Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

fantastic theories of the Babylonian dualists, and on the other, the 'Fathers ofthe Church' of this religion, in this case called 'Islamic sheikhs,' invented andadded to it many things about the blessings of that famous Paradise supposedlyexisting in the 'other world'—blessings such as could never have enteredthe head of the chief governor of Purgatory, His All-Quarters Maintainer theArch-Cherub Helkgematios, even if he had deliberately tried to imagine them."Although the followers of this religion also split up, from the very first,into many different 'sects' and 'sub-sects'— which, by the way, continue toexist even till now—they nevertheless all subscribe to one or the other of itstwo independent 'schools,' as they are called, which were formed at the timeof its arising."These two schools of the Islamic religion are called there 'Sunnism' and'Shi'ism.'"It is interesting to note that the psychic hatred of each other formed in thebeings belonging to these two independent branches of one and the samereligion has now, on account of their frequent clashes, been completely transformedinto organic hatred."During recent centuries the beings of certain European communities havegreatly contributed by their intrigues to this peculiar transformation of thatstrange being-function."And they make use of these intrigues again and again to increase theanimosity between the followers of these two independent schools of one andthe same religion so that they should never unite, for if this were to happenthere might soon be an end of those European communities."The point is that nearly half of the three-brained beings there arefollowers of this Islamic teaching, and only as long as this hatred prevailsamong them will they constitute no serious threat of 'reciprocal destruction' toEuropean communities."And hence the power-possessors of certain 'freshly