Quote Originally Posted by Outlaw
So yes I tend to understand the Sunni Shia clash---you really do need to read the Koran more often and a couple of recent USC books that have hit the market on the Sunni Shia Clash.
The Koran is great for understanding terminology, ideas, and context. It's not so great in explaining the structure of the regional security regime, the fraility of Middle Eastern states, and the consequences of persistent international penetration of the region. Whether Arabs worshipped Allah or the Flying Spaghetti Monister, the destruction of Iraq would have produced the kind of violence we are witnessing unfold today. The revival of militant Islam and the explosion of sectarian violence is not the cause of the fundamental conflict in the region; it's the expression of that conflict through a religious (and ethnic) frame.