For those who wish to actually UNDERSTAND Islam a little better and determine the nature of the new Islamic unity, I am providing a link to the foremost in treatises that eloquently relates what the problems are and how agreement was eventually reached between the major scholars at the turn of the last century. This unity is actively being sought out and destroyed by the US/Zionist forces in countries where there are Shi'i/Sunni majorities. In Sunni countries (like Saudi Arabia) this book is banned and it is no wonder.

http://www.al-islam.org/murajaat/index.htm

3) The generations of the first three centuries, then, never followed any of those sects at all. Where were those sects during those three generations, the best generations ever? Al­Ash`ari was born in 270 A.H. and died in 320 A.H. Ibn Hanbal was born in 164 A.H. and died in 241 A.H. Al­Shafi`i was born in 150 A.H. and died in 204 A.H. Malik was born in 95 A.H.[1] and died in 179 A.H. Abu Hanifah was born in 80 A.H. and died in 150 A.H. Shi`as follow the sect of the Imams from the Prophet's Household, and the household surely know what their house contains. Non­Shi`as follow the sects of the learned sahabah and tabi`in; so, what makes it "mandatory" on all Muslims, after those three centuries had gone by, to follow those sects instead of the one followed before them? What made them divert their attention from those who were peers only to the Book of Allah and its own companions, the descendants of the Messenger of Allah and his trustees, the nation's ark of salvation, the leaders, the security, and the Gate of Salvation?

...that is only one of the proofs provided in this magnificent book regarding the validity of the Shi'i stance. Truly, people in the West do not understand Islam nor do they understand the critical nature of the war in Iraq and what US interventionism has done there. They could not possibly understand the nature of a muslim's support of Bush due to the fact that US style 'democrazy' was the "next best thing" to establishing unity amongst the TWO sects of Islam (not Sufis, not Wahhabis..but the realdeal, Sunni/Shi'i). When the Shi'i mosque in Iraq was destroyed...it became quite clear to the Shi'i that foreign mercenaries and agent provacateurs were busy trying to spawn a civil war. They (the Mossad and Wackenhut operatives) were getting impatient with their war torn ideas. As they were getting impatient with Lebanon who refused for TWO years to indulge in this nice little thing called a Civil War....you see...they sent that Valentine to Lebanon two whole years ago and hadn't received what they expected out of that....therefore they used the Israeli soldier's captivity to launch the largest WAR CRIME since Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran at the behest of the Sunni sponsors: AMERICA (Zionist backed and vice versa the Christian Zionist Bush and Co. plus Osama's family business partners).

Politics is only one level of all of this. We also need to check in on those notorious Taif accords. Why was Taif chosen?
Only a real muslim knows why.