Fears run so deep that the men were hesitant to accept an offer to meet with an aide to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki who is in charge of sectarian reconciliation matters.
To most Iraqis, ethnic or sectarian affiliation matters more than the political platforms, and violence continues to hold a deadly grip on politics.
"This is not a sectarian issue.
Both sides claim that Allah is greater than any being, and greater than any matter which may come before us, and yet, they continue to insist on making sectarian distinctions a matter of supreme importance, forgetting the love of God and God's children in the process.
While Hezbollah is Shiite and Hamas is Sunni, those sectarian differences have mattered little in their shared nationalist, Islamic, and anti-Israeli narratives.
"We have reservations in Anbar about any sectarian action, no matter who does it, whether it's the Popular Mobilization forces or the state apparatus," said Anbar Gov. Suhaib Rawi.
Whether motivated by frustration at the team's limitations, or genuine sectarian hatred, it didn't matter, it left a mark on a young boy and his dad.
Iraqi leaders may still choose sectarian over national interest no matter the consequences — and they've shown signs of doing just that.
But (unlike some of your neocon cheerleaders), we are wary of being drawn into another regional war, or making matters worse by unleashing sectarian reprisals or empowering a Syrian version of the Taliban.
They said that the departure of the American military and the ensuing political crisis in Baghdad, which raised fears of a return to sectarian warfare, prompted them to take matters into their own hands.
