sigh

Submitted by jhubers (United States), Mar 22, 2008 at 23:56

Sigh . . .

You just dig yourself in deeper and deeper. I had thought you might actually know more about the early of history of Islam than I had originally assumed. Now I see such is not the case. The "Ali" faction were those in the early Muslim community who believed that Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, should have been appointed caliph instead of Abu Bakr.

Their championing of 'Ali put them in a minority position which eventually led -- when Islam had become the predominant faith of a very wealthy and powerful empire -- to their persecution. It was at this time that they developed the teaching of taqiyyah. This community would later be known as the Shi'a - literally the "party" of 'Ali. Eventually, too,, they would develop a whole different theology from the mainstream Sunni community giving them an even more "outsider" status.

Wikipedia, by the way, is not an authoritative source for translating Arabic terms, mainly because people like yourself can write whatever they choose on it. Obviously someone who doesn't understand the history of the term has written the definition.

What's mostly apparent is that you have learned about Islam from sources which are questionable at best -- or read the "sources" without really understanding how those sources have been used by Muslims through the years. This would be a bit like someone who has never read the Bible coming across the most aggressive passages and using this to critique Christianity as a system. You do know, of course, that Joshua advocates the slaughter of women and children, right?

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