Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Sparks fly between Sunnites and Shiites

Insurgents Attempting to Ferment 'Civil War' in Iraq Sought Al Qaeda Help (washingtonpost.com)
Terrorists spark fear of civil war in Iraq as 50 die in car bomb

See Gurdjieff quote on psychic hatred and organic hatred...

"These two schools of the Mohammedan religion are called there the "Sunnite" and the "Shiite".
It is very interesting to note that the psychic hatred of each other formed in the psyche of the beings who belong to these two independent schools of one and the same religion has, on account of their frequent clashes, now been transformed completely into an organic hate.
Beings of certain European communities have during recent centuries greatly contributed to their incitement to the rise of this particular transformation on that strange being-function.
And they have employed and continue to employ this incitement in order that the animosity between the beings who follow these two independent schools of one and the same religion, should increase and that they should never unite, since if that were to happen, there might soon be an end there for those European communities.
...
And hence it is that accidentally arisen "newly baked" communities always rub their hands and rejoice when sparks fly between these Sunnites and Shiites, because they then count on a long and secure existence for themselves."

-G. Gurdjieff, "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" circa 1950