- Article Written By Arvin Niknia, Independent Author
In my previous article, I wrote about feminism. I wrote about the temporary marriage” Sigheh” in Iran. Sigheh is a legal form of prostitution. Many feminists have criticized it, but it is still cultivated in Iran and used by many pilgrims there. Temporary marriage was used during Muhammad’s time for slave women’’Nikah mut’ah” and later was banned by Omar ibn khattab(634-644) , who took power as rashidun caliphate . Iran recognizes only Muhammad, so temporary marriage is still practiced in Iran. It is, of course, not because of Muhammad but because of the income and benefits it has had for imams and traditional society. In this article, I am going to put an end to some Islamic lies that were cultivated by Middle Eastern nation-states against each other.
In the Sunni Islamic world, especially Iraq under Saddam Hussein(1979-2003), the state continued to make propaganda that Iran created Shia Islam, and Iranians killed the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate. They also created propaganda that Muhammad’s followers were Sunni because they practiced Muhammad’s traditions, while Shia Muslims were infidels.
On the other side, in Iran, propaganda was created that Sunni Muslims are infidels, Sunni minorities such as Kurds and Baloch were attacked and called separatists, and Zionist supporters. In Shia Islamic doctrine, Sunni Muslims have taken power and stripped Ali Ibn Abi Talib, Imam Ali (556-661) of power. This propaganda was especially used to brainwash people so that authoritarian states like Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia could cultivate their states’ projects. Both Shia and Sunni Islam are doctrines that were instituted by states and have nothing to do with Muhammad, because Muhammad was neither Shia nor Sunni. Muhammad created an ideology called Islam. He was a Muslim.
In addition, Shia Islam has nothing to do with Iran because Iran started as a Sunni country but was later converted to Shia by the Turkish Sufi Brotherhood, which was Shia Muslims,” The Safavids.” While Iran was transformed into a Shia state, Egypt was metamorphosed into a Sunni state. The Fatimids(909-1171) had established the first Shia state in history in Egypt. I mentioned before that Islam wiped out several civilizations. It is quite correct that they burned books and knowledge, raped many women, and brought many men into slavery. It is also certain that civilizations were not allowed to speak their language but only Arabic.
The Umayyad dynasty (661-750) was quite interested in the Arabic language, and they forced everyone to write and speak Arabic. They did not care much about Islam; therefore, Islam first became an institution under the Abbasids(750-1517). Even though everyone spoke Arabic, Iranians, Afghans, Pakistanis, and former Russian countries like Tajikistan succeeded in recapturing their language, while Egyptians and Babylonians lost their language and identity. The above countries have a lot of history and culture in common and are almost brothers and sisters. They fought from the very beginning for their independence because non-Muslim people were taxed heavily and were beaten down. Many became Muslims to escape the high taxation. Although the high tax was unjust, many Christian minorities fled to Islamic countries to avoid persecution by the Roman Empire. They would rather pay the high tax to Muslims than die at the hands of the Romans. Some of the people mentioned above chose to serve the Muslim Khalifa in Baghdad, but others chose to fight the Khalifa system because, even though most had become Muslims, the Khalifa had to be Arab and a man.
Although some Khalifas were superior to others, oppression and discrimination persisted. Only during Yaghub Ley’s reign (861–879) was the Khalifa in Baghdad defeated, leading to the regions mentioned falling under non-Arab control. Arabic was forbidden to speak. During this period, Persian and languages like Dari and Tajik flourished, nurtured by renowned poets such as Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Firdausi, and Omar Khayyam. It is worth noting that Iranians or non-Arabs did not dismantle the Rashidun Caliphate. Omar ibn Khattab remains the only Khalifa known to have been killed by a Persian slave soldier seeking vengeance for the Persian Empire’s demise.
The remaining two Khalifas Uthman and Ali were killed by Yemenis and Egyptians ‘’ Kharijites’’, respectively. For Saddam Hussein to get Shia Muslims in Iraq involved in a war against Iran (1980-1988), he started his propaganda machine that Iranians had killed Imam Ali. However, Imam Ali was killed by an Arab “Ibn Muljam “ from Yemen “ The Kindih Tribe “. Uthman was killed by a group of Egyptians . For a long time, authoritarian states used religion as a tool for division. However, in reality, all of Muhammad’s followers were relatives, friends, and family with each other, and they supported each other. Sometimes, they fought with each other for power, but generally, they stayed together. Imam Ali was never against Omar Ibn Khattab; on the contrary, several sources indicate that he hailed him.
