The Middle East (general catch all)

[Jedburgh]

ISN, 15 Oct 08: Conceptualizing the Sunni-Shi'i Encounter in the Modern Period

This study examines the issues of religious authority and legitimacy in Islam. The author compares and contrasts traditions of jurisprudence and juridical authority in Sunni and Shia Islam. The author considers the major related points of discussion among Islamic religious scholars, especially on the issue of interpretation. The study also considers the Islamic Revolution in Iran, its impact on Islamic ideology and the revitalization of the study of Islam.

[Jedburgh]

NPR, 20 Nov 08: Speaking of Faith: The Sunni-Shia Divide and the Future of Islam

We seek fresh insight into the history and the human and religious dynamics of Islam's Sunni-Shia divide. Our guest says that it is not so different from dynamics in periods of Western Christian history. But he says that by bringing the majority Shia to power in Iraq, the U.S. has changed the religions dynamics of the Middle East......

[davidbfpo]

IMHO an update on the original 2008 theme, an article in The Guardian 'Is the Middle East heading for a full-blown religious war?':http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...war?CMP=twt_gu

Vali Nasr is cited too and near the end:

Nasr, who is more optimistic than most, suggests, too, that the current tensions can be seen as marking the final unravelling of the shape of the region first conceived in the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot agreement that foresaw the dismemberment of the Ottoman Turkish empire.

"Those structures are now coming undone: first under the boots of US soldiers in Iraq and more recently under the heels of the democracy protesters of the Arab spring."