Dr. Milani, it's a pleasure to have you here today.
Listening to you talk a moment ago about the Sunni-Shia conflict and the potential there, I recall being in Saudi Arabia in 1969 for six months. During that period, I saw at a distance some of the conflicts happening at the grassroots level, just worker to worker. You referred to how women are held back, and I recall a class of women in a university there. If they were taught by a man, he had to be in the next room and on camera only; he couldn't be in the same room.
We avoided the souks and the central mosque on Fridays because that's when they were removing people's hands. On occasion, there were beheadings.
So I have a little bit of first-hand knowledge, but I'm concerned when I hear you talk about that conflict, because we had the conflict between Iraq and Iran a number of years ago. If the conflict takes on that religious split, could it not spill over into Iraq and even perhaps into Saudi Arabia?
I'll go a little further before you respond. A professor at McMaster University in my hometown of Hamilton, Reza Nejat, raised with me his concerns about the enclave of the People's Mujahideen in regard to how they're Iraq under American protection and what might happen to them once the Americans begin to withdraw. If you could answer that as well, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you, sir.