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Source: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/504trsqo.asp
Americans and Shiite Muslims
(Weekly Standard) Reuel Marc Gerecht - Ever since 1979, Shiite Muslim clerics have scared Americans, after Ayatollah Khomeini's theocratic revolution in Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The common breakdown of the Iraqi population is 55% Shiite Arab, 20% Sunni Arab, 20% Kurd, and 5% Turkoman/Christian Arab. After the brutal repression the Shiites have endured in Iraq since the collapse of the Ottoman empire, it is most unlikely that they will again accept Sunni Arab suzerainty. The old legitimizing engine of Sunni domination - Arab nationalism - is dead among the Shiites.