One of the advantages of reading or watching historical movies is that you get to know that Muslims or Hindus alone don't discriminate against others. On Netflix I saw "Versailles" which shows the French king Louis the fourteenth being persuaded by one of his mistresses to force Protestants to convert to the Catholic faith. When you compare this to the virulent hatred some Sunnis bear towards Shias, you know that it is natural for humans to discriminate against those who have different beliefs from their own, or whose skin color is not the same as theirs.

Nowadays I'm watching "Downton Abbey" in which there is deep consternation in the Protestant family when their Irish son-in-law wants his daughter to be baptized as a Catholic. The Earl's two surviving daughters support this move, saying that there are many more countries with Catholics (like France, Spain, Poland and South America) than there are with majority being Protestants.

Our office manager (a Jamat-e-Islami member) once told me that he feared that Iran might one day conquer Saudi Arabia and Mecca and Madina would then be under the control of Shias. I don't see why that should disturb him so much, as Masjid-al-Aqsa has for long been in control of Jews and it hasn't affected Sunni Muslims at all (Iran, of course, is the only major country to defy Israel). But then, Arab Muslims have fallen into the lap of Israel due to their fear of Iran. If only they would recognize Shias as Muslims and work together, they would be able to defy the West. But then, if Muslims were intelligent, they would never have lost Palestine or Kashmir.


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