Word for the day - fissiparous

fissiparous
fɪˈsɪp(ə)rəs/
adjective
  1. inclined to cause or undergo division into separate parts or groups.
    "the fissiparous tendencies innate in tribalism"

I thought of this word when I was just contemplating the crisis in Iraq and Syria and the rise of the Islamic State movement. These guys do seem quite determined, so I was thinking, instead of fighting them, why don't we just let them set up their caliphate and we can all live happily ever after? That would work wouldn't it?   

Like shite!   Would they be happy laying down their weapons and devoting their lives to prayer and reading the Qur'an and building a peaceful Islamic State?  No, they would be too busy pursuing Jihad elsewhere and hunting out infidels in their own ranks.  It only seems two minutes since Al Quaeda was the last word in Islamic extremism, but now they almost seem cuddly in comparison - they are too tame for IS (formerly ISIS), who are opposed to every other form of Islam. 

There does seem to be an inherent propensity of Islamic extremists to divide on ideological/religious lines, a tendency towards sectarianism.  It reminds me of how the far left used to be (or perhaps still is) with the "lefter than thou" attitude and the "57 varieties of Trotskyism", perhaps best parodied in Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979):

Are you the Judean people's front?



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