Republicans can do whatever they want.

You can take the information I have provided into consideration when you build your internal worldview or you can ignore it.

There is no call to action here. It's just data.

It's like if you didn't know a single thing about Mandarin but insisted on making claims about its grammatical rules because you know English grammar.

None of the people I know and have spoken to are capable of or even thinking of violent retaliation.

I am extrapolating from their sentiments that someone out there will be moved to violence.

Every single muslim, whether devout, practicing, lapsed or whatever, knows whether they are/were Sunni or Shia. They are literally born into it. It determines who is seen as the authority in matters of their faith, the way they pray, the sites they consider holy, the religious days they observe. Even Ramadan starts and ends on different days depending on which you are.

It's such a fundamental thing that I question whether you have any idea about what you're saying here.

The Qur'an is totally prescriptive. It contains direct legal commands, judicial rules and explicit government principles which are all binding and considered as direct divine speech.

I think Westernisation and an increase in the number of "casual" muslims is and will continue to be the moderating effect.

Think of what is happening in Europe (as the clearest example) with the influx of Muslim immigrants who raise increasingly more assimilated children as the blueprint.

What a mad world we're hurtling ourselves into.

Wouldn't there be celebrations in the US if Trump died? What conclusions would you draw from that?

There are many Sunnis who view their leadership as "traitors to the cause" and respected Iranian defiance especially against Israel.

It's far from black and white.

So what?

It doesn't matter whether it suits you nor I. You calling them out has zero effect other than making you feel righteous. They don't hear you and even if they did they do not care a whit what you think.

They believe, with utter conviction, that martyrdom in service of Islam will be rewarded in the "hereafter". Their holy book tells them this explicitly. And there are millions of them.

Hence my comment.

The non-Iranian part is key. Millions of muslims around the world viewed the Iranian theocracy as the only power in the world fighting for Islam. They are devastated.