A rally of around 800 Shia Muslims marched on Washington, D.C., this Sunday protesting ISIS and its alleged connection to Saudi Arabia.
The march, organized by the Shia group Who Is Hussain, featured strong anti-ISIS and anti-Saudi rhetoric, according to an eyewitness who spoke to The Daily Caller News Foundation. The protesters pounded their chests and engaged in chanting. Women were separated from men and relegate to the back of the procession, according to the eyewitness. Several signs were held saying “American Shia Muslims stand with victims of San Bernardino” and “Americans unite against ISIS Wahabi terrorism.” Pamphlets handed out during the procession were quick to make connections between Saudi Arabia and terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaida.
The anti-ISIS message from the group was quick to try and claim Wahabism, and not Islam is to blame for Islamic terrorism. “Saudi Arabia and ISIS have a common ideological base, WAHABISM-Not Islam,” says one pamphlet.
“15 out of 19 terrorists were Saudi citizens of Wahabi ideology,” says the pamphlet, and “Books and treatises of… Abdul Wahab (the founder of Wahabism) incite followers to kill & destroy properties of Non-Muslims.”
Shia International, the group handing out the pamphlet, wants “all Americans (to) unite” for a “movement of mass mobilization of Americans of all racial & religious denominations against Saudi Arabia & its terrorist militia ISIS.” The group also calls on Florida Pastor Terry Jones to “know thy real enemy” and that he should burn Wahabi books, not the Quran. Jones burned several copies of the Quran at various
public events beginning in 2011. Shia International is also calling for a “Million march to prevent Saudi backed terrorist attacks in the USA” to be held at the Washington Monument in Washington in March of 2016.”
The organizing group, Who Is Hussain, is a UK based organized “dedicated to letting the world know about an inspirational man who lived fourteen-hundred years ago. A man called Hussain.” Hussain ibn Ali, grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, is one of the most important figures in Shia Islam and was beheaded after starting a revolution against the ruling Islamic Caliph. His death is considered a flash point for the start of tensions between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam. The procession comes on the day of Arbaeen, when Shias commemorate Hussain’s death.
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According to the group’s website they “organise (sic) events to give back in their local communities, ranging from blood donation drives to feeding the homeless and much more.” A video on the front page of the group’s website alludes to the controversial Black Lives Matter Movement, even though its site claims to have no “formal affiliation” with the organization.
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