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Sunni extremists opened fire on Shiite Muslim pilgrims traveling by bus through southwest Pakistan on Tuesday on their way to in Iran, killing 26 people...Sunni militants with ideological and operational links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against Shiites in recent years... The passengers tried to run away, but the gunmen opened fire, killing 26 people and wounding six others...The attackers then drove off, leaving the dying and wounded where they lay. It was nearly an hour before rescue teams arrived, he said. There were around 40 people on the bus.

Today, a redneck friend was trying to explain the difference between a Sunni Muslim and a Shi'ite Muslim. He says that, when Osama was dumped into the sea, he was a Sunni Muslim. But after being eaten by the fish and crabs, he was digested and converted into a Shi'ite Muslim. Somehow, my friend does not strike me as an expert on Islam, and I have to seek a second opinion. What is the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite Muslim?

Tensions and violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims are often in the news in countries like Iraq, Pakistan and Bahrain, but why are they at daggers drawn? swissinfo.ch: How did it come about that a Sunni minority should rule over a Shiite majority, as for example in Bahrain, where there are currently popular protests? Arnold Hottinger: This is a matter of power which has historical roots. Bahrain has a Sunni government but the majority of the population – 70 per cent - is Shiite. The example of Iraq, which also has a Shiite majority, can be easily explained in the...

Bahrain's Blow-up--Amir Taheri - NYPOST.com - 17 Feb 2011 ... Bahrain, the smallest of the 21 Arab states, is often deemed a success ... " Second, the global recession has hit Bahrain hard, reducing job opportunities. Shiites claim that they're the victims of an undeclared "religious apartheid" that reserves the best jobs for Sunnis, including non-Bahraini Arabs.

MANAMA (Reuters) – The United States said Bahrain was on the "wrong track" in trying to crush Shi'ite protests in the Sunni-ruled island, rare criticism that highlighted concern the crackdown could ignite a wider regional conflict. Bahraini forces used tanks and helicopters on Wednesday to clear a protest camp set up by youths from the Shi'ite Muslim majority which complains of discrimination by the Sunni royal family. Three police and three protesters were killed. The unrest has brought an influx of troops to Bahrain from fellow Sunni-ruled neighbors Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, who fear the...

Saudi security forces to crack down on any unlawful protesters From Mohammed Jamjoom, CNNMarch 5, 2011 -- Updated 1838 GMT (0238 HKT) (CNN) -- Coming off two days of demonstrations, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry warned Saturday that it would crack down on protesters who continue to take their grievances to the streets. Saudi security forces will be "authorized to take all measures against anyone who tries to break the law and cause disorder," the ministry said, according to the country's state-run news agency. /snip An outspoken Shiite prayer leader who demonstrators say was arrested more than a week ago was...

Roger Stockham ... The California man accused of plotting to blow up a Detroit-area mosque rejected his court-appointed counsel Friday, upset that the attorney is a Shiite Muslim and a "patron" of the Islamic center where he was arrested. There are two main sects within Islam, Shiite and Sunni. The schism between Sunni and Shiite stems from the early days of Islam and arguments over the Prophet Muhammad's successors as the faith's spiritual leader.

...[Wikileaks] show how Iranian regional ambitions have placed Teheran's fingerprints on myriad political processes across the Middle East. They detail Iran's extensive interference in Iraq, quote the Saudi king’s assertion of Iranian aid to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, outline Iranian and Syrian involvement with illegal arms transfers from North Korea and describe the extensive involvement of Revolutionary Guards personnel in shipping weapons to Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War (using the Iranian Red Crescent relief organization as cover). So the leaked cables provide added and deepened color to an already existing picture of regional cold war. ... Iran is...

BAGHDAD – Saddam Hussein's foreign minister Tariq Aziz was sentenced to death by hanging Tuesday for persecuting members of Shiite religious parties under the former regime. Iraq's high criminal court spokesman Mohammed Abdul Sahib did not say when Aziz, 74, would be put to death. The death sentence was for a conviction on charges of taking part in a Saddam-led campaign that hunted and executed members of the Shiite Dawa Party, of which current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member.

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of police officers, formerly members of an American-backed Sunni paramilitary force, will be stripped of their ranks in the Sunni Arab province of Anbar, tribal leaders and Anbar police said Sunday. The officers called the move by Iraq's Interior Ministry, which oversees police, a threat to security in Anbar, once a stronghold of Sunni insurgent violence. In 2006, a group called the Awakening, some of them former insurgents, rose up with tribal and U.S. backing to battle al-Qaeda in Iraq. The same strategy was mirrored across the country with American backing and funding, and what became the...

With the official end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq, what bodes for Iraq's future in terms of its relations to other nations in the Middle East? One useful way to examine this question is through the lens of what Daniel Pipes describes as the present "Middle Eastern Cold War." This new Cold War represents the current ideological division in the Middle East between the "revolutionary bloc," led chiefly by Iran, Syria, and more recently Turkey, and the "status-quo bloc," led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. While most Sunni Arab states align themselves with the "status-quo bloc," there are notable...

SNIPPET: "The top US general in Iraq has identified the three main Shia terror groups in Iraq that are backed by Iran. General Ray Odierno said Iran continues to back the League of the Righteous (or Asaib al Haq), the Mahdi Army spin-off Promised Day Brigade, and the Hezbollah Brigades (or Kataib Hezbollah). "The Iranians... continue to fund, train and provide weapons and ammunition to Shiite extremist groups," Odierno told reporters in Baghdad according to AFP. Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has "gone to a more sophisticated program with a smaller set of...

NOTE The following blog entry snippet is a quote: Al-Siyassa: Hizbullah Plan To Establish Terror Network In South America Thwarted The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa, known for its anti-Hizbullah orientation, reports that Mexico has thwarted a Hizbullah plan to recruit Mexican terrorists of Shi'ite Lebanese origin, and form a network that would operate against Israeli and Western targets throughout South America. Posted at: July 06, 2010

Iran's, Syria-backed Arab-Islamic Terrorists: The Hezbollah Contents 1 Funding 1.1 Criminal funding1.2 South America1.3 U.S.1.4 Europe1.5 U.S. Mexican border 2 Regional plans3 Global Plans4 Violence outside Lebanon 4.1 Iraq4.2 Somalia4.3 Afghanistan4.4 Sudan4.5 Egypt4.6 Azerbaijan4.7 Europe4.8 Argentina 5 References Funding Dirty Money, Blood MoneyCriminal funding The Lebanese Shiite Terrorist Organization has been highlighted as a profile in "Crime and Terrorism" - Hezbollah's Criminal activity is widely in Lebanon and worldwide. [1], or what researches call: "various criminal enterprises to raise funds for Hezbollah." [2] Among the illegal, criminal methods of the Islamic group is wide fraud, drug trafficking, credit card...

...As is common among Lebanon's Shiites, Fakih comes from a large, extended clan that includes everything from supporters of the Islamic militant groups Hezbollah and Amal to secular Shiites and even communists.

This just in from the “I Can’t Tell The Good Guys From the Bad Guys” department – (photo of al-Maliki and Ahmadinejad above from Michelle Malkin’s website: Gunmen wearing the uniforms of Iraqi army soldiers invaded a village south of Baghdad on Good Friday, rounded up at least thirty-one Sunni Muslims and killed twenty-four of them. Some of the dead had their arms and legs broken prior to being shot and many were beaten beyond recognition. Seven victims were found alive, hands cuffed behind their backs. These killings came on the heels of the recent Iraqi election, the final results...

Lebanese anti-aircraft guns opened fire on two Israeli warplanes that were violating its airspace at medium altitude on Sunday, the military said. "The army's anti-aircraft guns fired at two Israeli warplanes overflying Hasbaya" in southeastern Lebanon, an army statement said. The incident came amid rising regional tension and heightened concern in Lebanon over recent Israeli threats against Shiite militant party Hezbollah and its backers Syria and Iran. Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in the summer of 2006 which destroyed much of southern Lebanon and killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and close to 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers....

As Israel braces for possible war with Iran and its proxies, a new kind of conflict in which the civilian population will be a primary target for massive missile barrages, there are growing concerns about the military's ability to shield cities as well as its key bases. In the 34-day 2006 war Israel fought with Hezbollah of Lebanon, Tehran's main surrogate in the Levant, the Shiite movement fired some 4,000 rockets, supplied by Iran and Syria, into Israel as far south as the port city of Haifa, at a rate of around 150 per day. That was the deepest Hezbollah...

A Hezbollah minister said on Sunday that disarming his Shiite militant group was not "a subject for discussion," two days before Lebanon's national dialogue on defence strategy is due to resume. "Some have implied that the dialogue session seeks to establish when Hezbollah will be disarmed," Administrative Reform Minister Mohammad Fneich was quoted as saying by the state news agency ANI. "This issue is not a subject for discussion and will not be debated at the dialogue session," Fneich said. Politicians from rival parties are due to meet Tuesday for a new session on defence strategy to be chaired by...

Senate Democrats spent Thursday night hammering away at Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) for single-handedly holding up action in the upper chamber – but he blurted out a message to one of them on the Senate floor: “Tough s—t.” In an unusual display in the normally sleepy chamber, Bunning – without the support of GOP leadership – has blocked efforts to quickly approve a series of extensions to measures that would otherwise expire Sunday, including unemployment insurance and the Cobra program that allows people who lose their health benefits to continue getting coverage. And that has led to a furious exchange...