Posted by
Andrews on Friday, March 21, 2008 4:23:33 PM
From
Best of the Web, a comment most will probably overlook, but a brilliant one nonetheless:
Don't worry. Hamas is a Sunni fundamentalist group. It receives support
from Iran. But Iran is Shiite. Therefore Hamas does not exist. Take
that, John McCain.
Now, I do not think McCain was correct in pointing out Iranian support for al Qaida, he probably did make a slight error. But there are also various reports from people ranging from the State Department to the New York Times listing Iranian involvement with Sunni groups (including al Qaida) and even mentioning al Qaida members finding refuge in Iran.
In some ways this "Sunnis won't deal with Shia, and vice versa" position is the same silliness as "Saddam was secular so he wouldn't work with al Qaida".
Anyone who has read the history of the crusades will see Sunni, Shia, Catholic, Orthodox, Jews, and members of the Separated Armenian Church, not to mention various heretical sects from both Islam and Christianity, combining in groups no one would anticipate from their religions. Nor did it end with the Crusades.
That Catholic France allied with the Sunni Ottoman Empire against the Catholic Hapsburgs is well documented. Yet, according to the theories of those who mock McCain, that is impossible.
I guess history needs a rewrite.
UPDATED 03/23/2008
Actually, reading this post again, I realized European history in general will not work, according to those who think Sunni and Shiite or secular and religious can never ally. Think of how many European wars, even wars of religion, saw Protestant and Catholic allied on either side. Or Orthodox and Catholic against Orthodox and Catholic. According to these "Sunni and Shiite can't agree", the crusades never happened, as how could Orthodox Byzantium ally with so many Catholic Europeans against the Moslems?
When will those pushing this line realize that often political considerations are quite strong enough to overcome religious differences?