Today in our History class, we had a long discussion about why the country of Iran is so different from the other countries surrounding it.  I made a list of ways that it was different along with my other notes, all of which are at school - unusable.  So I'll do my best to recall things from memory.  (I understand why you wanted us to use paper and pencils instead of computers, but I'm not very good at holding onto papers - especially when I don't have a binder for that class.  Anyway, I found some of the differences very interesting - things that I never knew or at least didn't remember.  Iranians are NOT ARAB.  Iran is NOT AN ARAB COUNTRY.  This is a really important fact, since there seems to be a certain negative connotation with the word Arab, at least in our part of the world.  Arabs came from Arabia, now known as Saudi Arabia (Arabia run by the Sauds).  We talked a lot about the differences in religion and how 90% of the country is Shia Muslim as opposed to Sunni Muslim (90% everywhere else in the world).  I don't know if we discussed this or not, but I really wonder WHY this country's religion is so skewed from the rest of the Middle East.  Also, we're not supposed to group the "Middle East" into one clump because it is comprised of so many different religions and countries and beliefs.  I understand that, I guess.  It'd be like if people said "The Americas" as a generalization since there are so many different cultures represented even within North America, let alone South America.  We also talked about the difference in who they think should follow up as the next Khalif - somebody chosen from a specific group of people or somebody related to the current Khalif.  Again, I don't know WHY these opinions differ, but they do. There was one more thing that I would like to look farther into the history of, and that is the origin of the word "Aryan".  Because apparently, before World War II, Aryan meant something completely different.  Maybe I'll bring it up in class again this week.