RE: 3. The Kurds.
What kind of Muslims are they?
They are their own independent kind ... :-) ...
Quoting ...
Before the spread of Abrahamic religions, many Kurds were followers of Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, or local pagan beliefs. Kurds were assimilating these religious practices into their cultural domain as early as 800 BCE. Arab conquests, however, began in the seventh century AD, eventually overpowering Kurdish resistance.
Over time, Sunni Islam became the dominant religion of the Kurdish people, following the Shafi school. There is a minority Shia population, the Fayli Kurds, who live in central and south eastern Iraq. Though Islam is thought to be a religion of governance as well as spirituality, Kurds made sure to keep spiritual identity separate from national identity. Today, many Muslim Kurds do not consider themselves particularly religious when it comes to adhering to the call to prayer five times a day, but secondary practices of Islam have a stronghold in Kurdish culture. Following Islamic food restrictions, refraining for alcohol consumption, circumcising male newborns, and wearing a veil are all very popular customs to follow.
A minority of Kurds, primarily in the Nineveh Province of Iraq, follow the Yazidism. Yazidism combines complex Kurdish cultural beliefs with Zoroastrianism and Islamic Sufi doctrine. It applies traditions of the Abrahamic religions such as the story of Adam and Eve, the importance of pilgrimage, and daily prayer ritual, to more mystical elements, focusing on the importance of ancestry and the four elements on the Earth. The religion is practiced in the Kurdish dialect of northern Iraqi Kurdistan, Kirmaji. Most Yazidi traditions are transmitted orally rather than through written text, making it difficult to source many Yazidi origins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurds_in_Iraq
Independent. Support their formation of an independent state and they’ll be your ally forever, like Israel. They should also have their share of the oil over there.