i found the article below on one of the feeds on the side of the main page. the headline read "sunnis and shiites - why do they fight?" so i dove into the article expecting to hear some thoughtful analysis of the cultural political climate between these two groups since their split hundreds of years ago. what i got however was shocking. this guy says that " Conservatives and Republicans don't hate liberals and Democrats, but liberals and Democrats hate conservatives and Republicans." but offers no explanation. he says he understands it and the reasons for it but doesn't explain it at all... that was my second red flag. the first was the first sentence of the paragraph actually. so, yes, i am irish but it is SO ignorant to classify the conflict between northern and southern ireland as a purely religious thing it shocks me that this guy could manage to get printed. i see absolutely no similarity whatsoever between these two conflicts. i don't understand how this could make it past any editor. third, all the information he spouts off, no matter how educated it may sound, is on wikipedia. everything he says and more. wikipedia. then, at the end of the article, he completely discounts both cultures and any relevance they may have for anyone by talking about violent acts committed by muslims. after this, to close, he says " So what's the point of studying any further? How could 21st century Christians and Jews ever make any sense of that?" which just blew my mind. as if christians and jews aren't just as guilty of massive 21st and 20th century atrocities as muslims. remember george bush praying to god and asking for guidance... and then invading iraq? not to mention whats going on in israel-palestine.

so who the hell is this guy and where does he get off publishing this horse shit? turns out the article originally comes from www.familysecuritymatters.org - a website dedicated to protecting blonde american families from terrorists at home and abroad. aparently he also writes for the conservative voice. i don't even know what else to say.

Sunnis and Shiites - Why Do They Fight? [1]
By Paul R. Hollrah | April 11, 2007

I have always assumed that Sunnis and Shiites fought and killed each other for approximately the same reason that Irish Protestants and Catholics fought and killed each other

Several readers have asked if I would educate them on the reasons why Sunnis and Shiites hate each other as they do... as if I were an authority on Islam.

Conservatives and Republicans don't hate liberals and Democrats, but liberals and Democrats hate conservatives and Republicans. I understand all that and the reasons for it, but Sunnis and Shiites? That's another matter entirely.

I have always assumed that Sunnis and Shiites fought and killed each other for approximately the same reason that Irish Protestants and Catholics fought and killed each other... the same reason that there are ten or more different varieties of Baptists -- enough, at times, to have three or four Baptist churches at a single highway intersection.

However, since I have always wondered myself about Sunnis and Shiites, and especially since we have troops in harm's way and Islamic fundamentalists have threatened to kill all of us, I thought I'd take a look to see if I could find some answers that might make sense.

Read more [2].