Difference Between Sunni And Shiites

Over the past few years, the Islamic community has been generalized into a singular term by the rest of the world, Muslim. Although, this is an essential part of their religion it is imprecise to umbrella the Islamic community into only the term, Muslim. Considering the fact, much like the rest of the world’s religions, there are two differing sects of Islamic religion, the Sunnis and the Shiites. At the heart of it, Sunnis and Shiites are similar to the Catholics and Protestants in the commonality of some fundamental beliefs. But in spite of their practical belief differences, only the Sunnis and Shiites differences run so deep that intolerance and violence shadow the two groups, making coexistence near impossible. Thus two main sects of the

It became apparent after the passing of the Islamic leader Muhammad in 632 A.D. In his lifetime Muhammad lead the Islamic community both religiously and politically, he was the ultimate authority (Shi'ite Islam). Thus, after his death, disagreement grew about succession and the nature of the new leadership in the new Muslim community. This debate was centered on whether to award leadership to a qualified, pious individual who would follow the customs of the Prophet or to transmit leadership exclusively through the Prophet’s bloodline. The question was settled initially when community leaders elected a companion of the Prophet’s named Abu Bakr to become the first Caliph, Arabic for “successor.” Although his candidacy was widely accepted, a growing minority supported the candidacy of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, husband of the Prophet’s daughter Fatima. As Ali’s support was a growing minority, the rift was cemented when Ali’s son was killed by the ruling Sunni’s troops. Thus originating from the same religion, a divide was formed between two sects: Sunnis and

The Sunnis accept that the first four Caliphs, including Ali, as the rightful succession leaders after Muhammad. However, similar to Protestantism in Christianity, they don't give the kind of divinely inspired status to their clerics that Shiites do with their imams. Shiites believe imams are direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. While the Shiites replace Muhammad’s absence with imams, the Sunnis use the system of political and military leader and group of scholars for religious interpretations. Furthermore, Islam has no codified laws, instead, it has various schools of law that follows Muhammad’s teachings as law. While Sunni doctrine is more rigidly aligned in accordance with those various schools, its hierarchical structure is looser and often falls under state, rather than clerical, control, thus less religiously ruled states. Opposed to the Shiites in which their doctrine is somewhat more open to interpretation but the clerical hierarchy is more defined and, as in Iran, the ultimate authority is the imam, not the state. The two sects not only differ in minor opinions of ruling, but the hatred between the two sects is runs so deep, to the point where, “some 40% of Sunnis don’t even regard Shiites as real Muslims”