You, like us, may have been wondering how in the world Muslims tell each other apart when they go on their frequent killing sprees. How, for example, does a Sunni distinguish a hated Shia from other Sunnis? Do people often get killed as a result of mistaken identity? Does it matter to the killers who they kill or are they content just to have shot somebody or blown people up?
Anyway, Daniel Engber has an enlightening column at Slate which helps answer the first of these questions. It turns out that a lot of it is in the name.