Resurgence of Shia arouses ancient fears among Sunni

[sabra]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b19dae52-d977-11da-8b06-0000779e2340.html

Resurgence of Shia arouses ancient fears among Sunni

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak provoked a political storm recently when he declared that the Shia Muslim communities in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world were more loyal to Iran than to their own states.

As denunciations poured in from Shia leaders stressing the Shia's historic nationalism, Mr Mubarak tried to calm the fury, saying he was referring to spiritual following rather than political allegiance.

But no effort at damage control could conceal the underlying anxiety that prompted the comments in the first place, two years after Jordan's King Abdullah, a fellow Sunni leader, caused uproar by warningof an emerging "Shia crescent".

Arab rulers are increasingly frustrated by a changing political order in the Middle East, where the Shia are for the first time in power in Iraq and Shia militias are now engaged in the sectarian conflict with the Sunni minority.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Who would have ever "anticipated" this?

You would have to spend at least 5 minutes reviewing Iraq history of the last 100 years to get a sense of it.

[MrPrax]

2. LOL...

Yeah but...they lost their library card and they only got dial-up.