>>Let me illustrate a picture:
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>>The setting is the Arabian Peninsula, scattered with all sorts of groups of people.
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>>They're separated by many different ideas, but mainly are united by a common language.
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>>They fight each other. They kill each other, banish each other from their lands.
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>>They also have a great deal of foreign problems. They are fighting with outsiders, and outsiders are killing them.
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>>That was some 1500 years ago. Then a man named Muhammad had a brilliant idea to stop the warring tribes.
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>>He used the leading theological and philosophical developments of the day, and provided them to the Arabic people in one language, never to be translated.
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>>His work proved to be a powerful statement of knowledge in a particularly beautiful form, and was thus successful.
>>
>>Could a re-unification of the Muslim sects be the solution to creating security in Iraq and redeploying American forces?
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>>It would take a brave and charismatic Muslim leader to accomplish such a lofty mission.
>
>
>I have no doubt such a leader could heal the wounds in Iraq. My confidence level that such a leader will emerge any time soon is low. The real problem is Shiites and Sunnis hate each other even more than they hate Americans. Iraq seems to be growing more barbaric, not more enlightened.
>
>I need to reread the history of the schism but IIRC it didn't start out as much of a difference of opinion. It was a case of two groups agreeing 99% and deciding to become enemies over the other 1%. We can be a pretty dumb species sometimes (not limiting that to Iraqis).

Sounds a lot like Roman Catholics - vs - Protestants!