EMAIL OF THE DAY

“My Islamic History class spent 45 minutes discussing Iraq and the atrocities tonight (my course ends with Napoleon in 1798, but this is one class where I let the kids talk – what they learn impacts directly on current events.)
Here is something no one has noted, but my kids did. Commentators keep seeing a link between Shia states (Iran) and wider Islamists movements such as Al-Queda.”. There is no way that the bombers in Iraq could justify what they did without defining the Shia as “kaffir” (unbelievers). For the past two decades a kind of “ecumenical” Muslim movement has tried to get beyond this. This is now shattered.
I am not sure how this will play out. For a Catholic like me, Shi’ite Islam is much more emotionally similar to Catholicism than Sunni Islam. Shi’ism also has the potentiality to be more progressive. Defining the Shia as a sort of “Muslim extreme” has been as major mistake in the West.
What happened yesterday would be comparable to the Ulster Volunteer Force (or whatever) exploding a bomb at Lourdes. The emotional impact on the Shia is almost unimaginable. I repeat: this is a massive massive event.” – more feedback on the Letters Page.