Word: sects
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...Shah. But Talbott found no shortage of political leaders to interview in neighboring Pakistan; they were alarmed by the plight of the beleaguered Shah and the possibility of Soviet intervention. Brelis, meanwhile, went off to the Iranian city of Qum, seat of the restless Shi'ite sect, for talks with rebelling Muslim leaders...
...Assad does have opposition. Syria is a predominantly Sunni Muslim country. There are complaints that the Alawites, an Islamic sect to which Assad belongs, represent only 10% of the people most top government offices. Some hard-line Baath Party members grumble that Assad is watering down the Marxist policies of previous regimes, while Syrian entrepreneurs think he has moved too slowly away from Baathism's doctrinaire socialism...
...regime who now pose one of the gravest threats to the Shah's rule in the past 15 years. This year at least 40 people have been killed in several cities in a series of riots by the conservative Shi'ite Muslims,* Iran's main religious sect...
...ruling family dates back to the 18th century, when the head of the tiny emirate of Dariyah (near Riyadh), Mohammed ibn Saud, formed an alliance with Mohammed ibn Abdul Wahhab, the fiery leader of a puritanical Islamic movement; his Wahhabi sect still holds sway in Saudi Arabia. This combination of tribal military skill and religious fanaticism did dominate central Arabia for 75 years, until it was crushed by an invading Egyptian army acting at the behest of the Ottoman rulers in Constantinople...
Shucks. I'd like to fly and turn invisible myself. I'm sure it would be a gas. But I'll believe it only when I see it--and so should Walton. There are already too many intelligent people around getting drawn into one cultish sect or another to the point of believing--and vigorously defending--whatever craziness the group leaders tell them, whether it be comical craziness as in the case of TM, or frightening and dangerous craziness as in the case of certain religious cults recruiting locally. History suggests that this syndrome does not lead to happy results...