Sunni vs. Shi'ite

After the suicide bombing today at a Shi'ite wedding I began to think about why Muslim's are killing each other in Iraq. I just did a little research that I'd like to share with those of you who are wondering the same thing.

30 years after the death of Muhammed the Islam community broke into civil war. 3 groups evolved from this conflict; Sunnites, Shi'ites and Kharijites.

The Sunnites are the followers of the sunna (practice) of Muhammed by his companions (the sahaba). They also believe that the Islam community will always be guided which allowed them to recognize the authority of the Caliphs.

Shi'ites believe that the only legitimate leader of Islam was one from Muhammed's lineage. They followed Muhammed's first cousin, Ali. Shi'ites believed that the Sunni's made a great error by not following Ali.

Sunnites view Shi'ites as heretics and misguided but still apart of Islam.
Sunnites make up 80%-90% of the world's Muslim population.

Also, I read a few Islamic sites that viewed Shi'ites as snobby, thieves or lazy but I did not find any academics to back this up.

This helped me better understand the difference between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim's and hopefully this will help a few more people out.

Interesting slink, now all we need are some Sunnites and Sh'ites to argue their points for what could be a really good thread.

Well the Sunnites were in bed with Saddam, I believe the Shiites will be the winners this time. Also the Shiites want Saddam executed NOW because he is a War Criminal, Not a U.S.A--P.O.W... Lets hope next Voting weekend a lot of Iraqs dont lose there lives. Shiites make up to 60% of Iraqs 25 Million population...

From what i know of the 2 groups the shiites are the more fanatic muslim group, which have more extreme views than the sunnites. The odd thing is that in palestine, it is mostly shiites doing the suicide bombings, yet the shiites are with the americans in iraq. Throws the whole israeli-american links into dissaray

I just hope the Lord looks down upon his World and gives us a hand to sought this mess out, we are going to need it over the next 10 years + im not a deep religious man but i do believe in the Power of Prayer lets all say a few tonite. How many more U.S.A Lives are going to be lost? + permanent Injuries I feel very sorry for all these young men and there Families. How does G.Bush sleep at night? Lets just pray that Voting next week-end and the end result will be for the good of Iraq and all mankind involved.

Well can you do me a favour with your prayers? Forget about the americans who are killed and injured as im sure there are plenty of others out there who will make up for it. Pray for the iraqi families, they have sufferd much more than any of your U.S. soldiers have, they are the ones in need of divine help.

Originally posted by wang
Well can you do me a favour with your prayers? Forget about the americans who are killed and injured as im sure there are plenty of others out there who will make up for it. Pray for the iraqi families, they have sufferd much more than any of your U.S. soldiers have, they are the ones in need of divine help.

I am sure there are a lot more Iraqis to take their place too, hell we should be able to slaughter them for years as long as we don't use nukes or Bio weapons, kinda like a deer herd you have to leave enough to breed the next season. I think if we leave enough breeding pairs we can slaughter them forever. If we start running out I suggest we concentrate on only killing the old and sickly, thereby improving the herd overall and not affecting the breeding of the next seasons hunt


Heaven forbid we pray for the those who suffer on both sides


[edit on 22-1-2005 by Amuk]

Slink great info there. i was wondering why too but i had other research to do. thanx again.

The division is not too different from similar bombings and hatreds between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. One could substitute Shi'ite for Catholic, since they are the ones who profess the divine nature of the one true church or bloodline. Sunnis could be compared to Protestants who are more moderate.

This is what is so funny about the Jihadist idea of Islam taking over the world. They would never be able to stop the eventual wars from WITHIN. The next war they would fight would be to destroy the 'heretics' in order to 'purify' the faith, etc, etc.

Such is the nature of any religion whose messiah is famous as a great warrior. War will always be seen as divine by his followers.

The Shi'ites are on the American's side right now but what happens if the U.S. attacks Iran. Iran is 90% Shi'ite or about 60,000,000 of the 68,000,000 people in Iran.

The Shi'ite's are the majority population in Iraq. The US has leaned on Sunnis because they fear another Iran. Today, Sunnis are more radical than Shi'ites. Shi'ites are demonized by the examples of Khomeni's movement and the Lebanese Hezbullah movement, but the Wahhabi movement is Sunni. There have been reports that many Sunni and Shi'ite groups have put aside their differences for now and have joined forces under the banner of anti-occupation.

It's sort of like the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

I love Jesus more than you do, and to prove it, I'll kill you.