"The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future"

Probably the most important book I've read recently. Written by Dr. Vali Nasr, an Iranian-born professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in California, The Shia Revival retells the history of the development of the Shia and their 1400-year relationship with Sunni. Their differences and fears of one another seem insurmountable.

"What happened in Pakistan is a window on what will follow in Iraq and everywhere else when the balance of power between Shias and Sunnis established in earlier periods of Islamic history comes into question. The Sunni extremists of Pakistan have a counterpart in Iraq in Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and his army of suicide bombers. In Iraq or Bahrain, given the numbers, the Shias may well win, bu their gains will lead to violence and will stoke the fire of Sunni extremism."

Nasr's observations throw light not only on our debacle in Iraq but on the whole Middle East including the Palestine and Lebanon.