The largest holiday in the Islamic calendar is Eid-al-Fitr, celebrated this year on March 10th across the Islamic world — a world that stretches from Indonesia, west through Malaysia, the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia, onward from Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and westward across Northern Africa — down to Nigeria. It also includes some people in South Africa and some in East African countries like Uganda and Kenya.
Vast as this may seem, these close to two billion people are not a unitary whole. As in Christianity, there is a basic schism between Sunni and Shia, the counterpart of Catholic and Protestant. Most countries are Sunni majorities, the only exception being Shia Iran.
The radical and now pragmatic Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a sort of reconciliation deal with Iran in 2023 whereby both countries agreed to respect each other’s sovereignty and not interfere in the internal affairs of the other. Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi also received an invitation from Prince Mohammed’s father King Salman to visit Saudi Arabia, and did so in March 2023.
A year later relations between the countries remain restored but there are tensions, particularly with respect to regional allies and the conflicts in Yemen and Lebanon. And Syria continues to be Iran’s best Arab friend.
Iran is also expanding its horizons as it looks towards China and also Russia and the (former Soviet but now) independent republics like Kazakhstan. The emerging triple axis of Russia, China and Iran is an attempt to remake the world according to some like Dina Esfandiary, who holds a doctorate from the renowned War Studies Dept. at King’s College London.
Others believe that to be illusory, and that the relationships are basically bilateral with ad hoc trilateral coordination when necessary in specific circumstances.
Is there any chance the OIC (Organization for Islamic Cooperation) could become unified like the EU? The problem it faces is that its member states may share religion in common but they are separated by sectarian, ethnic and cultural divides. Europe, on the other hand, was separated only by language and history, and therefore could profit economically by forming the EU.
Another problem is the large population differences and the possibility of richer countries being swamped by poor and illiterate immigrants. Still others with a more tolerant religious culture might not like the intrusion of religious diehards.
And there it stands. A two billion monolith (except they are not) of Muslims who in their time have given us wonders like the Taj Mahal, and who are now trying to compete and find a place for themselves in a much changed world from the days of their glory. Think of a multireligious Spain that led Europe in knowledge, culture and aesthetics. Or the Mughals who ruled India with religious harmony, peace and glory until the British arrived squeezing out India’s wealth while bringing it into a sort of modernity.