Do you have a funny feeling?

This week Iranian President and Saudi Crown Prince met and agreed to work toward stemming the end of Shia-Sunni tension in the Muslim world. Also this week, the King of Jordon renewed his efforts to get the U.S. involved in a Middle-East peace settlement. What do these have in common? What would make someone feel so uncomfortable about these steps toward peace?

If a two-state solution can be agreed upon in Israel, and the Sunnis & Shias lay aside their differences, the continued economic rise of the Middle East could create the onset of a new Golden Age for Islam. With their differences behind them, and a Palestinian state, the Arab League could turn its attention toward creating first world economies in their countries, and expanding their financial and cultural influence around the world.

This would be tantamount to the changes that would have taken place in The Middle Ages if Kings of England and France agreed to become allies and the Pope and the Bishop of Constantanople agreed to put aside their historical differences. In that situation, a gigantic superpower united by a common faith would have arose with the idea to expand their sphere of influence around the world.

I'm not afraid of what may be coming. But it gives me a funny feeling in my stomach when I think that the Saudi's may be at the center of this new superpower. Their fascist ologarchy, founded on oppressive piety, and built on the wheels of a gas-guzzling west, is primed to expand its dangerous interpretation of Islam. This will result in more free speech silenced, women abused, religious minorities persecuted and killed, and countless other brainwashed by a fundamentalist theology filled with spite and disdain for outsiders.