Praise be to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ), for Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ) forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
The Shia demographics has been artificially engineered and tampered with over the centuries by the Sunnis. Nowadays, Sunni sadism and Shiaphobia takes many forms, one of them is denying any legitimacy to orthodox Islam by playing up with the numbers. Sunnis assert that because Shia Muslims make up 10-20%, they can’t be theologically right. Such notion could only arise among the simplest minds, for greater numbers do not indicate truthfulness of a particular doctrine. Throughout the 1930’s, nearly all the Germans were supportive of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, minority opposed both altogether. Sunni reasoning tells us that German opposition was wrong, because the Nazis were in supported majority. In India, Hinduism claims 80% of nation’s citizens, Islam 14%, therefore by the Sunni logic, all the Indian Muslims should abandon their religion and start sacrificing to the idols, for majority Hindus can’t be wrong. One can clearly see serious flaws in Sunni anti-Shia propaganda.
Moreover, the argument is further defeated by the fact that the Shia demographics was artificially engineered by the Sunnis. Centuries of anti-Shia genocide and propaganda, by the Sunni state and non-state actors, caused Shi’ite numbers to decline considerably across the world. Something that is barely mentioned in the Western and non-Western sources.
The very first organised Shia genocide came from one of the usurpers, Abu Bakr. After the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad, Islamic world rose up in opposition to the dictatorship of the first Sunni caliph. In series of conflicts, collectively known nowadays as the Ridda Wars (the Wars of Apostasy), forces loyal to Abu Bakr not only massacred open apostates led by self-appointed false prophets, but also Shi’ite Muslims and Companions loyal to Imam Ali (عليه السلام). Pro-Alid tribes who refused Abu Bakr’s usurpation of power, refused to pay zakat money to him, which was used by him as a pretext to automatically label them all as “apostates” worthy of massacres. Despite the fact, that according to mainstream Shia and Sunni sharia law, refusal to pay zakat to the ruler doesn’t turn one into an apostate from religion. At the cost of tens of thousands dead Shi’ites after a lengthy genocide, pro-Alid tribes were forcibly brought under the control of Abu Bakr. Tyrant’s actions officially mark the start of Sunni-led anti-Shia genocidal demographical change. Prophet’s family, as well as their Shia Muslim followers, were heavily censored and persecuted under the Umar, Uthman, Sunni kafirates; Umayyads, Abbasids, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, Saudis and elsewhere. Since 632, hundreds of millions were killed just for being orthodox (Shia) Muslims, or even for “seeming so” or having alleged “pro-Shia bias”.
For example, after a failed Alid uprising, Sunni “scholar” al-Shafi’i, was summoned in chains with a number of ‘Alids to the Sunni Abbasid tyrant Harun ar-Rashid. Al-Shafi’i was eventually freed, while the Alids were all executed. One of many examples of justice in Sunni religion where a bureaucrat (al-Shafi’i at that time was an Abbasid appointed governor of Najran, not yet a famous Sunni “scholar”) was freed, while Prophet’s direct descendants were all executed. Reoccurring motif in Sunni led anti-Shia genocide.
Historical accounts of demographical change
Egypt
Isma’ili Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171) during its greatest extent.
After Sunni Saladin (1137-1193) stabbed Ismai’li Fatimids (909-1171) in the back, Sunni Ayyubids (1171-1260) and Mamluks (1250–1517) embarked on anti-Shia campaign of “reviving and strengthening” Sunnism in post-Fatimid Egypt. The country, especially Upper Egypt, was an Ismai’li stronghold. New Sunni overlords forcibly converted Ismai’lis into Sunni religion, Ismai’li mosques became Sunni ones, pluralistic university al-Azhar was forcibly made into exclusively religious school of Sunni Shafi’i profile, and tens of thousands of books were burned and thrown into river. Mamluks, wanting to create a class of obident citizens that won’t question their rule, continued with Ayyubid genocide campaign. From 1171 till nowadays, millions of Egyptian Ismai’lis and Twelvers underwent the process of forced Sunnification. Despite it all, nowadays one can still find traces of Ismailism and broader (Shia) Islam in various aspects of Egyptian reality; from architecture to customs and traditions. If not for the betrayal by Saladin and genocide campaign, majority of Egyptians would of been nowadays Ismai’li Muslims with a sizeable Coptic minority and negligible Sunni one. Among Egyptian Shias, Saladin is dubbed as Kharab al-Din (the Destroyer of Religion), a derisive play on the name Salah al-Din (Saladin).
The Levant (nowadays Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan)
The general observations recorded by Muslim travellers passing through the Levant during the tenth and eleventh centuries, notably al-Maqdisi in his geographical work, Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm (The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions), Ya`qubi in his Kitab al-Buldan (The Book of The Countries), as well as Ibn Jubayr, clearly mention that Shia Muslims made up the majority of the populations of the regions of the Levant during this era, notably in the cities of Damascus, Tiberias, Nablus, Tyre, Homs, Aleppo, and Jabal Amel.
After the Hamdanids took control over Aleppo in 944, Aleppo became one of the centers of Shia Islam in the region. The city prospered and was visited by many scientists, clerics and poets whom the Hamdanids invited to their court which contained Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. Other cities such as Harran, Mosul and Raqqa also contained significant Shiite populations at the time which later supported the Mirdasids of Aleppo and the Numayrids of Harran in their power after the Hamdanids.
The territorial domains of present-day Lebanon similarly became home to significant Shia populations in the north, south and east since at least the 800s, and also in coastal cities such as Tyre and Tripoli.
For example, from the account Safarnama (literally “Travelogue”, the “Book of Travels”), of Persian Nasir Khusraw who visited Tripoli “in Syria” (nowadays Lebanon) in 1047 we learn:
[Description of the history of the city] (…) The people of Tripoli are all of the Shi’a sect. (…) [Further architectonical description of the city]. (Source: Nasir Khusraw, Safarnama , 1893 ed.).
Due to future Shia genocide, Tripoli’s demographics would be shifted from majority Shia Muslim to Sunni. Nowadays, Tripoli is a Sunni majority city known as a “hub of Salafi jihadism”, where al-Qaeda and Daesh flags adorn many places.
Nasir also remarked that the majority of population of Tiberias and half of Nablus‘ population were Shia Muslims.
Khusraw also visited Jerusalem/al-Quds in the year 1045 AD and reported:
“The population of Jerusalem is about 20,000, the populace being mostly Shi’a Muslims“.
Yaron Friedman authored a work The Shi’is in Palestine: From the Medieval Golden Age until the Present (2019), Brill, in which he presents a detailed historical account from primary and secondary sources of significant Shia Muslim presence in the land of Palestine, before demographical changes at the hands of Christian Crusaders, Sunnis and much later on, the Zionist Jews.
With the advent of the Sunni Zengids (vassals of the Seljuks), Ayyubids, and Mamluks, the population of (Shia) Muslims in the Levant dwindled greatly due to forced conversions to Sunni religion and anti-Shia genocide.
In 1305, the Sunni Mamluks carried out a grand campaign to erase the Shiite dominance in the coastal mountains of Lebanon. This campaign forced most of the orthodox Muslims to disperse, with some fleeing south to Jabal Amel and some to the Bekaa. Many Shia Muslims in the Levant were killed for orthodox Islam. One of these was Muhammad ibn Makki, called Shahid al-Awwal (the First Martyr), one of the great figures in Islamic jurisprudence, who was martyred in Damascus in 1384. Despite his title, he wasn’t the first nor the last of great Islamic scholars to suffer persecution at the hands of godless Sunnis.
On the positive note, Syrian Sunni families go back to their Shi’ite roots. Khalid Sindawi, a Sunni senior lecturer at Max Stern Academic College in Israel, mentions in his (pre-2011 war) article The Shiite Turn in Syria(2009) that, “…some 7 percent of the Sunni Muslims who converted in the Damascus area belong to families that had originally been Shiite but became Sunnis in the course of time, such as the al-Attar, Qassab, Hasan, al-Lahham, Bikhtiyar and Ikhtiyar families. In Aleppo, 88 percent of converts to Shiism are said to come from such originally Shiite families.”
In modern day Syria, especially since 2011 war, there is an increased wave of Sunni conversions to orthodox (Shia) Islam.
“Eastern Arabia“ (nowadays Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar)
In addition to mentioning the demographics of the Levant, Ibn Jubayr also mentioned in his writings that Shiites made up majority of population in the “Eastern Arabia”, that is nowadays Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar. For over 600 years continually, Shia Muslims were in control of the Emirate of Mecca (Hasanids) and the Emirate of Medina (Husaynids) well into Bakri (“Sunni”) Ottoman era, where both underwent forced Sunnification process at first nominally, but officially, adopting Sunni religion of Shafi’i creed. No friend to Shiites, Ibn Taymiyyah in his writings lamented about the strong presence of Shiʿite Muslims in the Hejaz region in general and in Medina in particular. Shiites made up majority of Medians before the Wahhabi takeover in the 19th century from the ailing Ottomans. Over time, with gradual Sunnification of Medina, Shia Muslims were forbidden from living within the city walls or being buried in proximity to the tombs of Prophet’s family members. However, despite genocide, persecution and oppression, Shia Muslims still make up majority in the eastern part of “Saudi” Arabia, as well as at least 40,000 Medians in heavily discriminated against community called Nakhawila (النخاولة). Ayatollah Muhammad ‘Ali al-‘Amri was the community’s leader till his passing away in 2011 at the age of 102 years. There’s also a community of Ismai’lis in southern “Saudi” Arabia totalling around 100,000 people.
Bahrain historically was a Shi’ite country. With a Sunni invasion and takeover in the 18th century, it became a Western protected concentration camp for the native Shia population. Due to Sunni engineered genocide, its native population decreased from 100% in 1783 (Sunni invasion), 83% on 22 January 1941 (first official census), to 65-70% in the 21 century. Historically, Bahrain gave the Islamic world many prominent orthodox scholars and thinkers, such as Maitham Al Bahrani, Kamal al-Din Ibn Sa’adah al Bahrani, Jamal al-Din ‘Ali ibn Sulayman al-Bahrani, Yusuf ibn Ahmed al-Bahrani and others. Sadly, nowadays their memory is being falsely claimed, purposely forgotten or slowly erased by the ruling Sunni invaders.
Yemen
The above map visualises Shi’ite control of Yemen (including what’s western Oman and since 1934 south-western “Saudi” Arabia) around the year 1160. Zaydi Imamate visible in green, other nearby states were Isma’ili. Within Yemen over time, Ismā’īlīs will adopt Zaydism as their main religious creed.
Yemeni Shia Muslims controlled the land for over 1000 years, fiercely resisting any form of external and foreign encroachment. However, in the 1960’s with the help of the Soviet Union, Sunnis established Marxist-Leninist atheist republic in the south, which led to a series of civil wars, and complete collapse of Muslim ruled Yemen that eventually descended into never ending genocide of Yemenis and Zaydi demographical decrease. Despite Western and Sunni (state and non-state) orchestrated genocide of Zaydis, they still make up 50% of Yemen’s population.
Afghanistan
Nowadays, orthodox Muslims account for 20% of modern day Afghan population. As elsewhere, the Shia numbers decreased considerably over the time due to unchecked genocide at the hands of ruthless Sunnis. From the time of Mughal founder Babur to modern day Taliban and Daesh (ISIS), millions of Afghan Shias were killed, slaughtered and enslaved (!). Afghan orthodox Muslims come primarily from, albeit not exclusively, Hazara ethnic background. Hazaras are easily distinguishable by their Asiatic features.
For example, with the help of British military advisers, Pashtun Sunni warlord and British puppet, Abdul Rahman Khan (1840-1901) alone is responsible for hundreds of thousands of Shia deaths, mass killings, enslavement and displacement. Hazara farmers were often forced to give up their property and ancestral land to Sunni Pashtuns. More than half of the entire population of Hazarajat in Afghanistan was driven out of their villages. Some 35,000 Shia families fled to northern Afghanistan, Mashhad (Persia) and Quetta (then British India, today Pakistan). There is a famous story of 40 Hazara girls in Uruzgan committing suicide to escape Sunni sex slavery during the anti-Shia persecution. At the onset of genocide, 30 mule loads of decapitated Hazara heads were sent to Kabul. It is estimated that more than 60% of the Afghan Hazara population were massacred or displaced during Abdul Rahman’s campaign of genocide and terror (1888-1893) against orthodox Muslims.
“…thousands of Hazara men, women, and children were sold as in the markets of Kabul and Qandahar, while numerous towers of human heads were made from the defeated rebels as a warning to others who might challenge the rule of the Amir”.
Major general James Browne, at that time agent to the governor-general in the British Indian Baluchistan,reported in a May 1893 letter sent to the Secretary of State for India, John Wodehouse that “…he believed Abdul Rahman was intending to exterminate the Hazaras” [that is, native Afghan Shia Muslims].
Sources used for the Afghanistan section;
Hassan Poladi, The Hazâras, Stockton, 1989.
Sayed Askar Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study, Richmond, 1998.
Alessandro Monsutti, HAZĀRA HISTORY, Vol. XII, Fasc. 1, pp. 81-85, Encyclopædia Iranica, 2003.
Methods of genocide
Sunnis apply wide range of methods to keep Shia Muslim demographics in check. One of the main tools is rape. Despite being prohibited in Islam, Sunnis are no strangers to its widespread use against innocent Muslims. Few examples;
Between 1548-1872, in a series of anti-Shia genocidal campaigns, rape by the Sunnis against Shi’ite women in Kashmir became standardised and a part of routine. (Sources; Pir Ghulam Hasan Khuihami, “Ta’rikh-e Hasan”, vol. 1, “Taraaj-e Shia“, p. 479, Research & Publ. Dpt., Jammu & Kashmir Gov., Srinagar 1960 and Zaheen, “Shi’ism in Kashmir, 1477–1885“, International Research Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 4(4), 74–80, April 2015).
During the 19th century Shia Hazara uprisings, Sunni Afghans raped and enslaved thousands of Shia Hazara women and girls confining them to sexual slavery. (Source: Alessandro Monsutti. HAZĀRA ii. HISTORY. Encyclopædia Iranica, 2003).
Sunni regime of Saddam Hussein used systematic rape against Iraqi Shia women and men as a method of oppression and genocide. Uday Hussein, one of Saddam’s sons, was an infamous serial rapist. (Multiple sources, see for example; US Department of State. Office of International Women’s Issues. Iraqi Women Under Saddam’s Regime: A Population Silenced. Washington DC, 2003).
In Bahrain occupied by the foreign Sunnis, detained Shi’ite women and men are regularly raped by the Sunni henchmen and foreign allies of the ruling regime. In 2011 alone, invading Sunnis raped thousands of Bahraini Shia women.
Orthodoxy despite unimaginable persecution
Valuing justice and truth above anything, and despite enormous genocide, Shia Muslims managed to hold on strongly to the orthodox Islamic teachings. Iran, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Bahrain, are all Shia majority states with differing stories. Despite constant genocide, Shia Muslims make up “significant minorities” in many countries, such as Yemen (50%), Kuwait (40%), Lebanon (30-35% of 65-70% total Muslim population), “Saudi” Arabia (20%), Pakistan (20%), Tanzania (20%-25% of 35%-50% total Muslim population), Chad (20%-25% of 55-60% total Muslim population), India (15%-?% [various sources put Indian Shia population at 30-200 millions] of 14% total Muslim population), Qatar (10%), and others. Shia Islam sees resurgence in the Maghreb region (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria) and elsewhere, despite brutal repression and oppression. To stop the spread of orthodox (Shia) Islam in Malaysia, with the Saudi monetary initiative, in 2016 Malaysian regime officially banned Shia Islam. The only country on Earth to do so officially by law. Ironically, few years later, the same prime minister will be indicted on money laundering and corruption charges. Since 1979, millions of Nigerian Sunnis became orthodox (Shia) Muslims, which with Saudi encouragement was met with a brute force and genocide (thousands of Nigeria’s Shia reverts were killed by the state and non-state actors).
Conclusion
Based solely on few selected examples above, one can clearly understand that if not for the Sunni aggressively orchestrated Shia genocide driven by the earthly desire for riches and power, and not Islam, Shia Muslims nowadays wouldn’t make up “10-20%”, but at least 50% if not way more.
*** And do not mix the truth with falsehood or conceal the truth while you know [it]. [2:42]
Uncovered Sunnism 
You must be logged in to post a comment.