I have been reading Kapuscinski’s book The Shah, about the Iranian revolution, and it brings back memories of the seventies. And it brings up a puzzle: how is it that the U.S. became the anti-Shiite superpower? Weirdly, Americans always conflate, when being Islamophobic, Sunni Islam and Islam altogether – for instance, in the American conviction that all Moslems forbid portraying Mohammed. In many ways, the Shi’ites are a better match for Americans, but by sheer chance – the alliance with the Saudis and Israel – the US really does act like the great Satan to Shi’ites. I doubt many Americans even know what Shi’ites are is the thing.
Sometimes, history is a concatenation of coincidences, much like a slapstick comedy routine.
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