Tuesday September 8, 2009

I've Been Thinking:

Last week Egypt arrested 13 people and charged them with promoting Islam - promoting Shiite Islam.

Egypt is a Sunni country.

Egyptian law prohibits promoting Shiite Islam because Egypt sees Shiite Islam as a threat to their very existence.

It is legal to be Jewish and to have Jewish schools in Egypt, but it is illegal to teach Shiite Islam.

This is a critical element in understanding the nature of internal Islamic rifts that inform the very fabric of Muslim society.

Shiites and Sunnis are sworn religious enemies. They might both be Islamic, but their differences are so dramatic and their internal wars so vicious that they make external difference look minor. The core of Shiite Islam is Iran and that is intolerable in the eyes of Egypt.

The West labors under an almost complete lack of understanding of Islamic societies and neatly groups everyone under one umbrella - Muslim.

Unless the West opens its eyes to the nuances within Islam, we will never understand the inner workings and critical components that make that world tick.

In Egypt, Shiites are not welcome.

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