Iranian martyrs has exposed those who are spewing sectarianism on social media to turn up the hate on Iran.

While the rulers of the richest countries of the Muslim world are providing trillions of dollars to the American Empire, the people in the poorest country in the Muslim world are fighting and sacrificing their lives to stop the Genocide but you want us to hate these brave justice seekers and martyrs because they follow a different madhab?

When there is only one Government in the world that provides political, financial and military support to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, you want us to hate them because they pray with their hands on their sides while we fold our hands during prayer?

And in this darkest hour when a brutal war is being waged against a country and people who have sacrificed everything, endured crippling sanctions and for more than 45 years supported the Palestinian struggle for self-determination you audaciously ask us not to stand in solidarity with these most noble brothers and sisters?  No, we listen to the wisdom of the great Imam Shafi. We see clearly who the “arrows” of the Genocidal enemy are attacking and we stand in solidarity with oppressed people who are resisting the oppressors. Isn’t it time for the sectarian to heed the words of Imam Shafi, wake up and smell the coffee?

Iqbal Suleman

Suleman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria and Research Associate: Media Review Network

Latest posts by Iqbal Suleiman (see all)