Ray,

I think you bring up a great point. Islam provides the political environment in which to compete for power and legitimacy - the Sunnia/Shia divide is one such mechanism to distribute power. Much like in the US how 'conversatism' or 'liberalism' provides the context in which Republicans and Democrats resolving internal conflicts - but mostly through the electoral process starting with primaries and moving through the general election. It's why you see politicians picking up and letting go of supposedly deeply held principles that are really just ideological leverages in the political battle.

So there's a couple of chess boards being played simulatenously in the Middle East - one is the region, another is each individual state, and still another is Islam. The secular regimes prior to 1979 had this problem as well as they competed for the mantle of leading their anti-Zionist alliance arrayed against Israel. But this fundamentally a political problem - not a cultural or religious one. Who has the power and who wants it? The Middle East is unstable because so many people are not part of the formal political process. And after many years of conflict and radicalization, democratization only intensifies these perceptions. How do we deescalate the conflict in the Middle East and what political problems do we need to solve to do that?