Jamila kissed her daughter and retreated towards the deck, where Ahmed was deep in conversation with his father. ‘I’m afraid the after-dinner conversation will have to wait,’ she said. ‘Rashida won’t have anyone other than her big brother read the story tonight.’Ahmed grinned and headed for his little sister’s room, leaving his mother and father on the deck.‘There was more trouble with the Sunnis in the village today,’ Jamila confided in her husband.‘I heard. They will just have to learn to get along with us,’ said Mansoor. ‘We have enough enemies across the border without fighting amongst ourselves.’‘Tell that to Omar,’ Jamila complained. ‘Did he really throw a shoe at the imam?’ ‘Yes, although he was immediately bundled out of the mosque.’ Their next-door neighbour, Omar Abbasi, was vehemently Sunni; one of those who considered all Shi’ites to be heretics and deserters of the true Islam.‘Although we need to cut him a little slack,’ Mansoor added.
