I just finished reading “The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future – By Vali Nasr”. It is a good introduction about the Sunni and Shia conflict over the last 1400 years. The book also describes how the new Shia dominant Iraqi government is tipping the status quo of the Shia/Sunni conflict and causing problems for countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The author seems to be sympathetic to the Shia side and gives less consideration to the Sunni side of the story. I found the book a bit of a disappointment, since most of the information covered in the book I knew already. The only part that I learned was about the different Shia traditions in different countries like Pakistan and India which I am not familiar with. I was expecting a deeper analysis of the current situation in Iraq and future projections as to how a new balance might shape up. In addition, I found one historical mistake in the book. When he talks about the Lebanese civil war, he mentions the involvement of the Shia Amal militia in the mascre of Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, which is incorrect, Amal was not involved in that incident. I believe that the author was confused with a different incident at Tal El Za’atar which the Amal militias did in fact raze to the ground.

Despite some of the short comings of the book, I think that it would make a good introductory reading for the western reader. It is written in easy language and is easy to understand.