The Difference Between Sunnis and Shiites

When Mohammed first launched his faith in the early 600s, he began it as a monolithic entity, a single all-encompassing Islamic kingdom, known as a 'caliphate.' Even after his death in 632, his first three successors, the 'caliphs', were generally accepted by the Islamic community. However, in A.D. 656, the third caliph, Uthman, was murdered, and Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali, ascended to the leadership of the caliphate. His supporters became known as Shiites, or Shia, which comes from the words 'Shiat Ali', meaning followers of Ali.

The new caliph found himself almost immediately under attack. The first assault came from the armies of Aisha, one of Mohammed's many wives, who suspected Ali of being insufficiently diligent in his pursuit of Uthman's killers. Ali handily defeated her at the Battle of the Camel in 656, but then a new enemy arose: Uthman's cousin, the powerful Mu'awiya Ummayad. When their armies met in battle, Ummayad ordered his soldiers to place papers bearing Quranic passages on the end of their spears. Ali's soldiers, being devout Muslims, promptly refused to attack. Ali believed he had no choice but to compromise, but when he did, one of his previously loyal followers felt so outraged that he assassinated Ali in A.D. 661.

After declaring himself caliph, Mu'awiya Ummayad quickly dealt with whom he perceived as his rivals; Ali's two sons, both named Hassan. The elder of the two sons quietly conceded the caliphate to Ummayad, and then died within a year. The younger son also decided to give up his claim to the caliphate, for the time being. However, when Ummayad died, Hassan changed his mind and renewed his claim to the caliphate. Ummayad's son Yazid, however, disputed the claim, and once more the two families met in battle. Yazid's forces practically massacred Hassan and his men, thus putting an apparent end to the Ali family's claim. However, Hassan's baby son escaped the slaughter, and so the line lingered on until the year 873, when the last Shiite Imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, mysteriously vanished. His supporters believed that he had not died, but rather disappeared, soon to come back. When he didn't, the Shiites chose a council of twelve religious leaders, who elected a supreme imam. Thus the Shiite branch of Islam became decidedly established.

Although Yazid's family would later be wiped out in a revolt, his followers continued to hold the reins of political power. They became known as Sunnis, from an Arabic word meaning 'custom, method, or example', referring to their belief in the example set down by Mohammed of how to follow the Islamic faith .Unlike their Shiite rivals, Sunnis have no supreme religious leader or established clergy, preferring to base most of their doctrines on consensus rather than dictates from above. They consider themselves as more faithful to the core tenets of Islam than the Shiites, who add their near-deification of Ali and his successors to the principles of the faith. Some Sunnis even accuse the Shiites of being infidels, a claim made most recently by the forces of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The two sects differ on matters ranging from the number of required prayers each day to the permissibility of temporary marriages to predestination. However, it is in the political realm that the two sects most sharply diverge. Ever since the days of Yazid, Sunnis have consistently held most of the power and the wealth in the Islamic community, leaving Shiites mostly poverty-stricken and disenfranchised. Even in countries with Shiite majorities, such as Iraq, Sunni leaders such as Saddam Hussein have dominated over the Shiites, often violently oppressing them in the process.