Sunni Muslim terrorists murder Shia Muslims in Pakistan - can TOK help us understand this behaviour?

                                                                                             

                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                           What inspires some people to commit mass murder in the name of religion?
India has witnessed the tragic loss of life this week in terrorist attacks.
In Pakistan, Sunni Muslims are the majority and Shia Muslims are the minority. The Shia community are regular targets of attacks by those who consider their brand of faith 'wrong'.
They are labeled 'heretics', 'apostates', 'infidels'. The paradox is that many prominent figures in Pakistan's history were Shia Muslims but now they are targeted as the 'enemy' by fanatics who want everyone to be exactly the same - that is agree with them.
If religion is about love, what feeds this hatred of others who belong to a different sect or branch of the same religious system? Europe saw similar atrocities during the 'religious wars' between Catholics and Protestants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion

It can be argued that with the rise of nationalism as a secular 'religion', politics and identity became the 'reason' for wars. Note that Catholics and Protestants fought together as British or Germans in World War One, where the flag and uniform determined who was your friend or foe. In a sense nationalism replaced religion as 'faith' but certainly as way of defining one's identity, the sense of who is one of us and who is 'the other', the enemy.
After World War 2, Postmodernism reflected a more humanist secular approach to life in the West. Modern liberal thinking shows a distrust of absolutist ideologies whether they claim to come from God or from politics, Hitlerism, Stalinism, Maoism. IB students are encouraged to reflect on how Hitler and other fanatics often find a minority to create a scapegoat and channel the hatred of the majority in their society. For Hitler it was the Jews, for Stalin and Mao it was 'enemies of the state'.
There is another way to think and live:
In contrast consider this quote attributed to Gandhi ( but I am still searching for a source):
"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."