clash, mexico beating cameroon 1-0. and you can follow the sports and current affairs news on the website at aljazeera.com. the story we are covering on the front page is the afghan presidential run-off election. more on that after be get it. stay with us here on al jazeera. forgiven for thinking it's 2004 again. maps of iraq, escalating warfare and fleeing civilians. now the grand ayatollah is calling up for armies to protect it's shrines. iraq at its brink is the inside story.

>> hedge, i'm ray suarez. when the united states invaded iraq americans had to learn and quickly about what they had gotten in to. once the revered and feared dictator saddam hussein was overthrown why would muslims start bombing each other and start destroying religious shrines. did the kurds to the north and shias to the south who suffered terribly under saddam hussein consider themselves hockey iraqis at all. now that a sunni guerrilla army is seizing the territory and initiative from a shia-led government we have to look at the splits and tears at iraqi society again and we have to look at the wider set of surpris

pressure pushing on iraq. the sunny militias are fighting iran's allies, the shia who run things in baghdad. >> any action that we may take to provide assistance to iraqi security forces have to be joined by a serious and sincere effort by iraq's leaders to set aside sectarian differences. >> president obama said friday he's weighing options for military intervention in iraq, but said the iraqis must protect themselves and heal long-standing sectarian divisions. this has to be a wake-up call. the willingness to make hard decisions and comprises on behalf of the iraqi people in order to bring the country together. >> his comments come as a sunni force takes territory.

but another powerful force stands in the way. grand ayatollah has called on people to protect the holy sit sites. >> the call threatens to renew anger that simmered since the days of saddam hussein. all through saddam's rule he oppressed, marginalized and killed shias primarily from the country's south and east. at the heist of the u.s. occupation sectarian strife was fervent. neighbor killed neighbor in daily bombings and other violence fueled by insurgents and alqaida hitting the face

against each other. one of shia's islam's most sacred sites was bombed by al-qaeda in february 2006. it was the flash point that began some of iraq's darkest years when sunni and shia iraqis killed each other by the thousands. historically the differences between sunni and shiite muslims are small. the sunni believe they were th ththe inheritor s. nourial mali is a shiite, and over the years in office he has marginalized the sunni. capitalizing on the frustration of sunnies the military group called the islamic state of iraq and levan or isil pledging to

bring more power. large swaths of territory in the northern region of iraq dominated by sunni muslims have been overrun and seized by is il. mosul fell tuesday and then tikrit wednesday. two other towns fell thursday. iraqi security forces largely abandoned their posts. now the isil say they have their eyes on baghdad, raising concerns in the u.s. and international community. >> there are dangers of fierce sectarian fighting if, for example, these organizations try to over run sacred shia sites. iraq's neighbors also have some responsibilities to support this process. no one has an interest in seeing terrorists gain a foothold, and

no one will benefit to see iraq fall to terrorists. >> and the government of the government of iran we won't tolerate this violence. we will fight violence and terrorism in the region and around the world. >> the sunni jihadists have a significant role in the ongoing syrian civil war. destabilizing the wider region. they're seen by analysts as a terror force. this week hundreds of thousands of iraqis have fled to an u.n. refugee camp as the u.n. said the number of those killed so far may run into the hundreds. >> a grand ayatollah's call to

arms, and iraqi's plea for help and the president 's dilemma. joining us for that conversation from england, juan coal, professor of history. and here in washington, who holds the chair in islamic studies in virginia, and from oklahoma, joshua landis director of middle east studies at the university of oklahoma. professor, let me start with you. inside stay's iraq is this ethnic, this religious divide between sunni and shia more about identity, or are there actually such significant religious differences that it keeps the groups in conflict? because i was think ing about northern ireland as i watched that unfold. a lot of it was the short land

between catholics and process tonight protestants, but they were not fighting over the role of the pope. they were fighting over power. >> i think we can say quite safely in iraq it is not theological discussion. it's more question of identity as much as power that goes with identity. for the first time shia in iraq has a voice, and that's translated to power. and unfortunately nouri al-maliki has not been able to provide the leadership to get the communities together after all iraq, the shia and sunni communities have lived together for a long time. there has been corporation in the old days. we do see that for the first

time the shia were empowered to become a source of worry not only for the iraqi sunnies, but for the neighboring soupy arab countries. >> professor, a lot of stories coming out of iraq portray the isil forces as a bad bunch of guys. are there a lot of sunnies who are caught not really in favor of having their areas run by isil, but also not that enthused about the shia centric government of nouri al-maliki, either. >> that's exactly right, ray. the polling shows that the majority of iraqi sunnies are secular minded people. remember, they were brought up under a socialist nationalist government. there are, you know a strong minority that have become religious fundamentalists. but it's not where the sunni community of iraq's mind really

is. but they were more or less feeling as though the shiite troops had occupied them. this is as much an urban popular up rising against what is seen as almost a foreign occupying power. they see that the iraqi shiite powers that be in the military as ponds of neighboring shiite iran. they feel alienated. many of them have been fired from their government jobs, their factories were closed down by the bush administration because they were socialists. very high rates of unemployment. poor government services. the isil forces showed up. they've adopted the model of being fundamentalists but also trying to provide soup kitchens and services. so they have gotten some suppo support.

>> as this army of isel and it's affiliates get closer to baghdad, are we diagnose to see finally what we haven't seen earlier which is push back from shiite-armed forces? >> i think we will. there is likely to be a real normalization on the part of the shiites. so far since maliki has come to power the country's shiites have taken it for granted that they would be ruling the country, and it was hung on a silver platter by the united states. so the shiites rebuilt the state around their own pow, and they have ignored the sunnies largely and discriminated against them.

now with this new jihadly organization breathing down their necks, very bigoted, looking at shiites as non-muslim at all, any moderates are going to be swept away. we've seen this happen in syria, and--this is an echo effect in iraq they are all going to consolidate their grip and go after the sunnies with a vengeance, i fear. and if the sunnies aren't careful, they're going to be hard put iran is lined up, and

they'll cock down on isil like a ton of bricks when they get organized. >> we'll take a short break and talk about that prospect. if there are explosions at religious shrines, , and what are the prospects for that country. stay with us. this is inside story. >> al jazeera america presents the system with joe berlinger >> parole >> someone is going to get out and do something heinous it's goanna happen... >> when is enough...enough? >> i'm not sure why you didn't learn from your last incarceration >> some prisoners try to get it right >> i'm trying to go to school and get a nice job >> you're only 22, you can turn this around... >> and some just don't >> he actually told people in the halfway house, that he was amazed that they had given him parole >> the system with joe burlinger only on al jazeera america

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>> an epic fight to preserve a way of life. >> we ask for strength as we take on one of the most powerful forces on the globe >> a battle for the very soul of this state, but is time running out? >> it's a wholesale effort to buy government... fault lines al jazeera america's >> ground breaking... >> we have to get out of here... award winning investigative documentary series wisconsin's mining standoff on al jazeera america >> obama: unfortunately, iraqi leaders have not been able to overcome the distrust that has long been simmer there. that goes as well for iraqi citizens and military forces. >> that is a short statement on the situation in iraq. on our program we're focusing on the sunni-shia division at the heart of this story. it's playing out violently in

iraq, but it's important to understand it in the broodser regional context as well. professor cole, we heard from the grand ayatollah , is a saying to fill in the gaps in the military forcers but not do more than that. is there more there and less there that meets the eye? >> well, the ayatollah never liked the idea of private militias. what he would like to do is shore up the morale of the national iraqi army and urge national iraqis to support it and to join it , so it's a recruitment drive for the national army. he more or less avoided the sectarian language.

the only time he averted to it was when he called upon the security forces to protect the shiite shrines. the isil and ice lists hate shrines. they believe relationship with god should be direct. they don't like intercession. so with the europea wars of religion, they want to protect them . >> in the period just after the invasion of iraq, there were attacks on places like religious shrines, terrible loss of thousand-year-old places of worship, pilgrim processions,

religious leaders were blown up. it seemed like there was no sense of going too far, and you could go 'do anything. that's when americans started to wonder how these two people once you took away saddam hussein, that these two people could be at each other's throats. how did it become this way. >> some of the differences that we did not see clearly was simmer somewhere else, and outside interference has been much more serious in iraq. what i mean by that, it's not only the theology, but it's also the collective will as we might say of the people who wanted to see iraq fail as a state. this was the--this was the time

when there was the adoption of a moderate stance so that nobody would say that this is under religious leadership who is now becoming extremist, and some how trying to support th , and saying iraqi soil is the the place of political up rising. it's somewhat going back to the time when it was impossible to take any position , and therefore has avoided it. i think some how the natural culture of iraq was able to maintain the unity of the shia together. what mosul has done now is has actually some how revived the feelings of the ideology that has been there, taking not only

the shia shrines, but the shia rituals and identities, and it's a changed situation. >> professor landis, if there is an taken on a shrine, is this a very perceptive call on the part of the ayatollah understanding that this could an catalytic moment. if you went after one of the real treasured place was shia islam you could really unleash a world wind? >> it is. it's a mobilizing factor along religious lines. we have to remember that the entire arab world was a sunni edifice. it had been under the ottoman empire which ruled over iraq, syria , palestine, the entire arab world. the shiite world was a world of underdogs. it was out of iran, a persian world, and it wasn't really until irania iranian revolution

in 1979 that the ayatollahs put shia back on the map. we have hezbollah in '82 in lebanon. we have the alawites in syria coming to the fore once america invaded iraq, a country ruled by sunnies over the shiite majority, and really reverse 180 degrees the social order, casting the sunnies down from the top to the bottom, and cat putting the shiites from the bottom to the top giving an entire lock on the government. america, of course, talked about power sharing, but they had no include of what they were doing. they created a shiite power in the mis midst of the sunni world.

they were marginal group, they could ignore them and in a sense speak down to them because they were not powerful today they are powerful. in lebanon we have seen hezbollah come before syria, and there is this shiite crescent as has been talked to, stretching from lebanon all the way to iran today. that has made the sunnies feel very weak, and this isil is coming to champion. it's so violent. it's been crucifying people in syria. it's a form of islam which horrifies many sunnies. on the other hand someone is finally championing them, and they feel completely distressed in a country like syria where there have been so many refugees refugees' lives have been distressed. >> we'll take a quick break and

then continue with a look at the wider region and wider set of implications of what's going on in iraq pay. stay with us this is this is

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>> welcome back to inside story. i'm ray suarez. we want to look now at the regional implications of the latest violence in iraq. giving an overview of everything from cairo to tehran. iranian money is in the field. iranian arms are in the field. saudi money is pouring into this zone as well. what do you see happening? >> i also see the fear of iran. i think that's a very important factor which has not been taken in contract by some of the policymakers. there is a fear in iran.

after all, who is going to lead and since iran has an upper hand in many ways in terms of technology and techno contracts, and the way it is managing itself under the embargo i think it has left a very positive image as a whole. to be the leader and that's the fire that is really pushing the isil to go to the land of not only discrediting shia as non-muslim, but that iran will not succeed. make it clear that iranian arms cannot really protect iraq at all. that's what they fear. that it is iran's protection that is keeping iraq going under the mismanaged government of nouri al-maliki.

>> professor landis, briefly, before we go, does this war have the possibility of changing international borders in that part of the world? >> well, it could. in the sense that you have two shiite governments. one in baghdad, one in damascus. in between them there is a big sea of sunnies. if you keep the same borders and keep assad in baue power. it's going to finance. isil is saying this will not stand, and they hav they have built a big center between these cities. to change borders substantially will be extraordinarily difficult. >> let me turn it to professor

cole, some of the same questions, professor, this looks like a a war with sectarian orientation. >> you ask yourself where is the money come that supports the fundamentalist sunni militias, and it the shiites coming from rich businessmen in the gulf, in kuwait, not the governments necessarily, but a rising class of very wealthy billionaires who have extremely conservative point of view .

the way the high oil prices have given severe geopolitical power. it's not what it was. it can't support the iraqi government the way it might have once. and so the money power really is in the hands of these very wealthy kuwaitis and others. i think the united states treasury department needs to take steps to stop the money going to the gulf if it tends to it. >> professors, thank you all for bringing us up-to-date on this fast-moving story. this brings us to the end of this edition of "inside story." the participate may be over, but the issues continue. we would like to hear from you about the issues on this or any day's show. you can log on to facebook or twitter. our and it aj inside story am or

you can reach me directly @ray suarez . in washington, i'm ray suarez. >> on "america tonight": when homeowners come out shooting. >> how dare you come in my house? i felt good. i felt great. that i had shot him out my window. >> why detroit homeowners are hands. with the police chief's blessing. >> also tonight in india country, the president fulfills an old promise and comes face to face with some of the promises on the res.