The biggest challenge facing the Muslim Ummah today comes not from outside but from within. It is the sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shias. In recent years it has become so sharp that it is being openly exploited by outside powers to serve their ends. Indeed, it has been damaging the Ummah more than any weapon of mass destruction could do.

An example is provided by the US machinations in Iraq after its invasion. It tore the country asunder by not only exploiting the sectarian divide but by openly inciting one community against the other. Today Iraqi society is torn apart because of sectarian and ethnic hatred fuelled by the Americans. More Iraqi civilians are being killed in the sectarian attacks than were martyred in the US invasion.

Another example is provided by the current strife in Syria where again the sectarian factor is very much in evidence. Iran has been on the side of the ruling regime which is being supported by Russia and China, while the rebels who are mostly from the majority sect, have the 'sympathies' of the western powers. According to media reports, over 90,000 Syrians have been killed in the uprising against the ruling regime, and more people may be killed or rendered homeless in the civil war that has gripped that country.

In the case of Afghanistan too, the sectarian factor has been in evidence from the time the trouble began, and it is being exploited by the outside powers to divide and weaken the Afghan nation. It may be recalled here that when the Afghan people fought against the Soviet invasion in the 80's, though they were united but they grouped themselves in separate outfits on sectarian basis. And when the Soviet army withdrew from Afghanistan, the heavily armed rival groups fell upon each other resulting in huge casualties of Afghan people. So sharp was the sectarian (and ethnic) division that some of them went over to their erstwhile enemies, the Russians and the Indians, to seek help against their rival factions. The Indians have exploited that opportunity to interfere in Afghanistan to the hilt and continue to take advantage of the internal (sectarian) conflict among the Afghans to gain a say in the affairs of that country. Now India has joined hands with the US to act as its agent in Afghanistan after the latter withdraws its forces from there in 2014. Given this situation there can be no hope of peace in Afghanistan in the foreseeable future.

Sectarianism makes the people so blind that they go to the extent of joining hands with the declared enemies of the Ummah in trying to exterminate each other. Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan provide the typical examples of how sectarianism has been ruining the Ummah. It has become a tool in the hands of the enemies of Islam to exploit the Ummah. Sectarianism derives some people so crazy that they fall into the trap of the very powers that have been working against them and occupying their lands.

Some leaders of the Muslim world have been trying to project the true face of Islam before the world by promoting the spirit of co-existence and peace among the people of different faiths. But they have ignored the internal strife within the Ummah. It is high time that they pay attention to the sectarian conflict among the Muslims and take measures to unite the Ummah by promoting inter-sect understanding and peace within the Ummah. The OIC as an international Islamic body can also play a role to put an end to this internal conflict which has been draining the strength of the Ummah. The ultimate solution of the old standing problems of Palestine and Kashmir also lies in closing the ranks of the Ummah and keeping the enemies out.

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