© Copyright 2007-2008 The Straight Path
Date: Sun, 09 May 2004 11:52:52 -0000
From: "narfmoe81" <narfmoe81@yahoo.com>

The origins of the split between Shia' and Sunni happened initially after the Prophet (pbuh) passed away. The main difference is their idea of
Imammah, which is belief that descendents of the prophets family from Ali and Fatima are infalliable and hence are the ones who should lead the
Muslim empire. The idea of Imammah doesn't exist for Sunnis.

Other than that, the differences between Shia and Sunni are not much more than the differences between the four schools of throught of Sunni's.
So yes Sunni's and Shia's can and do go to each other's Mosques. And we intermarry, I'm Sunni and my wife is Shia.

Shia means "Party of"... the full name is "Shia' Ali" which means "Party of Ali." It stems from the belief that Ali should have been the first Caliph of
the Muslim Empire. The full name for the Sunni's is "Ahul ASunnah" which means "People of the Prophets Way."

Yes there are splinter groups, some are derived from Sunni or Shia, but some came into existance and weren't really derived from anything. For
example the Shia's have two main sub sects one is the Ismali's and one is the Zayide's, the Ismali's believe in 7 of the main Shai's 12 Imam's, and the
Zayide's believe in 5. Also there is a cult within the Shia that say that Gabriel came to Muhammad (pbuh) by accident and was supposed to go to
Ali. For Sunni's there is the Nation of Islam, I'm sure you don't need to be taught about that one. But also there are Ahmadya's which have a belief
that the Missiah was not Jesus(pbuh) and already came to earth. There's a lot of them actually.
--------------------------------------------------

Actually the relations between Palestinian Muslims and Christians is very good. They usually stand together, however the population of Christians
in the occupied territories has gone down a lot since the area was occupied by Israel. Palestine was about half Christian before Israel invaded, I
believe it's a lot less now because the Christians were able to flee to the United States and other parts of the world. Relations between Muslim and
Christian are much better in Palestine than Lebanon for example.



bibihijabi: Salam.

Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims get along very nicely. They actually are both anti Zionist, and it has always been a mistake to view
the Intifada as a muslim thing. Actually before the Zionist invasion, the Jews, Christians and Muslims got along fine in occupied Palestinian. The
problem was the influx of Zionist Jews who not only treated the Christian and Muslim Palestinians with contempt, they treated the indigious Jews
with contempt also.

Sunnis and Shias can go to each other masjids and many do. However it is with great saddness that the propaganda of the Wahabi movement has
created a situation where many times Shias will be asked to leave or are called unbelievers to their face if they attend Sunni masjids. Not by those
muslims who follow tradtional schools of thought, but by those who have been influenced by the writings of Ibn Taymiyya and the like.

There was no term Sunni or Shia as a term for defining a sect of muslims until the time of Mowayyia who coined the term "Following the Sunnah"
and the term "Shia of ALi" was bounced around. During Mowayyia's caliphate he started the collection of Hadiths. The four Sunni schools of
thought developed later along with the Shia school, mainly out of a need from the Sahaba all dying. The main difference is that the Shia school
when issuing fatwas takes into consideration the rulings of the Family of the Prophet before issuing a fatwa and the Sunnis take into consideration
the rulings of the first four caliphs.

As to what is allowed and not allowed, they two sects are very similar. There have even been some "Shias" who traditionally followed the Hanafi
school of thought for figh.


--- In islamthereligionofpeace@yahoogroups.com, "Moses the
Ethiopian" <downingroove@y...> wrote:
> Hello,
> I have a few questions about Muslim practice.
>
> Let me say first, I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian. I don't want
> to debate or convert, I just want to learn.
>
> First, what is the origin of the split between Shiite and Sunni
> Muslims?
>
> Is Shiite Theology different from Sunni Theology? Can a Shiite
> attend a Sunni Mosque, and vice versa?
>
> What do the words Shiite and Sunni mean?
>
> Are Shiite and Sunni the only kinds of Islam? Or are there
splinter
> groups and cults?
>
> How are relations between Palistinian Muslims and Palestinian
> Christians?
>
> Thank you,
> Michael Moses