LEFTIST SOPHISTICATION WATCH: SHIITES AND SUNNIS DO WORK TOGETHER, IRAN ADMITS FUNNELING MONEY TO HAMAS

Some time after 9/11, the Onion ran a piece about an insufferable leftist douchebag who, having suddenly acquired dozens of books about the history of Afghanistan, was casting himself as a self-styled expert of the region. We're reminded of that story every time some LA Times reading academic condescendingly explains to us that "Sunnis and Shiites are very different" and "hate each other". Yeah, they hate each other so much that Shiite Iran is willing to fund Sunni Hamas in their mutual cause of wiping Israel off the map:

Ali Larijani, the chairman of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, denied in an interview with Newsweek that Iran was providing arms to the Hamas. He admitted, however, that his country was funneling finances to the Islamic group, as well as to Hizbullah. "We do support Hizbullah and Hamas, that is right," Larijani said. "But these two are not terrorist groups. These are the two groups that are defending their own land."

There's a post to be written about Newsweek letting a terrorist supporter rationalize his terrorist supporting ways in their august pages (we recall how during WWII Mussolini was regularly interviewed by American press outlets "to help the American people understand", right?) But that's a post for a different time. For now: it turns out that Sunnis and Shiites do work together. Who knew?

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]