Having been born to a Sunni mother and a Shi`ite father, I don't buy the stories that Sunnis and Shi`ites always loved one another. I am too aware of the tensions. But those social tensions were never as politically exploited--and effectively--as in present-day Arab world. I found the Sunnis of Lebanon (and this is from my experience) quite condescending toward Shi`ites, but their views were based on class: city people being condescending to people that they viewed as peasants. They also despised Shi`ite religious rituals. On the part of the Shi`ites, there was resentment: that the Sunnis looked down at them, and that they did not take their Islam seriously or credibly. Without getting into the details of my parents' marriage in 1955--which crossed the Sunni-Shi`ite divide--my my mother was lucky to have Shaykh `Abdullah Al-`Alayli as her cousin. This great linguist/writer/Arab nationalist thinker was once nicknamed the "Red Cleric". And his book Ayna Al-Khata' was banned from so many Arab countries. I wrote about his views before on this site, so use the google search feature. One time when I was 7 or 8, my mother took us kids to see him with the sole purpose to explain to us the differences between Sunnis and Shi`ites: and he did it with such sensitivity, erudition, and knowledge. He gave us examples form the Qur'an: I can still see him explaining to us the various interpretations of the verse "the hand of God was over the community." He was unusual in his views. He wrote a well-known book on Husayn. But `Abduallah `Alayli was quite unrepresentative. He was once considered for the position of Mufti but the conservative Sunni political establishment, especially Sa'ib Salam, almost revolted. (I am still sick: I can't say more. So good night. Wait: can you get the Lebanese genius who "invented a cure" for cancer to invent for me a cure for the common cold? Or the flu? I can never tell the difference.)