Shias (Shiites) are 55% of population in Iraq, but are not in political power.  They are mostly vegetarians, by the way, as opposed to the mainly carnivorous Sunnis. They were oppressed by Sadam's forces, who used nerve gas obtained from the U.S. on Kurds and Shias.

  Shias are 65% of the population of Iran and fed captured U.S. intelligence officers vegetarian food. Shias there were originally politically coalesced by Khoemini, and are much more organized.

   Behind the scenes of the U.S.-Iraq controversies is the Shia-Sunni controversy, Shias claiming that the  vegetarian Ali was the rightful heir to Muhammad's authority.  The chosen diet of Muhammad, by the way, it is admitted even by Sunnis, was vegetarian. He reportedly only ate meat occasionally if it was offered to him, and warned people that flesh is hard on the system.
 

   The Quran praises the Sabeans, who are worshippers of Saba aka Seba aka Siva or Shiva, who teaches vegetarianism. The sacred stone, as many have noted, is a Shiva lingam.  Verse 38 of Surah 6 of the Quran regards all animals as being in the family of Allah:

      "There is not an animal in the earth, nor a flying creature flying on two wings, but they are peoples like unto you.  We have neglected nothing in the Book (of Our decrees). Then unto their Lord they will be gathered.  Quran, Surah VI: 38

     2: 22  Who hath appointed the earth a resting-place for you, and the sky a
     canopy; and causeth water to pour down from the sky, thereby producing fruits
     as food for you.

     2: 25: And give glad tidings (O Muhammad) unto those who believe and do
     good works; that theirs are Gardens underneath which rivers flow; as often as
     they are regaled with food of the fruit thereof, they say: This is what was given
     us aforetime; and it is given to them in resemblance. There for them are pure
     companions; there for ever they abide.

     "The Cow," 2.30 "Wilt Thou place in it such as make mischief in it and shed blood?"
 
         Those who destroy the stock, the cattle, are condemned in the Quran. This passage also describes in a capsule what occurred among the Jews when original Jewish vegetarians were overcome by the cattleman sect.

      "And among men is one whose speech about the life of this world causes you
     to wonder, and he (even) calls upon Allah to testify to what is in his heart, yet
     he is the most violent of adversaries. And when he turns back, he runs along in
     the land in order to cause mischief and to destroy the tilth and the stock, and
     Allah does not love mischief making. And when it is said to him: Guard (your
     soul) against (the punishment of) Allah, pride carries him off to sinning; so, hell
     suffices him, and it certainly is an evil abode" (Holy Quran, 2:204-206).

     In other words, in spite of all the assertions in he Quran that it is okay to slaughter animals, there are still remnants of the original Quran which assert the family of creation and that criticize those who make mischief and shed blood. Do you oppress, enslave, and murder your own family?  (This is supposed to be a rhetorical question.)

   Orthodox Islam, like orthodox Christianity and Judaism, were all originally vegetarian. It's more easily proven than one thinks, as numerous web sites including this one show.  Carnivorism doesn't heal--it kills, and those who promote carnivorism, whether eating meat themselves or feeding it to their offspring, promote disease and brutality. Major religious movements do not occur unless there is healing and uplifting, or inspiration.  Carnivorism offers bad health and bad moods, which is bad news. Hindu and Buddhist writers have been noting this for millennia.  But the vegetarian diet offers the healing of the physical body as well as the healing of the emotions. It is only the vegetarian diet that could have sparked people into proclaiming the "good news."

  William Harris in his The Scientific Basis of Vegetarianism documents the fact that the ratio of violent crimes and imperialism is highest among carnivorous cultures.  Hindus and Buddhists for the most part are not imperialists--they do not invade other nations and take over their natural and human resources, as do the conquering cultures of orthodox Judaism, Christianity, and Sunni Islam. But whether practicing ahimsa as the Hindus did against the British, or fighting back victoriously, as did the Korean and Vietnamese Buddhists, these vegetarian cultures become formidable enemies once confronted.

    Total peace on earth will never be brought about by carnivores.  Since they eat flesh, and therefore contribute to the slaughter of flesh and blood, it is literally a part of their biological make-up to be imperialists.  That's why Judaism, here for over 4 thousand years, Christianity, here for 2 thousand years, and Islam, here for over a thousand years, have not accomplished peace, and have not been representatives of peace. Their respective histories are blatant proof of their falsehood.
 

   Those who literally eat the corpses of murdered animals are, if one reads material on demonology, linking themselves with the demonic. Animal sacrifices in Judaism were inspired--as the Ethiopic Book of Enoch states--by the fallen angel Azazel.  Animal sacrifices, all bloodshed, all exploitation of earth, are forbidden in that book, which is quoted as authoritative in the Old and New Testament and the Quran, all of which originally taught vegetarianism. "Jubilees" presents the demon Mastema as initiating the Passover slaughters.

   See other pages of this study for elaboration or the sources cited.

   The patriarch Jacob himself in Genesis 49 shows the relationship between diet and violence. The Levite priests were of the family of Levi, and it is they who slaughtered the animals in the temple. Jacob here sees the slaughterer of animals, Levi, as a man prone to violence in general.

     Simeon and Levi are a pair;
     Their weapons are tools of lawlessness.
     Let not my person be included in their council,
     Let not my being be counted in their assembly.
     For when angry they slay men,
     And when pleased they slay oxen.
     Curse be their anger, so fierce,
     And their wrath so relentless. 49: 5-7

The quotation above also confirms Esdras' observation that the early patriarchs and late prophets shared the same morality, a vegetarian morality that has been erased and written over in the version of their lives we now see in the "Pentateuch."

   The writings of numerous Hindu and Buddhist writers confirm the relationship between a violent diet and violent behavior. Michio Kushi's Crime and Diet documents the pacifying effects of a macrobiotic diet on prison wards that had previously been noted as having more than average incidents of violence.

   The quote that begins this chapter, Einstein's awareness that a vegetarian diet will increase the chances for health and survival on earth for humanity, was no doubt gained by his observations of the fact that vegetarian cultures are rarely imperialistic, while carnivorous cultures are inclined to be imperialistic.  The statistical studies of William Harris and the case studies of Michio Kushi confirm the validity of Einstein's observations.