There is nothing more important to a NYT reporter more than undermining the Bush administration. How else can one explain the sob story found on page one about a well to do Sunni family whose life style has been undermined by the dislodging of Saddam? Oh, yes, their Shia compatriots no longer like them. One must wonder whether the genocidal war carried out by the"insurgents" against the Shia has anything to do with these development. For example, how about interviewing the families of the five elementary school Shia teachers murdered in cold blood though helping educate Sunni children?

Clifford May is right, They do shoot teachers and others not only in Iraq but Thailand where militants have killed Buddhist monks, teachers, policemen, villagers, moderate Muslims and government sympathizers, The IHT reported.

Minorities who used to rule often turn nasty, a young Harvard educated Pakistani told me yesterday. But Sunnis are not behaving better in Pakistan where they are the vast majority and in control, I reminded him. He and other Pakistanis averted their eyes and admitted, yes, for Sunnis befriending or marrying Shia is worse than befriending or marrying a Christian or a Jew.

Indeed, there were no Shia at the American Muslim Social Scientist conference that I met and there was only a single paper which mentioned there existence. It was given by an Indonesian young man whose thesis was subsequently dismissed by the panel chair:"There are no Shia in Indonesia," he said.

Sorry Bush bashers, the US is not responsible for the Sunni-Shia divide. The real Muslim problem is their inability to accept diversity of opinion or religion as a legitimate phenomenon.

Did you know that according to Islam all souls are created Muslim (Sunni, of course) and some merely stray from the path? Hence, converts to Islam are called reverts.