Black on Black

I'm not sure how we're supposed to describe the 7/7 terrorists. They were born in Great Britain to families who moved there from Pakistan. So does that make them Paki-Brits (presumably one has to be sensitive to ethnic identification, a la African-American, Italian-American, etc.)?

I haven't read anything about this but since the bombers were of Pakistani heritage, I think it is safe to assume they were Sunni Muslims (75% of Pakistan is Sunni).

Anyway, many commentators are drawing the inevitable connection between the terrorists and the Iraq War, i.e., they were "radicalized" by the Iraq war to strap on bombs and blow up some commuters.

What is it about the Iraq war that would so inflame them?

It can't be an ethnic or racial identification.

Iraq is an Arab country (not completely as Kurds, who make up about 25% of the population, are not Arabs. The Kurds overwhelmingly supported coalition intervention in Iraq).

But Pakistanis are not Arabs.

Is it a religious connection?

The majority of Iraqis are Shi'a (65%). But the terrorists are Sunni. The two groups don't get along.

Most of the terrorist attacks in Iraq are directed at Shi'a Iraqis; much of the terrorism within Pakistan itself is directed at its Shia population and carried out by Sunnis.

So why does a Sunni Muslim British citizen of Pakistani heritage decide he's so upset by the Iraq war that he has to blow himself up on the London subway?

The only way this makes sense to me is that the terrorists don't want the Shi'a in power in Iraq.

The goal is for the Iraq War to end in failure for the coalition so that the majority Shi'a can more easily be subjugated once again to the Sunni minority as they were so brutally for 35 years under Saddam Hussein.

That's what this is about then, Sunnis don't want the Shi'a to win. The terrorists kill in London so the coalition will withdraw from Iraq and leave the Shi'a to the mercies of the Sunni thugs who are already killing them daily.

Or maybe it's just payback for Kashmir...Mountbatten, the partition and all that?