Jonathan Soeder's Comments
The map would provide a lot more context -- and a lot more relevant information in relation to what you hear about the Middle East on a daily basis, and the political differences between these two groups -- if you showed the distribution of Sunni and Shia across Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Not just Iraq.
The geopolitical relationships between these countries, their make-up in terms of Shia / Sunnia Islam, and US foreign policy are all very important. For example, the members of the Axis of Evil Iran and Syria have large and influential Shiite populations.
Saudi Arabia is primarily Sunni. Iraq is has a large Shiite population as well but was ruled by the Sunni minority with funding from the Saudi and the Americans.
All of this deserves deeper investigation if you want to understand who are our political "enemies" and who are our "allies"
The geopolitical relationships between these countries, their make-up in terms of Shia / Sunnia Islam, and US foreign policy are all very important. For example, the members of the Axis of Evil Iran and Syria have large and influential Shiite populations.
Saudi Arabia is primarily Sunni. Iraq is has a large Shiite population as well but was ruled by the Sunni minority with funding from the Saudi and the Americans.
All of this deserves deeper investigation if you want to understand who are our political "enemies" and who are our "allies"
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a0/Muslim_distribution.jpg
courtesy of wikipedia.