Right Daedalus. But I read somewhere that under the Ottomans, Mesopotamia was divided into administrative districts based on Sunni, Shiite and Kurd, to keep them from killing each other. I'm wondering how the Middle East was arbitrarily carved up by the victors of WW I.

This is via my phone so excuse my poor typing skills. Your question below on how the middle east was carved up is based on european desires and not in anyway related to ethnic or religious parties. Much of the sectarian violence surrounding ethnicity and the sunni shiite conflict is derived from territorial disputes evolving from the treaty of sevre and the subsequent amendments.