From USA Today with thanks to Looney Tunes:
BEIRUT — The sectarian violence in Iraq is feeding fears that tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims will worsen across the Middle East.
The long-standing divisions between the two major Muslim sects were highlighted anew last week when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak questioned the loyalties of Shiites who live in Arab nations. “Most of the Shiites are loyal to Iran, and not the countries they are living in,” Mubarak said. He also said Iraq was close to civil war.
Iran and Iraq both have Shiite majorities, though Iraq is an Arab nation and Iran is not.
To protest Mubarak’s comments, the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government boycotted an Arab League meeting in Cairo that had been called for Wednesday to discuss the situation in Iraq.
Mubarak’s words were “extremely dangerous and extremely irresponsible,” said Karim Makdisi, an assistant professor of politics at the American University of Beirut. “I don’t think there is a structural split between Sunnis and Shiites, but with statements like Mubarak’s the perception becomes a reality — and that’s the danger.”
Oh yes, calling a horse a horse, creates the horse every time. Forget 1350 years of history, it isn’t a real rift; it’s only a ‘rift’ that can be made real by naming it. And yet another professor fails Logic 101.