they desperately want to cast this as merely “sectarian.” However, it’s not. ISIL has been executing Sunnis as well; anyone who was employed by or even apparently sympathetic to the attempt to establish a semi-secular modern state in Iraq is on their hit list. They are now imposing the most extreme form of sharia on Mosul and other places they have captured, and announcing, not that Sunnis rule, but that they are establishing the new caliphate where all the world will be ruled by this law.
Muslims have always had huge internal divisions, but historically that has not stopped them from sweeping across huge stretches of territory and subduing the inhabitants with extreme and savage violence. We’re just seeing another iteration of the 7th century - something they have repeated time and again over the intervening 14 centuries.
Muslims killing Muslims. Hopefully we’ll have enough sense to stay out of it.
My understanding is that unlike Shiites & Kurds, the Sunnis in Iraq are not only the minority but also not quite united among themselves. Some are deserting out of fear, some because they feel marginalized or alienated by the Maliki's gov't & some who are ex Saddam supporters who have joined this ISIS in a hope of overthrowing Maliki's gov't. I think the situation is complex & multi layered. But had Maliki been more inclusive perhaps those 'disaffected' sunni groups would be less willing to support ISIS.
add in the fact that they just got 429 million from the mosul central bank,Saudi and kuwaiti funding and ISIL now have the potential to hire tens of thousands of “fighters” at the rate of $600 per months.This would yield an explosive mid-east that may not stop at Iraq.