Sunni vs. Shiite

Nice and quiet day at the office today. I think things are slowing down in December with all the holidays. We have Christmas coming up, but Muslims generally don’t celebrate that, but some do. Our office will be closed for the Christians, but the Hindus, and Muslims still work. I know that seems unfair. But during Ramadan, the Muslims got time off of work and the Christians had to keep going. So it evens out in the end. Im not really sure what holidays the Hindus observe. They have so many Gods in Hinduism. But one thing about the Indians, they are very hard workers and extremely bright. Ashoora is right around the corner. That is the festival where the Shiite Muslims, cut themselves for penance for killing the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson 1300 years ago. It’s a strange festival/observance. I have pictures of last year’s Ashoora in the photo section of this blog. Not too many Muslims work around this holiday. But it’s only a holiday for Shiite Muslims, the Sunni muslims look down on the Shiite traditions. Its so divided between the Shiite and Sunni’s. Its not like the difference between Presbyterians and Methodists. It’s more like Hatfields and McCoys. North vs. South in the Civil War. Even though they share the same religion, there is so much animosity between the two camps. That’s the lingering problem in Iraq. The terrorists/extremists are not attacking the west. They are attacking their brothers in Islam. But often times the west is blamed. But, if it wasn’t for the U.S. intervening, The Sunni’s would have wiped out the Shiites in Iraq. Iran is predominantly Shiite, with Iraq predominantly Sunni. If Im wrong here, please someone that knows leave a comment so I can keep my info accurate. A lot of people in the west think, well go ahead and let them kill each other, it doesn’t concern us. That’s a very isolationistic philosophy. Many in the U.S. held that view before Pearl Harbor in WWII. Its an interesting moral debate. Should we have just let Hitler kill the Jews? We got out of Cambodia during the Vietnam war and look at what Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge did with the Killing Fields. Genocide has been with us for generations. Just in the 20th century, you can site Yugoslavia, Sudan, Rwanda, its sad what humans can do to each other. So should we just walk away when other people annihilate each other. The phrase, with much power comes much responsibility, its either from the Bible or Spiderman, maybe both. So Im all for the most powerful country in the world (the U.S. at the moment) being the peacekeepers. A lot of people disagree with me, but that’s my very republican stance. I think we need to promote peace anyway we can. Some think the use of force intimidates people into peace. The theory we build weapons so we don’t have to use them. That might be true. But I think the best road to peace is through understanding. We have to understand each other to realize we are not all that different. The best way to achieve that is through education. The fastest and most effective way to educate is through the media. That is one of the reasons why Im here. I have so much of a better understanding of Arab culture since I live here. Hopefully you have a better understanding through reading this blog. I want to take the methodology of this blog and expand it through the media to reach more people.

Had another quiz night tonight. It gets tough raising a team week in and week out. But still I have a great time there. The only bad thing is that I reek of smoke now. That’s a big bummer. But the fish and chips are great at the pub, so I guess it cancels the other out. I usually stay up really late on Sunday nights. The Raiders usually play my time from 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM. So Mondays are usually pretty sleepy for me. Though I did take a nap before quiz night.