Comments on: Sunni vs. Shi'ite: Learning the difference

By: tiho

tiho — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:36:13 +0000

i'm a sunni with many shiite relatives.
but i truly don't have anything against shiites ingeneral, i mean me and my relatives get on pretty well.
except for the part that if i wasn't a family member they would have hacked me into 20 pieces and put me through a blender.
but that's just them

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:09:14 +0000

Thanks Zobe for that. I took a world religions class two terms ago and we briefly touched on Islam so I learned some of the religion and got the book "No god but God" by Razan Islan (sp?) which is a good read. I saw a seminar done by him in a political class (live feed of him at another university) and it was pretty good. He's been on the Daily Show before and CSPAN so you might can find video's of him speaking with Islam online. He does a great job in talking about Islam and he has a degree from I believe Harvard in religion so he knows his stuff and he's easy to listen to and understand what he's saying.

By: Zobe

Zobe — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:42:12 +0000

haha in fact Rich, thats exactly how alot of muslims divide them. you see, it doesnt have to be complicated.

By: Rich Pav

Rich Pav — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:55:36 +0000

Thanks for the lesson, Zobe. Shia: family. Sunni: caliphs. I know it's a lot more complicated than that, but it's a start.

By: Zobe

Zobe — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:43:17 +0000

Well, let me try and put across what i understand as the main difference between traditional sunni Islam and the Shi'ites. The Shi'a do still adhere to the teachings of Muhammad (pbuh) but they believe that his family, including his descendants, have special spiritual and political rule over the community. Unlike Sunni Muslims, the Shi'a believe that Ali, Muhammad's cousin and husband of his daughter, Fatimah, was the true successor to Muhammad who was appointed by God and his prophet, and thus reject the legitimacy of the first three rightly-guided caliphs.

Also, about 10-15% of the world muslims are Shi'a with the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan.

Hope that helps a little guys.

By: Rich Pav

Rich Pav — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:55:55 +0000

CIA World Fact book says Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37% in Iraq. It was somewhere else (maybe a BBC article) I read that said there were only slightly more Shi'a than Sunni, but now I can't find it. As for the religious differences between the two, I keep reading and hearing about them but it hasn't stuck yet. If I told you what I do know I'd probably sound like a complete idiot.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:44:15 +0000

I was under the impression that the Iraqi population is *significantly* more Shi'ite than Sunni, and that this is the primary reason for the high influence that the neighboring Iranian regime has over Iraqi politics and religious figures.

I am told (by people who I can only hope know what they are talking about) that the important distinction between the two sects is that the Sunni believe that there are no surviving relatives of the muslim prophet Muhammad (no blood line) and that this is God's will (so as to prevent idol worship of Mohammed's brood). Whereas the Shi'ites believe there *are* surviving members.

Please do correct me if it turns out I've been misinformed.

By: Zobe

Zobe — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:21:43 +0000

hey rich,
well being a sunni myself, i feel a little uneasy with al-qaeda being described as the same but i cant fault you! you might even say al-qaeda started as part of a newer sect in the 80s; CIA'ites . bin-laden's family is actually originally yemeni. the yemenis built up saudi arabia so alot of the big businesses are yemeni there.

if we want to go into the the actual religious difference, then we could be here for a while… i agree maybe mccain should read your post.

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:39:35 +0000

Since you seem into liberal politics do you ever listen to any radio programs? If you don't here are some great programs you can stream online for free! Http://www.novamradio.com They are a fairly new network and have some great hosts on there. My favorites are Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes. They're very in your face type of people. Malloy likes to vent a lot and Rhodes has great information on her shows and has cool guests on there. She has Congressman Robert Wexler on sometimes since she lives in Florida and he's her rep. http://www.airamericaradio.com I like Thom Hartmann who is a genius and The Young Turks is a very fun and lively political show. Http://www.stephaniemiller.com She is the daughter of Bill Miller who was the VP running mate of Barry Goldwater and he was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials of the Nazi's. She's a liberal and mixes politics, current events and comedy. I get her podcast every year as a Christmas gift and it is so worth it. I don't know how much free time you have but check them out sometime when you have nothing to do.

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:36:00 +0000

Works for me! Oh a great book dealing with all that is called "No god but God" by Razan Islan. I think I spelled his name correctly. He talks about the past, present and future of Islam and what is happening with it like with the different groups and how AlQida fits in etc. Oh sometime when you get the chance do some research on BCCI, BinLadin, Russia and Afghanistan. Oh and look up the BinLadin and Bush families too. Very interesting stuff. You should send your little ditty to McCain. Heh!