Inside Story: Is Maliki Behind Iraq’s Sectarian Divide?

Shia volunteers answer a call to arms after Sunni rebels take over Iraqi cities.

Baroness Warsi ‘Saddened’ by Rise in Islamic Sectarianism

MP's comments come after Briton carries out suicide attack
in Shia-Sunni Syria conflict

THE INDEPENDENT: Islamic sectarianism has become a “deep and dangerous” problem in Britain that is being used to justify acts of religious extremism, the country’s most senior Muslim politician has warned.

In a speech during a trip to the Middle East, Baroness Warsi said that differences between branches of Islam were being used by extremists to cause “tension, turmoil and terrorism”. She warned that such preaching was stripping the “soulfulness and kindness of spirit” from the heart of the religion and called on Islamic leaders to “reclaim the true meaning of the religion”.

Her comments come just days after it emerged that a UK citizen had become the first known Briton to carry out a suicide attack in Syria. Abdul Waheed Majeed, from Crawley, joined Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qa’ida-aligned group, and drove a truck laden with explosives into the gates of a prison in Aleppo.

While the Syrian conflict is in part about the rule of President Assad it also has a very significant sectarian dimension. Mr Assad is supported by the Shia minority in Syria, while the opposition come from the almost exclusively Sunni majority.

In her speech, given at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Oman, Baroness Warsi said such divisions were rarely confronted but posed “a great danger to faith and our world”. “The hatred that can exist between sects – between people who follow the same God – disturbs and saddens me,” she said.

“And even in Britain we are not immune from it. With division being preached by some, and belittling another’s faith or denomination being used as a way of reaffirming one’s own. Often the strongest condemnation seems to be reserved for your brother or sister in faith.” » | Oliver Wright | Tuesday, February 18, 2014

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Warsi warns of sectarian threat: Religious sectarianism “threat to world” says Baroness Warsi » | Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent | Tuesday, February 18, 2014