Shi'ite Quotes
![Today there is a divide that we must acknowledge, and we must know who is deepening it. Perhaps it is colonialism-the enemy of Islam, the enemy of the Arabs, the enemy of the Persians-that is deepening it.... They have divided Islam into two Islams, and there came to be Shi'ite Islam and Sunni Islam. This is a bid'a [heresy]... When did Muhammad say: "I have brought you Shi'ite Islam and Sunni Islam?"... they have now begun to group the Arabs against Iran and Iran against the Arabs, and then Shi'ites against Sunnis and Sunnis against Shi'ites.... Are we Muslims, or are we Shi'ites and Sunnis?! For whose benefit is this? It is for the benefit of the "other" that we are speaking about, for the benefit of the enemy, for the benefit of colonialism. (Muammar Gaddafi)](https://cdn.quotesdtb.com/img/quotes_images_webp/53/muammar-gaddafi-begin-benefit-473753.webp)
One has to look at the fundamental nature of the clerical regime in order to understand its true and ultimate intentions. Since its advent in 1979, the regime's leaders – starting with Khomeini himself – set out to export their radical ideology to the region and beyond. The primary mission (raison d'être) of the regime is to convert other regimes to its own mold with the goal of establish a modern-day Islamic Shi'ite Caliphate. It is so stated and defined in its Constitution as well as that of the Pasdaran's.
Reza Pahlavi
When one looks at Ayatollah Khomeini's vision of an Islamic Government, one realizes that it actually had little to do with the traditional thinking of the Shi'ite establishment. I say this in the sense that his concept of the "Velayate Faghih” (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists) has in effect violated at least two of the most cardinal principles of the Shi'ite faith. The first being that, the only time divine rule could be envisaged to have domain over us on Earth is upon the reappearance of the 12th Imam, who is considered a "Ma'soum” (or non-sinner). Until then, it is not the role of the clerics to govern society in the name of religion. The second being the principle of "Takassore Maraje'”, or the plurality of sources of emulation, in other words multiple high ranking clerical leaders, as opposed to a single source such as the Pope in Catholicism.
Reza Pahlavi
The Third World attitude toward the United States is also easy to understand if you think of it in terms of adolescence. The citizens of the Third World are in a teenage muddle about us--full of envy, imitation, anger and blind puppy love. I have been held at gunpoint by a Shi'ite youth in West Beirut who told me in one breath that America was "pig Satan devil" and that he planned to go to dental school in Dearborn as soon as he got his green card. In Ulundi, in Zululand, I talked to a young man who, as usual, blamed apartheid on the United States. However, he had just visited the U. S. with a church group and also told me, "Everything is so wonderful there. The race relations are so good. And everyone is rich."
P. J. O'Rourke
Khomeini was one of some 200 Ayatollahs and never considered by others as "supreme" in anything. His limited knowledge of theology and history and his inability to master Persian and Arabic at a high level meant he would never attain the summit within the Shi'ite clerical hierarchy. Khomeini was a politician and owed his place in the Iranian panorama to the success of his political movement against various rivals and adversaries.
Khamenei's knowledge of theology and history is certainly superior to that of Khomeini. He also has a better command of both Persian and Arabic. Had Khamenei built a career within the Shi'ite clerical hierarchy he would have had a good chance of reaching higher rungs of the ladder than Khomeini.
Amir Taheri
He is somebody who has fought against the occupying forces," says Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, the leading Sunni clerical body. "All other Shi'ite leaders are seen [by Iraq's Sunnis] as collaborators because they cooperate with the Americans.
Muqtada Sadr
