Shia v. Sunni Islam

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jan 16, 2015 at 13:33

yonason you wrote

I'm glad you are able to do that, and that you are sharing.

Any time

Also, note that I just selected one of many violent threats catalogued at that website that make it clear the Shia Sunni divide is far more than merely academic.

The answer to this is yes and no. The Shia are really the Catholics of Islam and they are very different from Sunnis. Just read the likes of Ali Dashti's biography of Muhammad, and you will never see its likes in Sunni Islam and their veneration of human beings be it Fatima (compare with Mary) and Ali (the High aka God or son of god may be?) is very amazing

Notice also that there are no Shia terrorists as you will find in Sunni islam! Terrorist state apparatus as in the case of Iran? That is a different story and I suspect that in Shia Islam we have the likes of a Shia Pope and he can tell his flock what to do and what not to do

And yes Shia have no like for Sunni icons the likes of Omar and Aisha and they regard Sunni books of al-Ahadith as evidence that Sunni Islam is not the real Islam and they make fun of the bizarre ahadith that you will find in let us say Sahih al-Bukhari the likes of the breast feeding of the adult or a man can have sex with a dead wife

However you are correct the Shia are the minority in Islam and as the Arabs say if you are alone then walk next to the wall which means be careful and use al-Taqiyya inorder to protect yourself

But this can change if the Shia become the majority

ASIDE (to those who advocate "nuke the cube" as a solution to the problem of Islam) - It wouldn't.

Change in Islam will come from within and I do believe that islamism has peaked and more likely than not started its decline and if you read the Arabic language web you will be amazed by the fact that many Arabs are questioning their sheikhs and poking fun at them so stay tuned

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".