I hate Islamists. You know the deal. But if you don’t, it’s at the end of every news article about Algeria: “Algeria’s civil war between the military and Islamist militas began in 1992 after the military halted elections that the Islamist FIS was poised to win took over 150,000 lives . . . blah blah blah”. That’s why. Islamists come in many different forms though. Some are peaceful and practice a sort of social gospel. Others are irritable and beat women for not being covered. Others massacre entire villages. Still others advocate sectarianism and conflict between religious groups in countries that they have no origins in.

Abu Musab ez-Zarqawi is one of those who likes to do the latter.

He is one of the few people that I can honestly say I hate.

I watched a CNN news blurb about his most recent tape today at school in journalism class. He called for Sunnis in Iraq and elsewhere to rise up against Shias. He called on Sunnis to forget those who advocate the end of sectarianism.

He told Sunnis to “wake up, pay attention and prepare to confront the poisons of the Shiite snakes.”

He went on

“There is no difference between Shiites of Iran and the Shiites in the rest of the Arab world either in Iraq, Lebanon. their beliefs are the same .. their hatred of Sunnis is the same,” he said, adding, “The roots of Jews and the Shiites are the same.”

I’m a Jew. Wow. I did not know this. Mr. ez-Zarqawi is appearently quite omniscient, knowing things about us Shia that even we do not know.

Ez-Zarqawi even hates Ahmadinejad. Because that stupid Shia won’t make good on his promises after “screaming and calling for wiping Israel from the map,” but taking no action to do so.

He seems to want nothing but endless violence and struggle. I don’t see what else opposing the end of sectarianism and opposing those “calling for national unity,” could do.

But then again, as much should be expected from a terrorist, a man whose group and its allies destroy beautiful mosques and kill women and children like cattle. Such words come with the trade.

I think it is strange though, that Mr. Ez-Zarqawi finds it possible to say that all the Shias, from Iran to Lebanon to Iraq to Malaysia or to Algeria are the same. We believe the same things? No more than do Sunnis. That’s why Bashar al-Asad is an Alawite and I am an Ismaili (Sevener) and Ahmadinejad is a Twelver. I don’t believe in all the Immams that the Twelvers do, and I don’t think of Ali in the same way that Alawis do. There are other sects too. All have their own character and special beliefs. We are of all different ethnicities and races too. Persians are a lot different from Berbers or Lebanese Arabs. Pakistani Shias are often racially dissimilar to East African Shias. Just like Sunnis.

Mr. ez-Zarqawi seems to be one of those young Arab men who grew up in a sleepy desert town with little to do but read religious texts and who has moved to a foreign country to find something to do. Kill people. Why? Because they’re Shia. Because they’re that different.

What makes this message even worse, aside from its venomous rhetoric, is that many in the Arab world will take this as gospel. They will believe it. There are many that really are that sheep like. Especially where there are few or no Shias. These are attitudes typical of Eastern bigots. It is known that in the Gulf, many Sunnis hold beliefs similar to Mr. ez-Zarqawi’s and knowingly and willfully discriminate against their Shia countrymen. Some would act on it, other would not. The governments in that neck of the woods encourage these sentiments. What will they do now? What if some of those young Saudis who are getting ready to go to Iraq decide that it would be better to get rid of the “filth” in their country by attacking Saudi Shias? What would the Saudi government do? Probably very little, if anything.

Don’t kill Shias. They’re good people. Haifa Wehbe is Shia. Even if you don’t like her music (eh…), you can’t deny that she is a babe. There must be something wrong. As the other Nouri has said, such attitudes show “a futile brutality, depraved mentally and morally.”

I’m no Sunni and I’m not the boss of anyone, but I have some advice for the Sunnis (and everyone else out there): Don’t listen to ez-Zarqawi. Ignore him.