Punkinmusty: why cant US jst mind their business. wen isreal was busy killin children and women in gaza nobody saw anytin wrong wit that dats why fools lyk u post rubbish here. d Moment they entered egypt,libya,syria,iraq and palestine those countries hav seen no peace yet fools lyk u pretend not to knw al these

Sorry,I have no time for terrorists.

tsolz90: obviously you are a flatheaded nematode;go and ask your sister-Peppyluv02 what i did to her;she knows how i roll..for the sake of next time;dont quote me..and dont cross my lane;anumanu

lol,Allah's slave,hw is shekau?

Ramon92: I feel kinda indifferent to this news cos it's most of those journalists that report false news to justify the clowns in Washington.

I feel no remorse for him even though he was killed in a brutal way..

you are a muslim na! infact, given the right environment and resources you can also do what they did.shame on you, arab wannabe who can not reason for himself .

What are fellis, maclatunji, deols, lanrexlan. Vedaxcool, betathings, tintingz and the others islamists/jihadists Still doing in Nigeria? They should join their caliphate in Iraq .

Let s all celebrate the great arabo-islamic culture

tsolz90: obviously you are a flatheaded nematode;go and ask your sister-Peppyluv02 what i did to her;she knows how i roll..for the sake of next time;dont quote me..and dont cross my lane;anumanu

caseless: vikky, i dnt wanna hate u, so get off me. And if u love me , jst say it.

All MUSLIMS are TERRORISTS, even the One in my Office have been terrorizing me.... the only thing remaining is that a Bomb has not gone off on his body here yet

Eya but I open my indomies,I di nor see spice

abdullkabar:
You well at all

Yes i am...and i wish all muslims were like you.

Well... What can I say, this is absolutely shocking. They sacrificed an innoocent man to allah, their blood thirsty god.

Ramon92: I feel kinda indifferent to this news cos it's most of those journalists that report false news to justify the clowns in Washington.

I feel no remorse for him even though he was killed in a brutal way..

May you and your family be killed like that IJN. Amen.

Moslems are +1bilion, if only 100M are extremists, thats not fcking few, that's a whole army ready to convert or slaughter you, don't b deceived with their antics, blah blah few this few that, besides the pseudo moderated never call their brothers to order,this is to tell you that all Moslems believe in the worldwide caliphate, the whole world under sharia rule, they just differ in the actions they perpetrate to achieve it..

CHESSBOARD:

All MUSLIMS are TERRORISTS, even the One in my Office have been terrorizing me.... the only thing remaining is that a Bomb has not gone off on his body here yet

I am a Muslim and i am not a terrorist. The Islam i grew up to know does not give room for evil.

mencade5: hehehe...you know almost everything? Mscheew, no make me fall down from chair because of laugh ooo.

You baffled me. I stated the reality here of what Muhammed said, if you need the chapter where he said this i may pity you and give you, but you are not ready to learn traware. Or is it tra- werey. Lol

it is people like you that keeps confusing yourself that we serve the same God. You serve the same God and the same God wants them to kill you.

Where? Traware go and sit down.

*Tsk*....*tsk*...*tsk*...Mencade5,I just dey shame for you.What is the difference between Amadioha,'yahweh' and 'allah' if not but a change of name?Aren't they thesame 'God'?Why you dey confuse youself like this eh?By the way,I don't serve any bleeping God.All bleeping Gods serve me.I also love the name 'Trawerey'.Nice try scumbag

tsolz90: Kudos ISIS..Isha Sesay is next;walahi;she deserves something far worse than what this chicken got

IF SHE'S YOUR SISTER WILL YOU SAY THIS KIND OF PRAYER TO HER? MAY YOU AND YOUR HOUSEHOLD BE PLAGUE.

but they denied us ebola testing drugs....anytime any country oppresses us they see calamities a million fold...libya killed nigerians and thier government was toppled...malaysia was killing nigerians and thier plane got lost without a trace...now america...diaris God uohhhh

On Point

sweetgala: ISIS , Muslim brotherhood , Boko Haram all these Islamic militants am queda etc are the products of western influence in middle east, Afghanistan was a peaceful country till Russia assassinated it's President in the 70s and sent the country into civil war.

Iraq hated militants Saddam Hussein gave them no breathing space , same for Libya and Egypt but since western influence helped distabilise those governments all these suppressed extremists are coming out of the woodwork. ISIS started with the Syrian resistance now they can deal with it remember they were being accused of executing, beheading and cannibalism way back in 2012.

Do you think BH can exist where abacha is in control or even OBJ with his kill everything breathing tactics

Vikky014: i love u pass ur Allah,i cant send u for a succide mission lyk Allah,so come & worship me(covers face)

IF u love me, u must love my God/ALLAH. Take away d action of human or adherents of islam out, and u'd understand that these terrorists ar acting contrary to d teaching of islam. I knw u hate me as a muslim, but do know that i love u irrespective of ur religion.

Muslim seems to be more of anti peaceful with these global polls of islam and their hate for non islam...this is what we have at hand....


if you stay near a mosque and your non muslim alway be security aware of your place...its important

Poll of Islamic world, Feb 2002

The majority (61 percent) of Muslims worldwide believe Arabs did not carry out 9/11. Only 18 percent believe they did.
The majority (77 percent) of Muslims worldwide oppose the liberation of Afghanistan.

Poll of Egyptians, September 2002

The majority (52 percent) of Egyptians support the Sept 11th killings.
Only 19 percent think Islamists did it, despite the fact the operation was led by an Egyptian! 39 percent think Israel did it!
What the World Thinks in 2002 - survey, December 4, 2002
The majority of Lebanese support suicide bombing.
The majority of Nigerians who expressed an opinion support suicide bombing.
The majority of Bangladeshis who expressed an opinion support suicide bombing.
47 percent of Jordanians who expressed an opinion support suicide bombing.
43 percent of Pakistanis who expressed an opinion support suicide bombing.

Pew survey, May 2003, reported in International Herald Tribune, June 3, 2003 (here and here).

The majority in Morocco, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Kuwait, Lebanon, Indonesia and Pakistan want to end the state of Israel.
The majority in Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority express some support for Osama bin Laden.
The majority in Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority said the Iraqis were worse off without the genocidal tyrant Saddam Hussein.
The majority in Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority were disappointed that Iraq did not put up more of a fight.
A Year After Iraq War - survey, March 16, 2004
The majority in Jordan support suicide bombing of Jews.
The majority in Morocco support suicide bombing of Jews.
The majority who expressed an opinion in Pakistan support suicide bombing of Jews.
The majority in Pakistan and Jordan have a favourable view of Osama bin Laden.
The majority who expressed an opinion in Morocco have a favourable view of Osama bin Laden.
The majority in Jordan support suicide bombing of the American liberators of Iraq.
The majority in Morocco support suicide bombing of the American liberators of Iraq.
The majority who expressed an opinion in Pakistan support suicide bombing of the American liberators of Iraq.
Apparent decrease in Islamic support for terror, 2005.
There are some problems with the survey. The survey only asked about suicide attacks on civilians in general. If it asked about suicide attacks on Jews, or on American civilians, I'm sure the numbers would have been much higher.
The majority in Jordan support suicide bombing and other violence against civilians.
The majority in Morocco support suicide bombing in Iraq.
The majority in Pakistan and Jordan support Osama bin Laden.
The responses are confused. How can you support bin Laden or the Iraqi resistance if you don't support attacks on civilians?

I guess it's no surprise to discover that people who support the jihad are morons.
Survey, July 2006. 40 percent of Indonesian Muslims would use violence against those blaspheming Islam.

Poll in Egypt, reported Sept 2006
Which country do you most hate? Top answer - USA.
In which country would you most like to live? Top answer - USA.
Survey of Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and Indonesia, Apr 2007
91 percent in Egypt support attacks on US troops in Iraq.
91 percent in Egypt support attacks on US troops in Afghanistan.
68 percent in Morocco support attacks on US troops in Iraq.
61 percent in Morocco support attacks on US troops in Afghanistan.
25 percent in Egypt support Al Qaeda attacks. A further 31 percent say they oppose its methods but agree with Al Qaeda's attitudes.
40 percent of Egyptians have "positive" feelings towards Bin Laden.

Only 2 percent in Pakistan say Al Qaeda carried out 9/11. 27 percent say the U.S. government did it. 7 percent say Israel did it.

29 percent of Egyptians say Israel carried out 9/11.
79 percent in Pakistan agree "strongly" or "somewhat" that there should be strict sharia in all Muslim countries.
76 percent in Morocco agree "strongly" or "somewhat" that there should be strict sharia in all Muslim countries.
74 percent in Egypt agree "strongly" or "somewhat" that there should be strict sharia in all Muslim countries.

There are some positive things in the above survey too. I have just highlighted the most disturbing findings. The Islamic world clearly has a long way to go.
Pew Survey of Muslim countries, July 2007. Clear drop in support for Al Qaeda and suicide bombing. The Bin Laden revolution may never happen. The jihadis may be dying for nothing. Muslim societies continue, it is true, to have large numbers of supporters of Islamic terror. But the civilized Muslims may be slowly winning the argument.

Back in 2002:

74 percent of Lebanese supported suicide bombing of civilians.
47 percent of Nigerians supported suicide bombing of civilians.
44 percent in Bangladesh supported suicide bombing of civilians.
43 percent of Jordanians supported suicide bombing of civilians.
33 percent of Pakistanis supported suicide bombing of civilians.

Now in 2007:

42 percent of Nigerians support suicide bombing of civilians.
34 percent of Lebanese support suicide bombing of civilians.
23 percent of Jordanians support suicide bombing of civilians.
20 percent in Bangladesh support suicide bombing of civilians.
9 percent of Pakistanis support suicide bombing of civilians.
8 percent of Egyptians support suicide bombing of civilians.

Back in 2003:

72 percent of Palestinians supported Bin Laden.
59 percent of Indonesians supported Bin Laden.
56 percent of Jordanians supported Bin Laden.
46 percent of Pakistanis supported Bin Laden.
20 percent of Lebanese supported Bin Laden.

Now in 2007:

57 percent of Palestinians support Bin Laden.
41 percent of Indonesians support Bin Laden.
38 percent of Pakistanis support Bin Laden.
20 percent of Jordanians support Bin Laden.
1 percent of Lebanese support Bin Laden.
Survey of Muslim world, Feb 2009 has all sorts of horrible stats:
76 percent of Pakistanis want strict sharia in every Islamic country.
76 percent of Moroccans want strict sharia in every Islamic country.
90 percent of Palestinians support killing American troops in Iraq. And yet America is giving the Palestinians $1 billion in aid!
83 percent of Egyptians support killing American troops in Iraq. And yet America gives Egypt $2 billion in aid every year!
68 percent of Moroccans support killing American troops in Iraq.
40 percent in Turkey support killing American troops in Iraq. And yet America is pushing for its "ally" Turkey to be let into the EU.
83 percent of Egyptians support killing American troops in Afghanistan.
61 percent of Moroccans support killing American troops in Afghanistan.
78 percent of Palestinians have "positive" or "mixed" feelings towards Bin Laden.
69 percent of Egyptians have "positive" or "mixed" feelings towards Bin Laden.
53 percent of Moroccans have "positive" or "mixed" feelings towards Bin Laden.
51 percent of Pakistanis have "positive" or "mixed" feelings towards Bin Laden.
Survey of Muslim world, Sept 2009
68 percent of Palestinian Muslims said suicide bombings of civilians were justifiable.
51 percent of Shiite Lebanese Muslims said suicide bombings of civilians were justifiable.
43 percent of Nigerian Muslims said suicide bombings of civilians were justifiable.
38 percent of all Lebanese Muslims said suicide bombings of civilians were justifiable.
54 percent of Nigerian Muslims expressed confidence in bin Laden to do the right thing.
52 percent of Palestinian Muslims expressed confidence in bin Laden to do the right thing.
28 percent of Jordanian Muslims expressed confidence in bin Laden to do the right thing.
Poll, Feb 2010
61 percent of Palestinians support Hezbollah.
51 percent of Jordanians support Hezbollah.
Amazingly, only 35 percent in Lebanon support Hezbollah. They have to live under them!
56 percent of Jordanians support Hamas.
52 percent of Egyptians support Hamas.

Amazingly, only 37 percent in Gaza support Hamas. They have to live under them!

54 percent of Nigerians support Bin Laden.
51 percent of Palestinians support Bin Laden.
45 percent of Palestinians support Ahmadinejad.
43 percent of Indonesians support Ahmadinejad.

Poll of Middle Eastern Muslims, Dec 2010

86 percent of Jordanians support death for anyone who leaves Islam.
84 percent of Egyptians support death for anyone who leaves Islam.
76 percent of Pakistanis support death for anyone who leaves Islam.
82 percent of Egyptians support stoning for adultery.
82 percent of Pakistanis support stoning for adultery.
70 percent of Jordanians support stoning for adultery.
49 percent of Nigerian Muslims approve of Al Qaeda.
34 percent of Jordanians approve of Al Qaeda.

Poll, May 2011

51 per cent of Pakistanis feel "grief" at the death of Osama bin Laden.
And yet: Poll, Spring 2011, shows only 8 percent of Pakistanis support suicide bombing of civilians.

This must be a reaction to the tidal wave of jihadist violence that Pakistan has been suffering in recent years, a real example of "blowback" from the Islamic extremism that Pakistan has supported since its foundation in 1947.




The jihad's plans to crush half of the Old World under its heel.
The Jews and the Christians and the Hindus (and in this version the Shia) will be exterminated.
And then, when the world is violently cleansed of all dissent, a glorious utopian heaven will dawn.
Image circulating on jihadi social networks as at 2013

http://www.aymennjawad.org/13709/al-qaeda-self-presentation-syria-iraq

http://markhumphrys.com/islamic.world.html

traware: *Tsk*....*tsk*...*tsk*...Mencade5,I just dey shame for you.What is the difference between Amadioha,'yahweh' and 'allah' if not but a change of name?Aren't they thesame 'God'?Why you dey confuse youself like this eh?By the way,I don't serve any bleeping God.All bleeping Gods serve me

why then the : there is no god but Allah ?

Why not there is no Allah but Allah if indeed Allah means god ?

My point is Allah doesn't mean god , it is a bad translation of what Arabian spirituality is, Allah is the moon God in ancient Arabian paganism, which was adopted as unique God in Islam

The same mistranslation happened everywhere, as today many Igbo believe Ekwensu means or is Satan

who is your own role model, micheal jackson, j.j okocha .e.t.c. this is my own role modern.......http://al-athariy..com/2014/08/the-best-of-mankind.html

caseless: IF u love me, u must love my God/ALLAH. Take away d action of human or adherents of islam out, and u'd understand that these terrorists ar acting contrary to d teaching of islam. I knw u hate me as a muslim, but do know that i love u irrespective of ur religion.

look at the statisics bro and know islam is a bad religipon

tsolz90: Kudos ISIS..Isha Sesay is next;walahi;she deserves something far worse than what this chicken got

You are not funny.
You only join the league of those who actively, through their actions prove there is infact no god.
Humanity will eventually find a way of destroying decadent members of our specie like you!

traware: *Tsk*....*tsk*...*tsk*...Mencade5,I just dey shame for you.What is the difference between Amadioha,'yahweh' and 'allah' if not but a change of name?Aren't they thesame 'God'?Why you dey confuse youself like this eh?By the way,I don't serve any bleeping God.All bleeping Gods serve me.I also love the name 'Trawerey'.Nice try scumbag

boot licker, i dont care if shiiits serve you. Go fvck yourself. You keep confusong yourself but still you like the state of your confusion.

You prove to know whereas you lack knowledge. Drop your pride and i will enlighten you..

sweetgala: ISIS , Muslim brotherhood , Boko Haram all these Islamic militants am queda etc are the products of western influence in middle east, Afghanistan was a peaceful country till Russia assassinated it's President in the 70s and sent the country into civil war.

Iraq hated militants Saddam Hussein gave them no breathing space , same for Libya and Egypt but since western influence helped distabilise those governments all these suppressed extremists are coming out of the woodwork. ISIS started with the Syrian resistance now they can deal with it remember they were being accused of executing, beheading and cannibalism way back in 2012.

Do you think BH can exist where abacha is in control or even OBJ with his kill everything breathing tactics

Well in your statement, you are acknowledging the fact that those groups exist and existed before any western influence, they were just being kept in check by the dictators in place..islamim-fundamentalism-extremism-radicalism, were not invented by westerners

caseless: u ppl dnt read, so u find it hard to learn. When sadam hussain was in power, the iraqi xtains and d yazidis were protected and lived in peace with their muslim brothers and sisters until he(sadam) was toppled by d americans. Xtains were enjoying peace until america instigatf revolution against d gov't and imported isis and other rebel grps into syria. Why wont u blame america, but islam?
I heard those yazidis and xtains that fled to lebanon sayin they were able to run and enjoy some protection given to them by their muslim neighbours. And they said categorically that isis ar not muslims and are anti-islam. There is no compulsion in religion-this is d teaching of islam and a verse in d holy qur'an. Isis, boko haram, alshabab, etc are all anti-islam.

Make I hear word abeg. There is no denying the fact that all these groups you mentioned are practicing muslims. They are all practicing what they read from that unholy book. You want to tell me that all thse imams, sheiks etc that brainwash young guys into joining jihad and sending them to Yemen for training, are not muslims? There is no compulsion in Islam you say? Where did the word 'jihad' originate from, if not from that unholy book written by a devil incarnate. Tell me another lie abeg.

A photo of a pro-ISIS rally in the Aleppo area released by an unofficial pro-ISIS media network called "State of the Caliphate." The placard reads: "Islam: Political Justice. Islam: Economic Justice. Islam: Societal Justice. State of the Caliphate: God's Shari'a on Earth."



Figure 2: An image that can be found circulating on pro-ISIS social media pages from Syria, depicting the entire Earth under the banner of ISIS.



THIS IS ISLAMIC THINKING...THEY HAVE IT IN THEIR MIND TO MAKE EVERYBODY A MUSLIM...HMMMM

CAMNEWTON4PRES: why then the : there is no god but Allah ?

Why not there is no Allah but Allah if indeed Allah means god ?

My point is Allah doesn't mean god , it is a bad translation of what Arabian spirituality is, Allah is the moon God in ancient Arabian paganism, which was adopted as unique God in Islam

The same mistranslation happened everywhere, as today many Igbo believe Ekwensu means or is Satan

bruh, dont mind that maniac called tra-werey. He lacks knowledge.

caseless: vikky, i dnt wanna hate u, so get off me. And if u love me , jst say it.

My own God told me to love evry living human,so i cant hate U cos u r a muslim,i hv a frnd many muslim frnds

Oduduwaboy:
you are a muslim na! infact, given the right environment and resources you can also do what they did.shame on you, arab wannabe who can not reason for himself .

maybe you are worth a response?? I'm not a Muslim, neither a xtian FYI..

The monsters they created - through their actions in the ME over the years - coming to haunt them. Would have been pained if the victim was African..

You reason..

CAMNEWTON4PRES: why then the : there is no god but Allah ?

Why not there is no Allah but Allah if indeed Allah means god ?

My point is Allah doesn't mean god , it is a bad translation of what Arabian spirituality is, Allah is the moon God in ancient Arabian paganism, which was adopted as unique God in Islam

The same mistranslation happened everywhere, as today many Igbo believe Ekwensu means or is Satan

Your post makes sense.Are you an animist?

The war and mess in Syria began much earlier than is generally recognised. The conflict actually began in the year 632 with the death of the Prophet Mohamed. The same is true of the violence, tension or oppression currently gripping the Muslim world from Iraq and Iran, though Egypt, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A single problem lies behind all that friction and hostility. On Tuesday, Britain's leading Muslim politician, the Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi, obliquely addressed it in a speech she made in Oman, the Arab state at the south-east corner of the Arabian Peninsula strategically positioned at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The religious tolerance of the Sultanate, she suggested, offered a model for the whole of the Islamic world. It certainly needs such an exemplar of openness and acceptance.

What most of the crucibles of conflict in the Middle East have in common is that Sunni Muslims are on one side of the disagreement and Shia Muslims on the other. Oman is unusual because its Sunni and Shia residents are outnumbered by a third sect, the Ibadis, who constitute more than half the population. In many countries, the Sunni and the Shia are today head-to-head.

The rift between the two great Islamic denominations runs like a tectonic fault-line along what is known as the Shia Crescent, starting in Lebanon in the north and curving through Syria and Iraq to the Gulf and to Iran and further east.

The division between Sunni and Shia Muslims is the oldest in the Middle East - and yet it is one which seems increasingly to be shaping the destiny of this troubled region as thousands of devotees from both sides pour into Syria. Jihadist al-Qa'ida volunteers on the Sunni side and Hezbollah militants on the Shia, are joining what is fast becoming a transnational civil war between the two factions.

There are around one and a half billion Muslims in the world. Of these, somewhere between 10 and 20 per cent - estimates vary considerably - are Shia. In most countries these Shia are minorities in a Sunni homeland. But in Iraq, Iran, Bahrain and Azerbaijan they outnumber their co-religionists.

A painting of the Battle of Karbala in 680AD, in present day Iraq, which is remembered by both Sunnis and Shias (Corbis) A painting of the Battle of Karbala in 680AD, in present day Iraq, which is remembered by both Sunnis and Shias (Corbis)
What makes Syria different is that there a Sunni majority is ruled by a Shia minority. The Alawites, the sect to which President Bashar al-Assad and much of his army officer elite belong, are Shia. That situation is the mirror opposite of Iraq under Saddam, where a Sunni strongman lorded it over a Shia majority - until the invasion of Iraq, when elections put the Shia in charge, insofar as anyone can be said to be running that chaotic country.

The division between the two factions is older and deeper even than the tensions between Protestants and Catholics which bedevilled Europe for centuries. The two Christian denominations had a shared history for 1500 years. By contrast the rift between the two biggest Muslim factions goes right back to the beginning - and a row over who should succeed the Prophet Mohamed as leader of the emerging Islamic community when he died in the early 7th century.

In the last 10 years of his life Mohamed inflicted total defeat on the pagan tribes of Mecca and by doing so united the entire Arabian peninsula. Around 100,000 people had submitted to the rule of Mohamed and of Allah. Tribal alliances in Arabia in those days usually disintegrated on the death of the leader, or after the short-term military objectives had been met and the spoils divided. Often succession would pass to the leader' s son. But Mohamed had no son, only a daughter. And his inheritance was spiritual as well as political.

The majority of his followers thought his closest associate, Abu Bakr, should take over. They became the Sunnis. But a minority thought the Prophet's closest relative, his son-in-law and nephew Ali, should succeed.

Shia is an abbreviation of Shiat Ali "the party of Ali". Intrigues and violence followed, with Mohamed's widow Aisha (who was also the daughter of Abu Bakr) leading troops against Ali. Eventually Ali was killed, as was his son Hussein, and persecution and martyrdom became ingrained in the Shia psyche. As the years passed rift hardened into schism. The seeds of civil war had been sown.

The two sides agreed on the Quran but had different views on hadith, the traditions recorded by Mohamed's followers about what he had said and done in his life. Diverging traditions of ritual, law and practice soon emerged. A clerical hierarchy, topped by imams and ayatollahs, became crucial in Shi'ism. By contrast, Sunni Muslims felt no need of intermediaries in their relationship with God - an approach which has abetted the rise of extremist zealots like al-Qa'ida. The Sunnis became happy to depend upon the state, which their adherents mostly controlled.

The chief Shia religious festival became Ashura when devotees would beat themselves to commemorate the death of the Prophet's grandson Hussein at the Battle of Karbala in 680. Various Shia sub-sects formed, including the fanatical Assassins, the Alawites in Syria and the Ismailis, whose leader is the Aga Khan. Some mystical sufi movements created a bridge between Sunni and Shia but hardline Sunnis regard the Shia practice of venerating saints and visiting shrines as heretical - which is why Sunni extremists bomb Shias on pilgrimage in places like Karbala in Iraq today.

READ MORE: SYRIA CONFLICT: ENEMIES CROSS THE FRONT LINES IN DAMASCUS. BUT WILL THE TRUCE HOLD?

Yet for much of the 1,400 years since the death of the Prophet the majority of Sunni and Shia Muslims have not routinely allowed their theological differences to create hostility. Some Sunnis included ritual denunciations of Ali in their prayers, but in many times and places the two sects have co-existed peacefully.

From time to time, however, violence has flared in which the Shia, in the main, have been brutally and even genocidally persecuted. In 1514 an Ottoman sultan ordered the massacre of 40,000 Shia. Mughal emperors in India between the 15th and 19th centuries routinely executed Shia scholars, burned their libraries and desecrated their sacred sites. Inter-communal violence has recurred in Pakistan.

There have been periods and places of concord. In 1959 the most influential centre of Sunni scholarship, al-Azhar University in Cairo, admitted Shia jurisprudence to its curriculum. In Azerbaijan, where the Shias are in the majority, there are mixed mosques where both sects pray together. But early in the 20th century the Saudi royal family made discrimination against the Shia official and destroyed most of the Shia holy places. With the rise there of the Sunni fundamentalism known as Wahhabism, severe restrictions have been placed on Shia practice and its leaders jailed. Some Saudi scholars brand Shi'ism as a heresy "worse than Christianity or Judaism".

The fanatics of al-Qa'ida have been nurtured in this Wahhabi ideology. Some of them consider the Shia to be not merely heretics but apostates - and the punishment for apostasy, they say, is death.

Over the years the division has been exploited by outsiders. British colonialists in Iraq in the 1920s used an elite of Sunni army officers to suppress a Shia rebellion, paving the way for Saddam's Sunni minority rule, in which Shia clerics were regularly executed. The legacy has been that most of the 6,000 killings over the past year in Baghdad are Sunni on Shia and vice-versa. Now this ruthless sectarianism has spread to Syria.

Two major developments have triggered the escalation of tension between Sunni and Shia in recent years. The first was the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 when the rule of the pro-Western Shah was overthrown and replaced with a Shia theocracy with Ayatollah Khomeini at the head. Khomeini did his best to build good relations between Shia and Sunni inside Iran but other leaders, religious and secular, have since been more divisive. And Khomeini was from the outset adversarial to the Sunni aristocrats who led Saudi Arabia - calling them American lackeys as well as "unpopular and corrupt" dictators.

Division: Forces of Syria's Alawite (Shia) regime (Reuters) Division: Forces of Syria's Alawite (Shia) regime (Reuters)
The Iranians and Saudis have been fighting a proxy war in the Middle East ever since.

Today in Iran, though Christian churches are tolerated, the million Sunnis in Tehran have no mosque of their own. There are no Sunnis in top government. Sunni businessmen have difficulty getting import and export licences. Huge numbers of ordinary Sunnis are unemployed. The situation in Saudi Arabia is the exact reverse, with Shia on the receiving end of the discrimination.

From time to time there are attempts to insist that the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia are not religious. In 2007 King Abdullah of the House of Saud met the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and, with public hugs, spoke of a thaw in relations between the two regional powers - and condemned those who were trying to fuel the fire of strife between Sunni and Shia.

But it changed nothing in the realpolitik. Each oil-producing giant sees the other as a huge obstacle to its national interests. Geopolitics is the reality but religious vision is the tribal badge it wears.

The invasion of Iraq instigated by George Bush and Tony Blair in 2003 was the second big factor in the deterioration of Sunni-Shia relations. Saddam Hussein led a Sunni elite which governed Iraq's Shia majority with a reign of state terror. The US had backed Saddam in Iraq's war with Iran throughout the 1980s, in which half a million troops died.

But after 9/11 the US changed its mind about Saddam, overthrew him and brought democracy to Iraq. The resulting election placed in power leaders from the Shia majority who have excluded the Sunni minority - who have responded with the car bombs which are killing thousands in Baghdad and elsewhere. Al-Qa'ida jihadists have flooded into the country to join Sunni terrorists in attacking the Shia government. And now the polarised sectarian conflict has spilled over into Syria.

When the Arab Spring reached Syria in 2011 it began as a protest against the corruption, nepotism and human rights abuses of the Assad government. But within two years the armed uprising against the regime was transformed.

Rebels motivated by political indignation, who received limited backing from Western governments, slowly became outnumbered by rebel groups with extreme Islamist motivation fighting to create what they call the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

These jihadists have come from across the Islamic world but they are backed by Saudi cash. More recently Shia militants from the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah have arrived to support the Alawite-led army of the Assad regime. Full-blown civil war is the result.

What all this means is that Sunni and Shia are locked in conflict all across the Shia Crescent. As each side steps up its activities, the other feels more threatened and hardens its response in turn.

Sunni-Shia tensions are increasing across the world as a result. They are on the rise in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Egypt, and even in London as issues of identity, rights, interests and enfranchisement find sectarian expression.

The tensions are deep-rooted in wider economic and geopolitical concerns. But the risk - given the long history of division and tension - is that predictions of a transnational civil war between Sunni and Shia could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

traware: Your post makes sense.Are you an animist?

Thank you

Yes and u?