The Al-Azhar monthly magazine is distributed with an accompanying thematic booklet; in 2012 three of these booklets were dedicated to drawing linkages between “crimes” committed by Shi’a in the past and in the present. This paper analyzes the use of early Islamic history in this portrayal and the apparent intended impact in light of current events. Each booklet is a reproduction of an earlier work, edited and introduced by Dr. Muhammad ‘Amara. The booklet for August 2012 presents a 1983 work “Two Contradictory Pictures from the Sunni and the Shi’i” by Abu al-Hasan al-Nadawi, a scholar from India who died in 1999. The author considers, in relation to human improvement and global transformation, four characteristics heavenly religions and then assesses the record of the Sunni and the Shi’i on these four points. The November 2012 booklet presents a treatise on the “Shi’i Religion” by Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib who was born in Ottoman Syria and served as an Ottoman qadi in Yemen and then for Faisal in Syria before settling in Cairo where he died in 1969. Dr. ‘Amara notes in his introduction that readers may be surprised that Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib uses the term Shi’i “religion” rather than “madhhab” or “sect,” but that readers will come to understand that Shi’ism is in fact a different religion. Dr. ‘Amara concludes his introductory remarks by linking together how the Shi’i allied with the Crusaders against Saladin and with Hulegu against the Abbasids and finally with the American imperialists, Christian and Jewish Zionists in the destruction of Iraq in 2003. In the December 2012 booklet Dr. ‘Amara presents a history of al-Azhar’s relations with the Shi’a from the age of the Fatimids to the present followed by an anthology of statements by seven Azhar scholars on the Shi’a. This paper analyzes the content and tone of these booklets in the light of the intensifying civil war in Syria throughout 2012. Special attention is given to the presentation of early Islamic history and Shi’i beliefs and practices. What characters, events, and views are highlighted and which ignored? How one-eyed is the portrayal? Is the division between Sunni and Shi’a presented as primarily doctrinal, historical, cultural, or political? Based on the above, what response do the booklets seem designed to illicit in their readers.