Cleric's Remarks Spark Sunni-Shia Tensions

Prominent Sunni scholar Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, an Egyptian who lives in Qatar, told a Cairo newspaper that Shiites are dangerous heretics armed with "millions of dollars and trained cadres of Shiites doing missionary work in Sunni countries."

The alarm was quickly picked up in some Sunni quarters. Karam Gabr, the head of Cairo's pro-government Rose El Youssef magazine, says Qaradawi's warning came not a moment too soon.

"Sheikh Qaradawi was right in everything he said," Gabr said. "The Shiite expansion may be the most serious threat to the region right now."

As a matter of theology, Qaradawi's comments are hardly new. But they struck a chord among Sunni states that have nervously watched Iran's growing influence in Iraq, its funding of proxy militias in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and its aggressive pursuit of nuclear technology.

Gabr ranks Iran as a paramount threat, even more than the Arabs' traditional nemesis:

"Iran has always had an interest in expansion in the region," Gabr said. "Iran is playing a role that could be more dangerous and more of a threat than the role of Israel."

Qaradawi provoked strong feelings among Shiites as well. In Baghdad, the outspoken Shiite cleric Sheikh Jalal Aldin al-Saghir said outside forces are trying to incite strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. The Arabic word for it is fitna.

"There is a plan that has been going on for some time. Obviously we are seeing it here in Iraq, and even the fighting in Lebanon was part of this plan to create fitna between the Shiites and the Sunnis,"

In Cairo, the pro-government Il Gomhouriya newspaper has already demanded that Egypt deport Iraqi Shiites who have gathered in a suburb of the Egyptian capital.

Egyptian author Tareq al Bishri disagrees with Qaradawi, but points his sharpest criticism elsewhere.

Islamic thinker Tareq al-Bishri slammed Qaradawi’s comments, saying his attack against Shia beliefs was inflammatory.

“This fascism in the of the Sunni majority against Shias is the most dangerous thing for the Islamic nation because it pits Muslims against each other instead of against the invaders of their lands,” Bishri wrote in the Egyptian opposition daily Al Dustur on Saturday.

"We worry more about the American occupation of Iraq than we worry about any Iranian influence in Iraq," he says. "Here in Egypt we worry about the American support of Israel, which has its own expansionist

“We won’t allow the existence of a Shia tide in Egyptian mosques,” Minister of Waqf (religious endowments) Mahmud Hamdi Zaqzuq told Al Masri Al Yom in July.

Former Al Azhar University professor Adbel Moneim al-Berri said that Egyptian Shia experts, including himself, have been asked to educate state security officers about “Shia and plans to break through the Sunni countries.”