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Pastimes : Understanding Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rick McDougall who wrote (41)	10/2/2001 5:55:36 AM
From: AmericanVoter	Respond to of 2926

Rick, the majority in Saudi Arabia are Sunni...the ruling are Sunni Iran are Shiite... the ruling are Shiite Iraq and Bahrain are Shiite... the ruling are Sunni as for the difference... that requires some research on your side as it can not be covered here in a posting (at least I don't think that I can do that)... there is a lot of history behind that... regards amein

To: Rick McDougall who wrote (41)	10/2/2001 10:48:42 AM
From: uu	Respond to of 2926

Rick, Here is a link that goes over Shiism and Sunnism. rim.org From the link: In order to fully understand Shiism and how it differs from Sunni Islam, the historical origins of Shiism must be considered. According to Allamah Tabatabai, the history of Shiism begins with Muhammad's acceptance of Ali's response to the invitation to become successor and inheritor.5 Upon the death of Muhammad, the majority of the Muslims quickly selected a caliph - who was not Ali. The minority group who protested this decision became known as the party or shi`ah of Ali.6 Here, according to Shiites, is the beginning of Shiism. However, Bernard Lewis, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, disagrees with this as being evidence of the distinctive historical origin of Shiism. He states, The early history of Shi`ism is still very obscure. Most of the expositions that have come down to us are the work of theologians, both Sunni and Shi`ite... They were all written at later dates and often read back into the past the ideas and conflicts of later times. In doing so, they tend to systemize and stabilize much that was shifting and chaotic. In time, the Shi`a crystallized... marking them off from Sunni Islam... In early times this had not yet happened. The Muslims were still a single community, in which various groups formed and broke up, following different doctines and leaders and changing them with bewildering ease. According to John L. Esposito, "the revolt of Ali's son Husayn, led to the division of the Islamic community into its two major branches, Sunni and Shii." Whatever the case may be of actual historical origins, in order to understand the fundamental beliefs of Shiism, and to see how they differ from Sunnism, it is important to understand what Shiism views as its own historical origin and development. Please refer to the URL above for the complete history behind Shiisam and Sunnism. In a nutshell and to summarize it all boils down to: Shiiets believe that Ali (who was Mohammad's nephew) was Mohammad's Successor while Sunnis do not. Of course there is whole lot more to it, but bottom line that is the real difference. It is also believed that Shiiet was a a creative work of Persians to take their revenge from the Arabs who had invaded their land and forced coverting everyone to Islam through bloodshed, war, destruction and killings. That is why you see Iran as the only country in the world with the majority (if not literally all) of the population as well as the rulling class being Shiiets. Islam in general is well suited for Arabs for which it was originated based on Arabs cultural background. It is Arabs religion as well as their history. However when that ideology is transferred through force to other nations (such as Persia as it wa done 1400 years ago) with their own rich set of cultural and historical background you end up with a mixed ideology that can not distinguish between its right and left hand. To give an analogy in Computer terminology, It is sort of like trying to run a Unix operating system on PC platofrm and forcing people to use Unix instead of Microsoft Windows that they have come to learn and to understand. And if people say we do not want Unix since it is difficult to use and to understand and are happy with our own good oldl Microsoft Windows, they are simply shot in the head! :)