Apart from the story that was shared about How Media Tried to Create Chaos on Shia – Sunni Hajj Issue, a new article has been posted by Express Tribune with distorted facts and almost misleading narrative about Shia and Sunni Islam. Few days ago, Saudi Arab executed 47 people on the allegations of terrorism and other offences, in which cleric belongs to Shia sect was also included. After this execution, a war of words was started between Iran and Saudi Arabia. A debate was also started on social media on this issue, which has divided the people of both the sects once again. On this issue, one of the leading English newspapers of Pakistan Express Tribune has recently published an article on its website, with the title “How do Sunni and Shia Islam differ?”
This article is written by John Harney, who is night editor on the international desk of New York Times. This article contains inappropriate details about both the sects of Islam, i.e. Sunni’s and Shia’s. First of all, Express Tribune should know that the writer of this article is not Muslim, so how could he define both the sects of Islam correctly?
According to this article, “The Sunnis, however, regard the first three caliphs before Hazrat Ali as rightly guided and themselves as the true adherents to the Sunnah, or the Prophet (PBUH)’s tradition”. But the truth is that all the Sunni’s regards all the four caliphs including Hazrat Ali (R.A). Moreover the “Writer” named Mecca and Medinah as holiest shrines however even if the writer has googled it out he would have known that these are holiest cities. Moreover Hazrat Ali (RA) was referred as Prophet’s grandson, and not cousin and son-in-law. This factual mistake was later corrected in the article.
Last but not the least is the writer’s understanding about Sunni and Shia school he wrote “Sunnis emphasize God’s power in the material world, sometimes including the public and political realm, while Shia value in martyrdom and sacrifice.” Either the writer was not able to explain his point of view or he misinterpreted the value of martyrdom in Sunni Islam as well. If the Shias so not value God’s power in political realm then why do they think Hazrat Ali (R.A) as more righteous successor??
People on social media have criticized badly on this article and asked Express Tribune to immediately delete this article from its website.