Conflict Between Sunni And Shiites

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The Sunni and Shiites branches of Islam diverged when their perception of Muhammad’s successor contradicted, and through time both branches conflicted because they believed that the opposite branch was not practicing “true Islam”(Sunni). In the Early Modern Era, the political and military conflict between the Ottoman and Safavid Empires reflected the conflict between the two branches of Islam(Strayer 400-402). The tension within the Muslims begun to settle and peace fell over the Islamic world. In modern-day Middle East, a horrible dictator, Saddam Hussein, raised the Sunni-Shiites tension once again in Iraq, and Sunni majority begun to suppress the Shiites, and vice versa after the dictation. Civil war uproared in Iraq and religious branches …show more content…

Turkey’s secularism frequently helped the citizens in its country to break out of the boundaries of strict Islamic laws which modernized their religious beliefs. Volkan Ertit, a doctorate that studied the sociology of religion in the Netherlands, proved that Turkey was becoming more and more secular in relation to the modernization in their religious traditions. Many data and research that Ertit collected demonstrated that Turkey drifted away from its traditional beliefs. Homosexuality was much more accepted, many perceived uncommon marital relationship differently, and casual attires were more often seen on the streets(Akyol). Believers with fundamental religious beliefs made homosexuality a major controversial topic in modern society. Islam, similar to many other religions, considered homosexuality a disgrace and shame. Therefore, being able to accept changes to these “set-in-stone laws of Islam”, it underscored Turkey’s secularism of breaking out of these well-known strict codes that also underlined the modernization the nation went through. A well-known goal of Turkey had always been to join the European Union, which demonstrated how they were willing adapt into the western society. BBC News published a country profile on Turkey which included how Turkey’s national ideals changed as they attempted to join the EU. The …show more content…

After the death of Prophet Muhammad, there were two distinct branches of Islam believers with differential views on who was the next true leader of Islam. These two branches evolved into the Sunnis and Shiites. The controversies of Muhammad’s successor between the two branches started to diverge over time from each other because of their pillars of faiths, practices and customs. The Diffen article declared many differences between the Sunni and Shiites, such as while the Shiites believed that the twelve Infallible Imams should lead, the Sunni believed the four rightly guided caliphs should(T., et.al). Both branches of Islamic followers believed that the other group did not practice the religion properly, and the leaders of each branch always fought against each other. Ibn Taymiyya, an Islamic scholar in the fourteenth century called the Shiites, “those who refuse god”(Trofimov). Through time, the Sunni muslims started to suppress the Shiites for political and economic power in their nations.(In a Nutshell-Kurzgesagt) Recently, the Sunni-Shiites tension were often the source of violent conflicts between nations. The Sunni-Shiites tension the originated during the Early Modern Era continued to be the cause of the modern conflicts many nations face