Esmeralda
Diamond Member
Off topic here but someone explain to me the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite.
Thanks in advance.
"The historic background of the Sunni–Shia split lies in the schism that occurred when the Islamic prophet Muhammad died in the year 632, leading to a dispute over succession to Muhammad as a caliph of the Islamic community spread across various parts of the world which led to the Battle of Siffin. The dispute intensified greatly after the Battle of Karbala, in which Hussein ibn Ali and his household were killed by the ruling Umayyad Caliph Yazid I, and the outcry for his revenge divided the early Islamic community. Today there are differences in religious practice, traditions and customs, often related to jurisprudence. Although all Muslim groups consider the Quran to be divine, Sunni and Shia have different opinions on hadith."
One of the Muslim women I know well explained it to me. The quote from Wiki puts it in a nutshell.
This site gives more detailed information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia–Sunni_relations
There is a lot of animosity between them, something like the Prostestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, or othe Turks and the Greeks.
Shias are only about 10-to-15 percent of the entire Muslim world
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