Sectarianism and the Muslim world

As Iraq apparently descends into a civil war, one cannot fail to see the timeliness of President Pervez Musharraf's warning of a sectarian catastrophe likely to beset the Muslim world unless it controls the "societal, centrifugal and divisive forces from within". The Shias and the Sunnis, the two major segments of the Iraqi population, are out on the street with long knives, pillaging homes, burning shrines and cutting each other's throats.
There is no central authority, as the writ of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government does not go beyond the four walls of US-protected Green Zone. As insurgency takes hold and chaos permeates the federal Iraq seems to be tottering on the brink of break-up. Meanwhile, there are clear signs that the United States' involvement is likely to peter out, sooner than later, leaving behind a power vacuum that would add only to the savagery of the ongoing civil war. The danger is that should the civil war continue raging the sectarian forces already in business in Iraq will seek volunteers from far and wide.
A replay of that kind of near apocalypse, stemming as it does from the blood-soaked unfortunate Iraqi landscape, in other Muslim countries is what the President has warned of. Almost all Islamic states have mixed Sunni and Shia populations, of course in varying proportions. Generally these populations have coexisted in peace and harmony but quite a few of them have experienced occasional bouts of sectarian-based strife.
Rightly then the President's call at the convocation of Army Medical College the other day to raise the level of vigilance against sectarianism, at home and in other Muslim countries, is most earnest and urgent. He warned, "If we don't put our act together there will be sectarian catastrophe within the Islamic world"...It will be most terrible if we as a nation do not rise to the occasion, do not put our house in order and resolve the turmoil in the world as it can affect us also."
Indeed the sectarian-based strife plaguing the Muslim world is self-destructive. But there is also another disturbing dimension to it, in that the West tends to interpret the growing incidence of sectarianism as the inevitable consequence of practical Islam. Islam is bracketed with violence, as the very first finger raised while looking for possible perpetrators of an act of violence anywhere in the western world, is in the direction of Muslims. Resultantly, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries to lead their lives according to their faith and beliefs.
The President has underscored the imperative of rejecting the forces that fan hatred, lead to sectarian strife and involve extremist forces. That, he said, can be ideally done at the hustings when people vote to elect their government. But equally important roles have to be played by the international community at the level of the United Nations and the Muslim leadership at the level of the Organisation for Islamic Conference (OIC). As for the United Nations it should immediately step in when the United States pulls out, for Iraqis by themselves have presently no capacity to fill up the vacuum of power the American departure will create.
The UN's earlier decision to stay out of Iraq is a stigma that the world body should remove and that would be possible only by its prompt response. At another level, perhaps more importantly, the OIC should show up in Iraq, both to evolve a workable political solution and exercise brotherly intervention to stem the rising tide of sectarianism. The OIC contribution to resolving the Iraqi imbroglio has been lamentably inadequate, although its members should not forget that none of them is immune from the germs of sectarianism. Sectarianism should not prevail in Iraq, nor should it raise its head anywhere else in the Muslim world.