Sunni-Shia relations
Encyclopedia
Sunni
and Shia Islam are the two major denominations of Islam
. The demographic breakdown between the two denominations is difficult to assess and varies by source, but a good approximation is that 80–90% of the world's Muslim
s are Sunni and 5
–20% are Shia, with most Shias belonging to the Twelver tradition and the rest divided between several other groups.
Sunnis are a majority in most Muslim communities: in South East Asia, China
, South Asia
, Africa
, and most of the Arab World
. Shī‘īs make up the majority of the population in Iran
, Iraq
, Azerbaijan
and Bahrain
, and they are the largest religious group in Lebanon
(all together called the Shia Crescent), while Pakistan
has the second-largest Shia Muslim (Twelver) population in the world.
The historic background of the Sunni–Shia split lies in the schism
that occurred when the Islamic prophet
Muhammad
died in the year 632, leading to a dispute over succession to Muhammad
as a caliph
of the Islamic community spread across various parts of the world which led to the Battle of Siffin
. Sectarian violence persists to this day from Pakistan
to Yemen
and is a major element of friction throughout the Middle East.
Over the years Sunni–Shia relations have been marked by both cooperation and conflict, often with deadly violence. A period of relative harmony during most of the 20th century has been replaced by conflict, particularly following the start of the Iraq War. Today there are differences in religious practice, traditions and customs as well as religious beliefs.
(around 90–95%), Azerbaijan
(around 70%), Iraq
(around 70%) and Bahrain
(around 70%). Around 30% of Yemen
are Zaydi Shias. Around 25% of Kuwait
are Shias. Around 15% of Turkey
are Alevi
Shias. Around 35% of the Lebanese
population are Shias. Around 10% of Saudi Arabia
are Shias. Around 20% of Pakistan
are Shias. Around 20% Muslims of Afghanistan
are Shias. Around 15–20% of Syria
's population are Shias. Around 20% of Senegal
's population are Shias. Around 25% of Uzbekistan
i Muslims are Shias. Around 25% of Muslims of Niger
are Shias. Around 3% of population of Tajikistan
are Shias. Sunnis are a majority in other Muslim communities in Southeast Asia
, China
, South Asia
, Africa
and the rest of the Arab World
.
http://pewforum.org/Muslim/Mapping-the-Global-Muslim-Population%286%29.aspx
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855613.html
, the father of Muhammad's wife Aisha, was Muhammad's rightful successor and that the method of choosing or electing leaders (Shura
) endorsed by the Qur'an
is the consensus
of the Ummah
, (the Muslim community).
Shiites believe that Muhammad divinely ordained his cousin and son-in-law Ali
(the father of his grandsons Hasan ibn Ali
and Husayn ibn Ali
) in accordance with the command of God
to be the next Caliph making Ali and his direct descendants Muhammad's successors. Ali was married to Fatimah.
Muhammad's wife Aisha endorsed her father Abu Bakr as the successor to Muhammad. In the Battle of the Camel (656), Aisha opposed her step son-in-law Ali
outside the city of Basra. Aisha's forces were defeated, but Ali permitted Aisha to live. In this battle Muslim killed Muslim.
Sunnis follow the Rashidun
"rightly guided Caliphs", who were the first four caliphs who ruled after the death of Muhammad: Abu Bakr (632-634), Umar ibn al-Khattab
(634-644), Uthman ibn Affan(644-656), and Ali Ibn Abi Talib(656-661).
Shia theology discounts the legitimacy of the first three caliphs and believe that Ali is the second-most divinely inspired man (after Muhammad) and that he and his descendants by Muhammad's daughter Fatimah
daughter of Muhammad's first wife Khadījah bint Khuwaylid
, the Imams
, are the sole legitimate Islamic leaders.
The Imamate of the Shia encompasses far more of a prophetic function than the Caliphate
of the Sunnis. Unlike Sunni, Shias believe special spiritual qualities have been granted not only to Muhammad but also to Ali and the other Imams. Twelvers believe the imams are immaculate from sin and human error (ma'sūm
), and can understand and interpret the hidden inner meaning of the teachings of Islam. In this way the Imams are trustees (wasi) who bear the light of Muhammad (Nūr Muhammadin).
, many members of both groups, especially Sufi
s, believe that the Mahdi will appear at end times to bring about a perfect and just Islamic society.
In Shia Islam "the Mahdi symbol has developed into a powerful and central religious idea." Twelvers believe the Mahdi will be Muhammad al-Mahdi
, the twelfth Imam returned from the Occultation
, where he has been hidden by God since 874 CE. In contrast, mainstream Sunnis believe the Mahdi will be named Muhammad, be a descendant of the Prophet and will revive the faith, but will not necessarily be connected with the end of the world, and some Sunni scholars have denied the existence of the Mahdi.
s used by Sunnis as part of the sunnah
to argue their case. In addition, they consider the sayings of Ahl al-Bayt
that are not attributed directly to Muhammad as hadiths. Shias do not accept many Sunni hadiths unless they are also recorded in Shia sources or the methodology can be proven of how they were recorded. Also, some Sunni-accepted hadith are less favored by Shias; one example is that because of Aisha
's opposition to Ali, hadith narrated by Aishah are not given the same authority as those by other companions. Another example is hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, who was is considered by Shias as enemy of Ali. The Shia argument is that Abu Hurairah was only a Muslim four years of his life before Prophet Mohammad death. Although he accompanied the prophet for four years only, he managed to record ten times as many hadiths as Abu Bakr and Ali each.
, sacred law. In contrast, the Shia also follow Islamic law with great "vigilance", but their belief is added with Ijtihad
"Research" in the light of teachings of the Qur'an.
) or at times sand from Karbala
, the place where Husayn ibn Ali was martyred, instead of directly onto a prayer rug. There is precedence for this in Sunni thought, as it is recommended not to prostrate on a non-natural surface.
Some Shia perform prayers back to back, sometimes worshipping two times consecutively (1+2+2 i.e. fajr
on its own Dhuhr
with Asr
and Maghrib
with Isha'a
), thus praying five times a day but with a very small break in between the prayer, a tradition Muhammad followed according the Sunni scholar Muhammad al-Bukhari
and which is also followed by Muslims all over the world while performing Hajj
, instead of five prayers with at least one hour gap between them as required by Sunni schools of law.
Shias and the followers of the Sunni Maliki
school hold their hands at their sides during prayer; Sunnis of other schools cross their arms (right over left) and clasp their hands, although it is commonly held by Sunni scholars that either is acceptable.
—fixed-term temporary marriage—which is not acceptable within the Sunni community and is believed a planned and agreed fornication. Mutah is not the same as Misyar
marriage or 'Arfi marriage, which has no date of expiration and is permitted by some Sunnis. A Misyar marriage differs from a conventional Islamic marriage
in that the man does not have financial responsibility over the woman by her own free will. The man can divorce the woman whenever he wants to in a Misyar marriage.
differently. Some Sunni scholars emphasize covering of all body including the face in public whereas some scholars exclude the face from hijab. Shias believe that the hijab must cover around the perimeter of the face and up to the chin. Some Shia women, such as those in Iran and Iraq, use their hand to hold the black chador
, in order to cover their faces when in public as Sunnis.
. Umar and Usman, being the names of caliphs recognized by Sunnis but not Shias, are commonly used as names for Sunnis but are rare for Shias.
(Arabic: أركان الإسلام) is the term given to the five duties incumbent on every Muslim. These duties are Shahada
(profession of faith), Salah (prayers), Zakat
(giving of alms), Sawm
(fasting, specifically during Ramadan
) and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca
). These five practices are essential to Sunni Muslims.
, recruited Shia support in his campaign against the Umayyads by emphasizing his blood relationship to Muhammad's household through descent from his uncle, ‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib. The Shia also believe that he promised them that the Caliphate, or at least religious authority, would be vested in the Shia Imam. As-Saffah assumed both the temporal and religious mantle of Caliph himself. He continued the Umayyad dynastic practice of succession, and his brother al-Mansur
succeeded him in 754.
The sixth Shia Imam
died during al-Mansur's reign, and there were claims that he was murdered on the orders of the caliph. (However, Abbasid persecution of Islamic lawyers was not restricted to the Shia. Abu Hanifah, for example was imprisoned by al-Mansur and tortured.)
Shia sources further claim that by the orders of the tenth Abassid caliph, al-Mutawakkil
, the tomb of the third Imam, Husayn ibn Ali in Karbala, was completely demolished, and Shias were sometimes beheaded in groups, buried alive, or even placed alive within the walls of government buildings still under construction.
The Shia believe that their community continued to live for the most part in hiding and followed their religious life secretly without external manifestations.
although a significant undercurrent of Ismailism and a very large minority of Twelvers were present all over Persia, going back to some of the most illustrious Persian intellectuals in history who were Shias, such as Ferdowsi
. Many scholars and scientists who lived before the Safavid era, such as Avicenna
, Jābir ibn Hayyān, Alhazen, Al-Farabi
and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
and the poet Hafiz were Shia Muslims of both the Ismaili and Twelver traditions (some indistinguishably so, such as al-Tusi), as was most of Iran's elite. There were many Sunni scientists and scholars as well, such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
, philosopher-theologian Ghazali, and poet Saadii
Nizamiyyas were the medieval institutions of Islamic higher education
established by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk
in the 11th century. Nizamiyyah institutes were the first well-organized universities in the Muslim world. The most famous and celebrated of all the nizamiyyah schools was Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad
(established 1065), where Nizam al-Mulk appointed the distinguished philosopher and theologian, Ghazali, as a professor. Other Nizamiyyah schools were located in Nishapur
, Balkh
, Herat
and Isfahan.
The Sunni hegemony did not undercut the Shia presence in Iran. The writers of the Shia Four Books
were Iranian, as were many other great scholars. According to Morteza Motahhari
of Tabaristan, the Buwayhid, the rule of the Sultan
Muhammad Khudabandah
(r. 1304-1316 CE) and the Sarbedaran
. Nevertheless, apart from this domination there existed, firstly, throughout these nine centuries, Shia inclinations among many Sunnis of this land and, secondly, Twelver and Zaidi Shiism had prevalence in some parts of Iran. During this period, the Shia in Iran were nourished from Kufa
h, Baghdad
and later from Najaf
and Al Hillah. Shī‘ī were dominant in Tabaristan, Qom
, Kashan
, Avaj
and Sabzevar
. In many other areas the population of Shias and Sunni was mixed.
The first Zaidi state was established in Daylaman
and Tabaristan (northern Iran) in 864 C.E. by the Alavids
; it lasted until the death of its leader at the hand of the Samanids in 928 CE. Roughly forty years later the state was revived in Gilan
(north-western Iran) and survived under Hasanid leaders until 1126 CE. After which from the 12th-13th centuries, the Zaidis of Daylaman, Gilan and Tabaristan then acknowledge the Zaidi Imam
s of Yemen
or rival Zaidi Imams within Iran.
The Buyids, who were Zaidi and had a significant influence not only in the provinces of Persia but also in the capital of the caliphate in Baghdad, and even upon the caliph himself, provided a unique opportunity for the spread and diffusion of Shia thought. This spread of Shiism to the inner circles of the government enabled the Shia to withstand those who opposed them by relying upon the power of the caliphate.
Twelvers came to Iran from Arab regions in the course of four stages. First, through the Asharis tribe at the end of the 7th and during the 8th century. Second through the pupils of Sabzevar, and especially those of Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, who were from Rey
and Sabzawar
and resided in those cities. Third, through the school of Hillah under the leadership of Al-Hilli
and his son Fakhr al-Muhaqqiqin. Fourth, through the scholars of Jabal Amel
residing in that region, or in Iraq, during the 16th and 17th centuries who later migrated to Iran.
On the other hand, the Ismaili da‘wah
("missionary institution") sent missionaries (du‘āt, sg. dā‘ī) during the Fatimid Caliphate to Persia. When the Ismailis divided into two sects, Nizari
s established their base in northern Persia. Hassan-i Sabbah conquered fortresses and captured Alamut
in 1090 CE. Nizaris used this fortress until the Mongols
finally seized and destroyed it in 1256 CE.
After the Mongols and the fall of the Abbasids, the Sunni Ulama
suffered greatly. In addition to the destruction of the ucaliphate there was no official Sunni school of Law. Many libraries and madrasahs were destroyed and Sunni scholars migrated to other Islamic areas such as Anatolia
and Egypt
. In contrast, most Shia were largely unaffected as their center was not in Iran at this time. For the first time, the Shia could openly convert other Muslims to their movement.
Several local Shia dynasties like the Marashi
and Sarbadars were established during this time. The kings of the Ak Koyunlu
and Kara Koyunlu
dynasties ruled in Tabriz
with a domain extending to Fars and Kerman
. In Egypt the Fatimid government ruled.
Muhammad Khudabandah, the famous builder of Soltaniyeh
, was among the first of the Mongols to convert to Shī‘ism, and his descendants ruled for many years in Persia and were instrumental in spreading Shī‘ī thought.
Sufism played a major role in spread of Shiism in this time.
initiated a religious policy to recognize Shiism as the official religion of the Safavid Empire, and the fact that modern Iran remains an officially Shia state is a direct result of Ismail's actions.
Unfortunately for Ismail, most of his subjects were Sunni. He thus had to enforce official Shiism
violently, putting to death those who opposed him. Under this pressure, Safavid subjects either converted or pretended to convert, but it is safe to say that the majority of the population was probably genuinely Shia by the end of the Safavid period in the 18th century, and most Iranians today are Shia, although there is still a Sunni minority.
This led to a wide gap between Iran and its Sunni neighbors, particularly the Ottoman Empire
in the wake of the Battle of Chaldiran
. This gap continued until the 20th century.
During the early days of the Iranian Revolution
, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini
endeavored to bridge the gap between Shiites and Sunnis by declaring it permissible for Twelvers to pray behind Sunni imams and by forbidding criticizing the Caliphs who preceded Ali—an issue that had caused much animosity between the two groups.
continued to be killed during this period for their faith. One of these was Muhammad Ibn Makki
, called Shahid-i Awwal (the First Martyr), one of the great figures in Shia jurisprudence, who was killed in Damascus
in 1384 CE.
Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
was another eminent scholar, killed in Aleppo
on charges of cultivating Batini
teachings and philosoph.
faced persecution by some Sunni rulers and Mughal Emperors
which resulted in the killings of Shia scholars like Qazi Nurullah Shustari
(also known as Shaheed-e-Thaalis, the third Martyr) and Mirza Muhammad Kamil Dehlavi
(also known as Shaheed-e- Rabay, the fourth Martyr) who are two of the five martyrs of Shia Islam
. Shias in Kashmir
in subsequent years had to pass through the most atrocious period of their history. Plunder, loot and massacres which came to be known as Taarajs virtually devastated the community. History records 10 such Taarajs also known as Taraj-e-Shia between 15th to 19th century in 1548, 1585, 1635, 1686, 1719, 1741, 1762, 1801, 1830, 1872 during which the Shia habitations were plundered, people slaughtered, libraries burnt and their sacred sites desecrated.
Sunni–Shia clashes also occurred frequently in the 20th century in South Asia. There were many between 1904 and 1908 especially in the United Provinces
(Uttar Pradesh
) area. These clashes revolved around the public cursing of the first three caliphs by Shias and the praising of them by Sunnis. To put a stop to the violence public demonstrations were banned in 1909 on the three most sensitive days: Ashura
, Chehlum
and Ali's death on 21 Ramadan
. Intercommunal violence resurfaced in 1935-6 and again in 1939 when many thousands of Sunni and Shi'is defied the ban on public demonstrations and took to the streets. Shia are estimated to be 21-35% of the Muslim population in South Asia, although the total number is difficult to estimate due to the intermingling between the two groups and practice of taqiyya
by Shia
, communities have mingled and intermarried. Some Shia have complained of mistreatment in countries dominated by Sunnis, especially in Saudi Arabia
, while some Sunnis have complained of discrimination in the Twelver-dominated states of Iraq and Iran.
as time of relative unity and harmony between traditionalist Sunni and Shia Muslims—unity brought on by a feeling of being under siege from a common threat, secularism
, first of the European colonial variety and then Arab nationalist.
A remarkable example of Sunni–Shia cooperation was the Khilafat Movement
which swept South Asia following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the seat of the Caliphate, in World War I
. Shia scholars "came to the caliphate's defence" by attending the 1931 Caliphate Conference in Jerusalem. This was despite the fact they were theologically opposed to the idea that non-Imams could be Caliphs or successors to Muhammad, and that the Caliphate was "the flagship institution" of Sunni, not Shia, authority. This has been described as unity of traditionalists in the face of the twin threats of "secularism and colonialism."
Another example of unity was a fatwa
issued by the rector
of Al-Azhar University
, Mahmud Shaltut
, recognizing Shia Islamic law
as the fifth school of Islamic law. In 1959, al-Azhar University in Cairo
, the most influential center of Sunni learning, authorized the teaching of courses of Shia jurisprudence as part of its curriculum.
Following this period, Sunni–Shia strife has seen a major uptick, particularly in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many explain the bloodshed as the work of conspiracies by outsiders—"the forces of hegemony and Zionism which aim to weaken [Islam]" (Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
and Yusuf al-Qaradawi
), unspecified "enemies" (Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), or American neo-liberal
s who wish to provoke "a debilitating Islamic civil war." (Dilip Hiro
).
Others lay the blame for the strife at a very different source, the unintended effects of the Islamic revival
. According to scholar Vali Nasr, as the Muslim world was decolonialised and Arab nationalism lost its appeal, fundamentalism blossomed and reasserted the differences and conflicts between the two movements, particularly in the strict teachings of Sunni scholar Ibn Taymiyyah. The Iranian Islamic revolution, changed the Shia–Sunni power equation in Muslim countries "from Lebanon to India" arousing the traditionally subservient Shia to the alarm of traditionally dominant and very non-revolutionary Sunni. "Where Iranian revolutionaries saw Islamic revolutionary stirrings, Sunnis saw mostly Shia mischief and a threat to Sunni predominance."
Although the Iranian revolution's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, was very much in favor of Shia–Sunni unity, he also challenged Saudi Arabia, in his view an "unpopular and corrupt dictatorship" and an "American lackey" ripe for revolution. In part because Saudi Arabia was the world's major international funder of Islamic schools, scholarships, fellowships, etc., this angered not only Saudi Arabia but its many fundamentalist allies and benefactors throughout the Sunni world.
Olivier Roy, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, sees the "Shia awakening and its instrumentalisation by Iran" as leading to a "very violent Sunni reaction", starting first in Pakistan before spreading to "the rest of the Muslim world, without necessarily being as violent." According to Roy, "two events created a sea change in the balance of power between Shia and Sunnis: the Islamic revolution in Iran and the American military intervention in Iraq" in 2003. "Today, Azerbaijan is probably the only country where there are still mixed mosques and Shia and Sunnis pray together."
, the majority of Iraqis are Shia Arab Muslims
(around 65%), and Sunnis represent about 32% of the population. However, Sunni are split ethnically between Arabs, Kurd
s and Turkmen. Many Sunnis hotly dispute their minority status, including ex-Iraqi Ambassador Faruq Ziada, and many believe Shia majority is "a myth spread by America". One Sunni belief shared by Jordan
's King Abdullah
as well as his then Defense Minister Shaalan is that Shia numbers in Iraq were inflated by Iranian Shias crossing the border. Shia scholar Vali Nasr believes the election turnout in summer and December 2005 confirmed a strong Shia majority in Iraq.
The governing regimes of Iraq were made mainly of Sunnis for nearly a century until the 2003 Iraq War. The British, having put down a Shia rebellion against their rule in the 1920s, "confirmed their reliance on a corps of Sunni ex-officers
of the collapsed Ottoman empire". The British colonial
rule ended after the Sunni and Shia united against it.
The Shia suffered indirect and direct persecution
under post-colonial Iraqi governments since 1932, erupting into full scale rebellions in 1935 and 1936. Shi'as were also persecuted during the Ba'ath party rule, especially under Saddam Hussein
. Under Saddam public Shia festivals such as Ashura were banned. It is said that every Shia clerical family of note in Iraq had tales of torture and murder to recount. In 1969 the son of Iraq's highest Shia Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim was arrested and allegedly tortured. From 1979-1983 Saddam's regime executed 48 major Shia clerics in Iraq. They included Shia leader Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister. Tens of thousands of Iranians and Arabs of Iranian origin were expelled in 1979 and 1980 and a further 75,000 in 1989.
The Shi'as openly revolted against Saddam
, following Gulf War
in 1991, and encouraged by Saddam's defeat in Quwait and simultaneous Kurdish uprising in the north. However, Shia opposition to the government was brutally suppressed, resulting in some 50,000 to 100,000 casualties and successive repression by Saddam's forces.
Some of the worst Shia–Sunni sectarian strife
ever has occurred after the start of the Iraq War, steadily building up to present. Deaths from American and allied military collateral damage have become overshadowed by the cycle of Sunni–Shia revenge killing—Sunni often using car bombs,with Shia favoring death squad
s.
According to one estimate, as of early 2008, 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq. Sunni suicide bombers
have targeted not only thousands of civilians, but mosques, shrines, wedding and funeral processions, markets, hospitals, offices, and streets. Sunni insurgent organizations include Ansar al-Islam
. Radical groups include Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad
, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura
, Jeish Muhammad, and Black Banner Organization
.
Takfir
motivation for many of these killings may come from Sunni insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
. Before his death Zarqawi was one to quote Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, especially his infamous statement urging followers to kill the Shia of Iraq, and calling the Shias "snakes". An al-Qaeda
-affiliated website posted a call for "a full-scale war on Shiites all over Iraq, whenever and wherever they are found." Wahhabi suicide bombers continue to attack Iraqi Shia civilians, and the Shia ulama have in response declared suicide bombing as haraam
:
Some believe the war has strengthened the takfir thinking and may spread Sunni–Shia strife elsewhere.
On the Shia side, in early February 2006 militia-dominated government death squads were reportedly "tortur[ing] to death or summarily" executing "hundreds" of Sunnis "every month in Baghdad alone," many arrested at random. According to the British television Channel 4
, from 2005 through early 2006, commandos of the Ministry of the Interior which is controlled by the Badr Organization
, and
The violence shows little sign of getting opposite sides to back down. Iran's Shia leaders, some of whom have strong ties with Iraqi Shia, are said to become "more determined" the more violent the anti-Shia attacks in Iraq become. One Shia Grand Ayatollah, Yousef Saanei, who has been described as a moderate, reacted to the 2005 suicide bombings of Shia targets in Iraq by saying the bombers were "wolves without pity" and that "sooner rather than later, Iran will have to put them down".
of a police recruiting station and adjacent open air market. In March 2005 Salt
, al-Banna's home town, saw a three-day wake for al-Banna who Jordanian newspapers and celebrants proclaimed a martyr
to Islam, which by definition made the Shia victims "infidels whose murder was justified." Following the wake Shia mobs in Iraq attacked the Jordanian embassy on March 20, 2005. Ambassadors were withdrawn from both countries.
All this resulted despite the strong filial bonds, ties of commerce, and traditional friendship between the two neighboring countries. Jordan, for example, had refused to ally itself against Iraq during the first Gulf War despite its alliance with America and the economic hardship that resulted.
, the country with the second largest Muslim
population in the world, has seen serious Shia-Sunni discord. Almost 80% of Pakistan's population is Sunni, with 20% being Shia, but this Shia minority forms the second largest Shia population of any country, larger than the Shia majority in Iraq
.
Until recently Shia–Sunni relations have been cordial, and majority of people of both sects participated in the creation the state of Pakistan in 1940s. Despite the fact that Pakistan is a Sunni majority country, Shias have been elected to top offices and played an important part in the country's history. Several top Pakistani Generals such as General Muhammad Musa. Pakistan's President
Yahya Khan
were Shia. Pakistan's President
and Prime Minister
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
was Shia as her daughter Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto
and her husband President
Asif Ali Zardari
. There are many intermarriages between Shia and Sunnis.
Unfortunately, from 1987–2007, "as many as 4,000 people are estimated to have died in sectarian fighting in Pakistan", 300 being killed in 2006. Amongst the culprits blamed for the killing are Al-Qaeda working "with local sectarian groups" to kill what they perceive as Shia apostates
, and "foreign powers ... trying to sow discord." Most violence takes place in the largest province of Punjab
and the country's commercial and financial capital, Karachi
. There have also been conflagrations in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan
and Azad Kashmir
.
Arab states especially Saudi Arabia
and GCC states have been funding extremist Deobandi sunnis and Wahabis in Pakistan, since the Afghan Jihad. Whereas Iran has been funding Shia militant groups such as Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan
, resulting in a tit for tat attacks on each other. Pakistan
has became a battleground between Saudi Arabia
funded Deobandi Sunni and Wahabis and Iran
funded Shia causing deaths of thousands of innocent Muslims.
Some see a precursor of Pakistani Shia–Sunni strife in the April 1979 execution of deposed President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
on questionable charges by Islamic fundamentalist
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
. Ali Bhutto was Shia, Zia ul-Haq a Sunni.
Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization
that followed was resisted by Shia who saw it as "Sunnification" as the laws and regulations were based on Sunni fiqh
. In July 1980, 25,000 Shia protested the Islamization
laws in the capital Islamabad
. Further exacerbating the situation was the dislike between Shia leader Imam Khomeini and General Zia ul-Haq.
Shia formed student associations and a Shia party, Sunni began to form sectarian militias recruited from Deobandi
and Ahl al-Hadith madrasahs. Preaching against the Shia in Pakistan was radical cleric Israr Ahmed
. Muhammad Manzour Numani, a senior Indian cleric with close ties to Saudi Arabia
published a book entitled Iranian Revolution: Imam Khomeini and Shiism. The book, which "became the gospel of Deobandi militants" in the 1980s, attacked Khomeini and argued the excesses of the Islamic revolution were proof that Shiism was not the doctrine of misguided brothers, but beyond the Islamic pale.
Anti-Shia groups in Pakistan include the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
, offshoots of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
(JUI). The groups demand the expulsion of all Shias from Pakistan and have killed hundreds of Pakistani Shias between 1996 and 1999. As in Iraq they "targeted Shia in their holy places and mosques, especially during times of communal prayer." From January to May 1997, Sunni terror groups assassinated 75 Shia community leaders "in a systematic attempt to remove Shias from positions of authority." Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has declared Shia to be "American agents" and the "near enemy" in global jihad.
An example of an early Shia–Sunni fitna shootout occurred in Kurram, one of the tribal agencies
of the Northwest Pakistan, where the Pushtun
population was split between Sunnis and Shia. In September 1996 more than 200 people were killed when a gun battle between teenage Shia and Sunni escalated into a communal war that lasted five days. Woman and children were kidnapped and gunmen even executed out-of-towners who were staying at a local hotel.
. Though now deposed, the anti-Shia Afghan Taliban regime helped anti-Shia Pakistani groups and vice versa. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, have sent thousands of volunteers to fight with the Taliban regime and "in return the Taliban gave sanctuary to their leaders in the Afghan capital of Kabul."
"Over 80,000 Pakistani Islamic militants have trained and fought with Taliban since 1994. They form a hardcore of Islamic activists, ever ready to carry out a similar Taliban-style Islamic revolution in Pakistan.", according to Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid
.
Shia–Sunni strife inside of Afghanistan has mainly been a function of the puritanical Sunni Taliban's clashes with Shia Afghans, primarily the Hazara ethnic group.
In 1998 more than 8,000 noncombatants were killed when the Taliban attacked Mazar-i-Sharif and Bamiyan where many Hazaras live. Some of the slaughter was indiscriminate, but many were Shia targeted by the Taliban. Taliban commander and governor Mullah Niazi banned prayer at Shia mosques and expressed takfir of the Shia in a declaration from Mazar's central mosque:
Assisting the Taliban in the murder of Iranian diplomatic and intelligence officials at the Iranian Consulate in Mazar were "several Pakistani militants of the anti-Shia, Sipah-e-Sahaba party."
republic based on rule by a Shia jurist.
Although the founder of the Islamic Republic
, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, supported good Sunni–Shia relations, there have complaints by Sunni of discrimination, particularly in important government positions. In a joint appearance with former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani calling for Shia-Suni unity, Sunni Shiekh Yusuf al-Qaradawi complained that no ministers in Iran have been Sunni for a long time, that Sunni officials are scarce even in the regions with majority of Sunni population (such as Kurdistan
, or Balochistan). Sunnis cite the lack of a Sunni mosque in Tehran
, Iran's capital and largest city, despite the presence of over 1 million Sunnis there, and despite the presence of Christian
churches, as a prominent example of this discrimination. Although reformist President Mohammad Khatami
promised during his election campaign to build a Sunni mosque in Tehran
, none was built during his eight years in office. The president explained the situation by saying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
would not agreed to the proposal. As in other parts of the Muslim world, other issues may play a part in the conflict, since most Sunnis in Iran are also ethnic minorities.
Soon after the 1979 revolution Sunni leaders from Kurdistan, Balouchistan, and Khorassan, set up a new party known as Shams, which is short for Shora-ye Markaz-e al Sunaat, to unite Sunnis and lobby for their rights. But six months after that, they were closed down, bank accounts suspended, and had their leaders arrested by the government on charges that they were backed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
A UN
human rights
report states that:
Members of the 'Balochistan Peoples Front' claim that Sunnis are systematically discriminated against educationally by denial of places at universities, politically by not allowing Sunnis to be army generals, ambassadors, ministers, prime minister, or president, religiously insulting Sunnis the media, economic discrimination by not giving import or export licenses for Sunni businesses while the majority of Sunnis are left unemployed.
There has been a low level resistance in mainly Sunni Iranian Balouchistan against the regime for several years. Official media refers to the fighting as armed clashes between the police and "bandits," "drug-smugglers," and "thugs," to disguise what many believe is essentially a political-religious conflict. Revolutionary Guards have stationed several brigades in Balouchi cities, and have allegedly tracked down and assassinated Sunni leaders both inside Iran and in neighboring Pakistan. In 1996 a leading Sunni, Abdulmalek Mollahzadeh, was gunned down by hitmen allegedly hired by Tehran as he was leaving his house in Karachi
.
Members of Sunni groups in Iran however have been active in what the authorities describe as terrorist
activities. Balochi
Sunni Abdolmalek Rigi
continue to declare the Shia as Kafir
and Mushrik. These Sunni groups have been involved in violent activities in Iran, and have waged terrorist attacks against civilian centers, including an attack next to a girl's school according to government sources. The "shadowy Sunni militant group Jundallah
" has reportedly been receiving weaponry from the United States
for these attacks according to the semi-official Fars News Agency
. The United Nations and several countries worldwide have condemned the bombings. (See 2007 Zahedan bombings
for more information)
Non-Sunni Iranian opposition parties, and Shia like Ayatollah Jalal Gange’i have criticised the regimes treatment of Sunnis and confirmed many Sunni complaints.
Following the 2005 elections, much of the leadership of Iran has been described as more "staunchly committed to core Shia values" and lacking Ayatollah Khomeini's commitment to Shia–Sunni unity. Polemics critical of Sunnis were reportedly being produced in Arabic for dissemination in the Arab Muslim world by Hojjatieh
-aligned elements in the Iranian regime.
, a Shia sect that makes up less than 15% of the population. Under Hafez al-Assad
, Alawi dominated the Baath Arab Socialist Party, a secular Arab nationalist party which has ruled Syria under a state of emergency since 1963 and does not tolerate opposition. Alawi are often considered a form of Shia Islam that differs somewhat from the larger Twelver Shia sect.
A very serious 20th century conflict in Syria with sectarian religious overtones was that between the Alawi-dominated al-Assad regime and the Islamist
Sunni Muslim Brotherhood
culminating with the 1982 Hama massacre
, where an estimated 10,000 to 25,000 were killed by the Syrian military following a Muslim Brotherhood uprising. Prior to the uprising the Muslim Brotherhood attacks against military cadets at an artillery school in Aleppo
, car bomb attacks in Damascus, and bomb attacks against the government and its officials had killed several hundred.
How much of the conflict was sparked by Sunni v. Shia divisions and how much by Islamism v. secular-Arab-nationalism, is in question, but according to scholar Vali Nasr the failure of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic of Iran to support the Muslim Brotherhood against the Baathists "earned [Khomeini] the Brotherhood's lasting contempt." It proved to the satisfaction of the Brotherhood that sectarian loyalty trumped Islamist solidarity for Khomeini and eliminated whatever appeal Khomeini might have had to the MB movement as a pan-Islamic leader.
as their "Fifth Imām" rather than his brother Muhammad al-Baqir
. Shia–Sunni conflict in Yemen involves the Sa'dah insurgency
.
Both Shia and Sunni dissidents in Yemen have similar complaints about the government—cooperation with the American government and an alleged failure to following Sharia law -- but it's the Shia who have allegedly been singled out for government crackdown.
During and after the US-led invasion of Iraq, members of the Zaidi-Shia community protested after Friday prayers every week outside mosques, particularly the Grand Mosque in Sana'a
, during which they shouted anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans, and criticised the government's close ties to America. These protests were led by ex-parliament member and Imam, Bader Eddine al-Houthi. In response the Yemeni government has implemented a campaign to crush "the Zaidi-Shia rebellion," and harass journalists.
These latest measures come as the government faces a Sunni rebellion with a similar motivation to the Zaydi discontent.
island state of Bahrain has a Shia majority but is ruled by Sunni Al Khalifa family as a constitutional monarchy
, with Sunni dominating the ruling class and military and disproportionately represented in the business and landownership. According to the CIA World Factbook, Al Wefaq
the largest Shia political society, won the largest number of seats in the elected chamber of the legislature. However, Shia discontent has resurfaced in recent years with street demonstrations and occasional low-level violence."
Bahrain has many disaffected unemployed Shia youths and many Shia have protested Sheikh Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa's efforts to create a parliament as merely a "cooptation of the effendi
s", i.e. traditional elders and notables. Bahrain's 2002 election was widely boycotted by Shia. Mass demonstrations by Shia have been held in favor of full fledged democracy in March and June 2005, against an alleged insult to Ayatollah Khamenei in July 2005.
in 1998 when the Nigerian government of General Sani Abacha
accused Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zak Zaki of being a Shia. This was despite the fact that there are few if any Shia among Nigerias Muslims and the Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni organization.
and Al-Hasa
. The Majority of Saudi Shia belong to the sect of the Twelvers.
Relations between the Shia and the Wahhabis are inherently strained because the Wahhabis consider the rituals of the Shia to be the epitome of shirk, or polytheism
. In the late 1920s, the Ikhwan
(Ibn Saud's
fighting force of converted Wahhabi Bedouin
Muslims) were particularly hostile to the Shia and demanded that Abd al Aziz forcibly convert them. In response, Abd al Aziz sent Wahhabi missionaries to the Eastern Province, but he did not carry through with attempts at forced conversion. In recent decades the late leading Saudi cleric, Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz, issued fatwa denouncing Shia as apostates, and according to Shia scholar Vali Nasr "Abdul-Rahman al-Jibrin, a member of the Higher Council of Ulama, even sanctioned the killing of Shias, a call that was reiterated by Wahhabi religious literature as late as 2002."
Government policy has been to allow Shia their own mosques and to exempt Shia from Hanbali
inheritance practices. Nevertheless, Shia have been forbidden all but the most modest displays on their principal festivals, which are often occasions of sectarian strife in the Persian Gulf region, with its mixed Sunni–Shia populations.
According to a report by the Human Rights Watch
:
And Amnesty International
adds:
As of 2006 four of the 150 members of Saudi Arabia's "handpicked" parliament were Shia, but no city had a Shia mayor or police chief, and none of the 300 girls schools for Shia in the Eastern Province had a Shia principal. According to scholar Vali Nasr, Saudi textbooks "characterize Shiism as a form of heresy ... worse than Christianity
and Judaism
."
Forced into exile in the 1970s, Saudi Shia leader Hassan al-Saffar
is said to have been "powerfully influenced" by the works of Sunni Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islami
and by their call for Islamic revolution and an Islamic state.
Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Shia in Hasa ignored the ban on mourning ceremonies commemorating Ashura. When police broke them up three days of rampage ensued—burned cars, attacked banks, looted shops—centered around Qatif. At least 17 Shia were killed. In February 1980 disturbances were "less spontaneous" and even bloodier. Meanwhile broadcasts from Iran in the name of the Islamic Revolutionary Organization attacked the monarchy, telling listeners, "Kings despoil a country when they enter it and make the noblest of its people its meanest ... This is the nature of monarchy, which is rejected by Islam."
By 1993, Saudi Shia had abandoned uncompromising demands and some of al-Saffar's followers met with King Fahd
with promised made for reform. In 2005 the new King Abdullah
also relaxed some restrictions on the Shia. However Shia continue to be arrested for commemorating Ashura as of 2006. In December 2006, amidst escalating tensions in Iraq, 38 high ranking Saudi clerics called on Sunni Muslims around the world to "mobilise against Shiites".
Shia Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi
is reported to have responded:
A large fraction of the foreign Sunni extremists who have entered Iraq to fight against Shia and the American occupation are thought to be Saudis. According to one estimate, of the approximately 1,200 foreign fighters captured in Syria between summer 2003 and summer 2005, 85% were Saudis.
Another reflection of grassroots Wahhabi or Saudi antipathy to Shia was statement by Saudi cleric Nasir al-Umar, who accused Iraqi Shias of close ties to the United States and argued that both were enemies of Muslims everywhere.
and sometimes linked to Al-Qaeda, have even advocated the persecution of the Shia as heretics. Such groups have been allegedly responsible for violent attacks and suicide bombings at Shi'a gatherings at mosques and shrines, most notably in Iraq during the Ashura mourning ceremonies where hundreds of Shias were killed in coordinated suicide bombings, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. However Al-Qaeda deputy Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri
in a video message directed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, not to attack civilian targets but to focus on the occupation troops. His call seems to have been ignored, or swept away in the increasing tensions of Iraq under occupation.
on February 14, 2007, former Iranian president and chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council
of Iran, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and highly influential Sunni scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, "stressed the impermissibility of the fighting between the Sunnis and the Shi’is" and the need to "be aware of the conspiracies of the forces of hegemony
and Zionism
which aim to weaken [Islam] and tear it apart in Iraq."
Even on this occasion there were differences, with Rafsanjani openly asking "more than once who started" the inter-Muslim killing in Iraq, and Al-Qaradawi denying claims by Rafsanjani that he knew where "those arriving to Iraq to blow Shi’i shrines up are coming from".
meeting. They displayed mutual warmth with hugs and smiles for cameras and
promised "a thaw in relations between the two regional powers but stopped short of agreeing on any concrete plans to tackle the escalating sectarian and political crises throughout the Middle East."
On his return to Tehran, Ahmadinejad declared that:
Saudi officials had no comment about Ahmadinejad's statements, but the Saudi official government news agency did say:
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz
said:
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
and Shia Islam are the two major denominations of Islam
Islamic schools and branches
Muslims are basically divided in two major factions, Sunnis and Shias, that are further divided into various Schools of Jurisprudence and orders of Imamate. All other movements within such as Salafi, Modernists, the Mystical Sufi Orders, Deobandi and Barelvi are either Sunni or Shia or both...
. The demographic breakdown between the two denominations is difficult to assess and varies by source, but a good approximation is that 80–90% of the world's Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s are Sunni and 5
–20% are Shia, with most Shias belonging to the Twelver tradition and the rest divided between several other groups.
Sunnis are a majority in most Muslim communities: in South East Asia, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and most of the Arab World
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
. Shī‘īs make up the majority of the population in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
and Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, and they are the largest religious group in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
(all together called the Shia Crescent), while Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
has the second-largest Shia Muslim (Twelver) population in the world.
The historic background of the Sunni–Shia split lies in the schism
Schism (religion)
A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...
that occurred when the Islamic prophet
Prophets of Islam
Muslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
died in the year 632, leading to a dispute over succession to Muhammad
Succession to Muhammad
The Succession to Muhammad concerns the various aspects of successorship of Muhammad after his death, comprising who might be considered as his successor to lead the Muslims, how that person should be elected, the conditions of legitimacy, and the role of successor...
as a caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
of the Islamic community spread across various parts of the world which led to the Battle of Siffin
Battle of Siffin
The Battle of Siffin occurred during the First Fitna, or first Muslim civil war, with the main engagement taking place from July 26 to July 28. It was fought between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah I, on the banks of the Euphrates river, in what is now Ar-Raqqah, Syria...
. Sectarian violence persists to this day from Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
to Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
and is a major element of friction throughout the Middle East.
Over the years Sunni–Shia relations have been marked by both cooperation and conflict, often with deadly violence. A period of relative harmony during most of the 20th century has been replaced by conflict, particularly following the start of the Iraq War. Today there are differences in religious practice, traditions and customs as well as religious beliefs.
Numbers
Shias make up the majority of the population in IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
(around 90–95%), Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
(around 70%), Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
(around 70%) and Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
(around 70%). Around 30% of Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
are Zaydi Shias. Around 25% of Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
are Shias. Around 15% of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
are Alevi
Alevi
The Alevi are a religious and cultural community, primarily in Turkey, constituting probably more than 15 million people....
Shias. Around 35% of the Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
population are Shias. Around 10% of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
are Shias. Around 20% of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
are Shias. Around 20% Muslims of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
are Shias. Around 15–20% of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
's population are Shias. Around 20% of Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
's population are Shias. Around 25% of Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
i Muslims are Shias. Around 25% of Muslims of Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
are Shias. Around 3% of population of Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
are Shias. Sunnis are a majority in other Muslim communities in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the rest of the Arab World
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
.
http://pewforum.org/Muslim/Mapping-the-Global-Muslim-Population%286%29.aspx
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855613.html
Successors of Muhammad
Sunni's believe that Abu BakrAbu Bakr
Abu Bakr was a senior companion and the father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632-634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammad's death...
, the father of Muhammad's wife Aisha, was Muhammad's rightful successor and that the method of choosing or electing leaders (Shura
Shura
Shura is an Arabic word for "consultation". The Quran and Muhammad encourage Muslims to decide their affairs in consultation with those who will be affected by that decision....
) endorsed by the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
is the consensus
Consensus decision-making
Consensus decision-making is a group decision making process that seeks the consent, not necessarily the agreement, of participants and the resolution of objections. Consensus is defined by Merriam-Webster as, first, general agreement, and second, group solidarity of belief or sentiment. It has its...
of the Ummah
Ummah
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
, (the Muslim community).
Shiites believe that Muhammad divinely ordained his cousin and son-in-law Ali
Ali
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
(the father of his grandsons Hasan ibn Ali
Hasan ibn Ali
Al-Hasan ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib is an important figure in Islam, the son of Fatimah the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and of the fourth Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib. Hasan is a member of the Ahl al-Bayt and Ahl al-Kisa...
and Husayn ibn Ali
Husayn ibn Ali
Hussein ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Fātimah Zahrā...
) in accordance with the command of God
God in Islam
In Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe. Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular . God is unique and inherently One , all-merciful and omnipotent. According to the Islamic...
to be the next Caliph making Ali and his direct descendants Muhammad's successors. Ali was married to Fatimah.
Muhammad's wife Aisha endorsed her father Abu Bakr as the successor to Muhammad. In the Battle of the Camel (656), Aisha opposed her step son-in-law Ali
Ali
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
outside the city of Basra. Aisha's forces were defeated, but Ali permitted Aisha to live. In this battle Muslim killed Muslim.
Sunnis follow the Rashidun
Rashidun
The Rightly Guided Caliphs or The Righteous Caliphs is a term used in Sunni Islam to refer to the first four Caliphs who established the Rashidun Caliphate. The concept of "Rightly Guided Caliphs" originated with the Abbasid Dynasty...
"rightly guided Caliphs", who were the first four caliphs who ruled after the death of Muhammad: Abu Bakr (632-634), Umar ibn al-Khattab
Umar
`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c. 2 November , was a leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad's death....
(634-644), Uthman ibn Affan(644-656), and Ali Ibn Abi Talib(656-661).
Shia theology discounts the legitimacy of the first three caliphs and believe that Ali is the second-most divinely inspired man (after Muhammad) and that he and his descendants by Muhammad's daughter Fatimah
Fatimah
Fatimah was a daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from his first wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. She is regarded by Muslims as an exemplar for men and women. She remained at her father's side through the difficulties suffered by him at the hands of the Quraysh of Mecca...
daughter of Muhammad's first wife Khadījah bint Khuwaylid
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid
Khadījah bint Khuwaylid or Khadījah al-Kubra was the first wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. She was the daughter of Khuwaylid ibn Asad and Fatimah bint Za'idah and belonged to the clan of Banu Asad. She is important in Islam as Muhammad's first wife, and one of the "mothers of the believers"...
, the Imams
Imamah (Shi'a doctrine)
Imāmah is the Shia doctrine of religious, spiritual and political leadership of the Ummah. The Shīa believe that the A'immah are the true Caliphs or rightful successors of Muḥammad, and further that Imams are possessed of divine knowledge and authority as well as being part of the Ahl al-Bayt,...
, are the sole legitimate Islamic leaders.
The Imamate of the Shia encompasses far more of a prophetic function than the Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
of the Sunnis. Unlike Sunni, Shias believe special spiritual qualities have been granted not only to Muhammad but also to Ali and the other Imams. Twelvers believe the imams are immaculate from sin and human error (ma'sūm
The Fourteen Infallibles
The Fourteen Infallibles are Twelver Shī‘ah Islam religious figures from between the 6th and 9th century whom Twelvers believe are infallible, i.e. "divinely bestowed [with] freedom from error and sin". This quality of infallibility is known as Ismah...
), and can understand and interpret the hidden inner meaning of the teachings of Islam. In this way the Imams are trustees (wasi) who bear the light of Muhammad (Nūr Muhammadin).
Mahdi
While Shias and Sunnis differ on the nature of the MahdiMahdi
In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
, many members of both groups, especially Sufi
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
s, believe that the Mahdi will appear at end times to bring about a perfect and just Islamic society.
In Shia Islam "the Mahdi symbol has developed into a powerful and central religious idea." Twelvers believe the Mahdi will be Muhammad al-Mahdi
Muhammad al-Mahdi
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī is believed by Twelver Shī‘a Muslims to be the Mahdī, an ultimate savior of humankind and the final Imām of the Twelve Imams...
, the twelfth Imam returned from the Occultation
The Occultation
The Occultation in Shia Islam refers to a belief that the messianic figure, or Mahdi, who in Shi'i thought is an infallible male descendant of the founder of Islam, Muhammad, was born but disappeared, and will one day return and fill the world with justice. Some Shi'is, such as the Zaidi and...
, where he has been hidden by God since 874 CE. In contrast, mainstream Sunnis believe the Mahdi will be named Muhammad, be a descendant of the Prophet and will revive the faith, but will not necessarily be connected with the end of the world, and some Sunni scholars have denied the existence of the Mahdi.
Hadith
The Shias accept some of the same hadithHadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
s used by Sunnis as part of the sunnah
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
to argue their case. In addition, they consider the sayings of Ahl al-Bayt
Ahl al-Bayt
Ahl al-Bayt is an Arabic phrase literally meaning People of the House, or family of the House. The phrase "ahl al-bayt" was used in Arabia before the advent of Islam to refer to one's clan, and would be adopted by the ruling family of a tribe. Within the Islamic tradition, the term refers to the...
that are not attributed directly to Muhammad as hadiths. Shias do not accept many Sunni hadiths unless they are also recorded in Shia sources or the methodology can be proven of how they were recorded. Also, some Sunni-accepted hadith are less favored by Shias; one example is that because of Aisha
Aisha
Aisha bint Abu Bakr also transcribed as was Muhammad's favorite wife...
's opposition to Ali, hadith narrated by Aishah are not given the same authority as those by other companions. Another example is hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, who was is considered by Shias as enemy of Ali. The Shia argument is that Abu Hurairah was only a Muslim four years of his life before Prophet Mohammad death. Although he accompanied the prophet for four years only, he managed to record ten times as many hadiths as Abu Bakr and Ali each.
Emphasis
Mainstream Sunnism has been said to be "about" ShariaSharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
, sacred law. In contrast, the Shia also follow Islamic law with great "vigilance", but their belief is added with Ijtihad
Ijtihad
Ijtihad is the making of a decision in Islamic law by personal effort , independently of any school of jurisprudence . as opposed to taqlid, copying or obeying without question....
"Research" in the light of teachings of the Qur'an.
Shiism and Sufism
Shiism and Sunni Sufism are said to share a number of hallmarks: Belief in an inner meaning to the Qur'an, special status for some mortals (saints for Sufi, Imams for Shias), as well as veneration of Ali and Muhammad's family.Salat
When prostrating during ritual prayer (Salah), Shias place their forehead onto a piece of naturally occurring material, often a clay tablet (mohr), soil (turbahTurbah
A turbah is a small piece of soil or clay, often a clay tablet, optionally used by some Shia schools. during the daily prayers . It symbolizes earth. While use of a turbah is not compulsory, it is highly recommended and many Hadith mention the benefits of prostration upon the soil of the earth or...
) or at times sand from Karbala
Karbala
Karbala is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people ....
, the place where Husayn ibn Ali was martyred, instead of directly onto a prayer rug. There is precedence for this in Sunni thought, as it is recommended not to prostrate on a non-natural surface.
Some Shia perform prayers back to back, sometimes worshipping two times consecutively (1+2+2 i.e. fajr
Fajr
The Fajr prayer is the first of the five daily prayers offered by practising Muslims. The five daily prayers collectively form one pillar of the Five Pillars of Islam, in Sunni Islam, and one of the ten Practices of the Religion according to Shia Islam.The Fajr prayer is mentioned by name in the...
on its own Dhuhr
Dhuhr
The dhuhr prayer is the prayer after midday Performed daily by practicing Muslims, it is the second of the five daily prayers...
with Asr
Asr
The Asr prayer is the afternoon daily prayer recited by practising Muslims. It is the third of the five daily prayers . The five daily prayers collectively are one pillar of the Five Pillars of Islam, in Sunni Islam, and one of the ten Practices of the Religion according to Shia Islam...
and Maghrib
Maghrib
The Maghrib prayer , prayed just after sunset, is the fourth of five formal daily prayers performed by practicing Muslims.The formal daily prayers of Islam comprise different numbers of units, called rak'at. The Maghrib prayer has three obligatory rak'at. The first two fard rak'at are prayed...
with Isha'a
Isha'a
The Isha prayer is the night-time daily prayer recited by practising Muslims. It is the fifth of the five daily prayers– [islamic evening begins at maghrib]. The five daily prayers collectively are one pillar of the Five Pillars of Islam, in Sunni Islam, and one of the ten Practices of the...
), thus praying five times a day but with a very small break in between the prayer, a tradition Muhammad followed according the Sunni scholar Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Mughirah Ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari , popularly known as Bukhari or Imam Bukhari, , was a Sunni Islamic scholar of Persia...
and which is also followed by Muslims all over the world while performing Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
, instead of five prayers with at least one hour gap between them as required by Sunni schools of law.
Shias and the followers of the Sunni Maliki
Maliki
The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...
school hold their hands at their sides during prayer; Sunnis of other schools cross their arms (right over left) and clasp their hands, although it is commonly held by Sunni scholars that either is acceptable.
Mutah
The Shia permit Nikah mut‘ahNikah mut‘ah
' , is a fixed-term marriage in Shi'a Islam. The duration of this type of marriage is fixed at its inception and is then automatically dissolved upon completion of its term. The marriage is contractual and is subject to renewal...
—fixed-term temporary marriage—which is not acceptable within the Sunni community and is believed a planned and agreed fornication. Mutah is not the same as Misyar
Nikah Misyar
Nikah Misyar is a Muslim Nikah carried out via the normal contractual procedure, with the specificity that the husband and wife give up several rights by their own free will, such as living together, equal division of nights between wives in cases of polygamy, the wife's rights to housing, and...
marriage or 'Arfi marriage, which has no date of expiration and is permitted by some Sunnis. A Misyar marriage differs from a conventional Islamic marriage
Nikah
Marriage in Islam is an Islamic prenuptial contract between a man and woman to live as husband and wife. It is a formal, binding contract considered integral to a religiously valid Islamic marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom and bride involved in marriage proceedings...
in that the man does not have financial responsibility over the woman by her own free will. The man can divorce the woman whenever he wants to in a Misyar marriage.
Hijab and dress
Devout women of the Shia traditionally wear black as do male religious leaders. Mainstream Shia and Sunni women wear the hijabHijab
The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
differently. Some Sunni scholars emphasize covering of all body including the face in public whereas some scholars exclude the face from hijab. Shias believe that the hijab must cover around the perimeter of the face and up to the chin. Some Shia women, such as those in Iran and Iraq, use their hand to hold the black chador
Chador
A chādor or chādar is an outer garment or open cloak worn by many Iranian women and female teenagers in public spaces. Wearing this garment is one possible way in which a Muslim woman can follow the Islamic dress code known as ḥijāb. A chador is a full-body-length semicircle of fabric that is...
, in order to cover their faces when in public as Sunnis.
Given names
Shia are often recognizable by their names which are often derived from the proper names or titles of saints. In particular, the names Ali, Hussein, and Hasan are disproportionately common among Shias, though they may also be used by Sunnis. Shias who trace their ancestry back to the prophet through his daughter Fatimah carry the title SayyidSayyid
Sayyid is an honorific title, it denotes males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husain ibn Ali, sons of the prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.Daughters of sayyids are given the titles Sayyida,...
. Umar and Usman, being the names of caliphs recognized by Sunnis but not Shias, are commonly used as names for Sunnis but are rare for Shias.
Sunni Theology
The Five Pillars of IslamFive Pillars of Islam
The Pillars of Islam are basic concepts and duties for accepting the religion for the Muslims.The Shi'i and Sunni both agree on the essential details for the performance of these acts, but the Shi'a do not refer to them by the same name .-Pillars of Shia:According to Shia Islam, the...
(Arabic: أركان الإسلام) is the term given to the five duties incumbent on every Muslim. These duties are Shahada
Shahada
The Shahada , means "to know and believe without suspicion, as if witnessed"/testification; it is the name of the Islamic creed. The shahada is the Muslim declaration of belief in the oneness of God and acceptance of Muhammad as God's prophet...
(profession of faith), Salah (prayers), Zakat
Zakat
Zakāt , one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is the giving of a fixed portion of one's wealth to charity, generally to the poor and needy.-History:Zakat, a practice initiated by Muhammed himself, has played an important role throughout Islamic history...
(giving of alms), Sawm
Sawm
Sawm is an Arabic word for fasting regulated by Islamic jurisprudence. In the terminology of Islamic law, Sawm means to abstain from eating, drinking , having sex and anything against Islamic law...
(fasting, specifically during Ramadan
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
) and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
). These five practices are essential to Sunni Muslims.
Shia Theology
Shia Theology has two concepts that define religion as a whole. There are Roots of Religion (Usūl al-Dīn) and Branches of Religion (Furu al Din). The Five Pillars are also accepted as essential rituals and practiced by Shias.Abbasid era
The Umayyads were overthrown in 750 CE by a new dynasty, the Abbasids. The first Abbasid caliph, As-SaffahAs-Saffah
Abu al-`Abbās `Abdu'llāh ibn Muhammad as-Saffāh, or Abul `Abbas al-Saffah , was the first Abbasid caliph .As-Saffah was the head of one branch of the Banu Hashim, who traced their lineage to Hashim, a great-grandfather of...
, recruited Shia support in his campaign against the Umayyads by emphasizing his blood relationship to Muhammad's household through descent from his uncle, ‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib. The Shia also believe that he promised them that the Caliphate, or at least religious authority, would be vested in the Shia Imam. As-Saffah assumed both the temporal and religious mantle of Caliph himself. He continued the Umayyad dynastic practice of succession, and his brother al-Mansur
Al-Mansur
Al-Mansur, Almanzor or Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur was the second Abbasid Caliph from 136 AH to 158 AH .-Biography:...
succeeded him in 754.
The sixth Shia Imam
Ja'far al-Sadiq
Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq was a descendant of Muhammad and a prominent Muslim jurist. He is revered as an Imam by the adherents of Shi'a Islam and as a renowned Islamic scholar and personality by Sunni Muslims. The Shi'a Muslims consider him to be the sixth Imam or leader and spiritual...
died during al-Mansur's reign, and there were claims that he was murdered on the orders of the caliph. (However, Abbasid persecution of Islamic lawyers was not restricted to the Shia. Abu Hanifah, for example was imprisoned by al-Mansur and tortured.)
Shia sources further claim that by the orders of the tenth Abassid caliph, al-Mutawakkil
Al-Mutawakkil
Al-Mutawakkil ʻAlā Allāh Jaʻfar ibn al-Muʻtasim was an Abbasid caliph who reigned in Samarra from 847 until 861...
, the tomb of the third Imam, Husayn ibn Ali in Karbala, was completely demolished, and Shias were sometimes beheaded in groups, buried alive, or even placed alive within the walls of government buildings still under construction.
The Shia believe that their community continued to live for the most part in hiding and followed their religious life secretly without external manifestations.
Shia–Sunni in Iraq
Many Shia Iranians migrated to what is now Iraq in the 16th century. "It is said that when modern Iraq was formed, 75% of the population of Karbala was Iranian". In time, these immigrants adopted the Arabic language and Arab identity, but their origin has been used to "unfairly cast them as lackeys of Iran. Other Iraqi Shias are ethnic Arabs with roots in Iraq as deep as those of their Sunni counterparts.Shia–Sunni in Persia
Shafii Sunnism was the dominant form of Islam in most of Iran until rise of the Safavid EmpireSafavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...
although a significant undercurrent of Ismailism and a very large minority of Twelvers were present all over Persia, going back to some of the most illustrious Persian intellectuals in history who were Shias, such as Ferdowsi
Ferdowsi
Ferdowsi was a highly revered Persian poet. He was the author of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran and related societies.The Shahnameh was originally composed by Ferdowsi for the princes of the Samanid dynasty, who were responsible for a revival of Persian cultural traditions after the...
. Many scholars and scientists who lived before the Safavid era, such as Avicenna
Avicenna
Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
, Jābir ibn Hayyān, Alhazen, Al-Farabi
Al-Farabi
' known in the West as Alpharabius , was a scientist and philosopher of the Islamic world...
and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Khawaja Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī , better known as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī , was a Persian polymath and prolific writer: an astronomer, biologist, chemist, mathematician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, theologian and Marja Taqleed...
and the poet Hafiz were Shia Muslims of both the Ismaili and Twelver traditions (some indistinguishably so, such as al-Tusi), as was most of Iran's elite. There were many Sunni scientists and scholars as well, such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Umar ibn al-Husayn al-Taymi al-Bakri al-Tabaristani Fakhr al-Din al-Razi , most commonly known as Fakhruddin Razi was a well-known Persian Sunni Muslim theologian and philosopher....
, philosopher-theologian Ghazali, and poet Saadii
Saadi (poet)
Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī better known by his pen-name as Saʿdī or, simply, Saadi, was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is not only famous in Persian-speaking countries, but he has also been quoted in western sources...
Nizamiyyas were the medieval institutions of Islamic higher education
Madrasah
Madrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...
established by Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk
Nizam al-Mulk
Abu Ali al-Hasan al-Tusi Nizam al-Mulk, better known as Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk Tusi ; born in 1018 – 14 October 1092) was a Persian scholar and vizier of the Seljuq Empire...
in the 11th century. Nizamiyyah institutes were the first well-organized universities in the Muslim world. The most famous and celebrated of all the nizamiyyah schools was Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad
Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad
Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad was one the first Islamic universities, established in July of 1091 when Nizam al-Mulk appointed the 33-year-old Al-Ghazali as a professor of the school....
(established 1065), where Nizam al-Mulk appointed the distinguished philosopher and theologian, Ghazali, as a professor. Other Nizamiyyah schools were located in Nishapur
Nishapur
Nishapur or Nishabur , is a city in the Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains, near the regional capital of Mashhad...
, Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...
, Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
and Isfahan.
The Sunni hegemony did not undercut the Shia presence in Iran. The writers of the Shia Four Books
The Four Books
The Four Books is a Twelver Shiʿa term referring to their four best known hadith collections.The books are:Shi'a Muslims use different books of ahadith than Ahl al-Sunnah's Six major Hadith collections...
were Iranian, as were many other great scholars. According to Morteza Motahhari
Morteza Motahhari
Ayatollah Murtaza Motahhari was an Iranian scholar, cleric, lecturer, and politician.Motahhari is considered among the important influences on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, and was a co-founder of Hosseiniye Ershad and the Combatant Clergy Association...
The Shia in Iran before the Safavids
The domination of the Sunni creed during the first nine Islamic centuries characterizes the religious history of Iran during this period. There were however some exceptions to this general domination which emerged in the form of the ZaydīsZaidiyyah
Zaidiyya, or Zaidism is a Shi'a Muslim school of thought named after Zayd ibn ʻAlī, the grandson of Husayn ibn ʻAlī. Followers of the Zaydi Islamic jurisprudence are called Zaydi Shi'a...
of Tabaristan, the Buwayhid, the rule of the Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
Muhammad Khudabandah
Öljaitü
Öljeitü, Oljeitu, Olcayto or Uljeitu, Öljaitu, Ölziit , born Muhammad Khodabandeh , was the eighth Ilkhanid dynasty ruler in Iran from 1304 to 1316...
(r. 1304-1316 CE) and the Sarbedaran
Sarbadars
The Sarbadars were a mixture of religious dervishes and secular rulers that came to rule over part of western Khurasan in the midst of the disintegration of the Mongol Ilkhanate in the mid-14th century...
. Nevertheless, apart from this domination there existed, firstly, throughout these nine centuries, Shia inclinations among many Sunnis of this land and, secondly, Twelver and Zaidi Shiism had prevalence in some parts of Iran. During this period, the Shia in Iran were nourished from Kufa
Kufa
Kufa is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000....
h, Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
and later from Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
and Al Hillah. Shī‘ī were dominant in Tabaristan, Qom
Qom
Qom is a city in Iran. It lies by road southwest of Tehran and is the capital of Qom Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 957,496, in 241,827 families. It is situated on the banks of the Qom River....
, Kashan
Kashan
Kashan is a city in and the capital of Kashan County, in the province of Isfahan, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 248,789, in 67,464 families....
, Avaj
Avaj
Avaj is a city in and capital of Avaj District, in Buin Zahra County, Qazvin Province, Iran. At the 2006 census its population was 3,695, in 1,042 families....
and Sabzevar
Sabzevar
Sabzevar is a city in, and the capital of Sabzevar County, in Razavi Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 208,172, in 57,024 families.It is approximately 220 kilometres west of Mashhad, the provincial capital...
. In many other areas the population of Shias and Sunni was mixed.
The first Zaidi state was established in Daylaman
Dailamites
The Daylamites or Dailamites were an Iranian people inhabiting the mountainous regions of northern Iran on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. They were employed as soldiers from the time of the Sassanid Empire, and long resisted the Arab conquest of Iran and subsequent Islamization...
and Tabaristan (northern Iran) in 864 C.E. by the Alavids
Alavids
The Alavids or Alavians , also known as the Zaydids, were a Zaidi Shia emirate based in Mazandaran of Iran. They were descendants of the second Shi'a Imam and brought Islam to the south Caspian Sea region of Iran. Their reign was ended when they were defeated by the Samanid empire in 928 AD...
; it lasted until the death of its leader at the hand of the Samanids in 928 CE. Roughly forty years later the state was revived in Gilan
Gilan Province
Gilan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It lies along the Caspian Sea, just west of the province of Mazandaran, east of the province of Ardabil, north of the provinces of Zanjan and Qazvin....
(north-western Iran) and survived under Hasanid leaders until 1126 CE. After which from the 12th-13th centuries, the Zaidis of Daylaman, Gilan and Tabaristan then acknowledge the Zaidi Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
s of Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
or rival Zaidi Imams within Iran.
The Buyids, who were Zaidi and had a significant influence not only in the provinces of Persia but also in the capital of the caliphate in Baghdad, and even upon the caliph himself, provided a unique opportunity for the spread and diffusion of Shia thought. This spread of Shiism to the inner circles of the government enabled the Shia to withstand those who opposed them by relying upon the power of the caliphate.
Twelvers came to Iran from Arab regions in the course of four stages. First, through the Asharis tribe at the end of the 7th and during the 8th century. Second through the pupils of Sabzevar, and especially those of Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, who were from Rey
Rey, Iran
Rey or Ray , also known as Rhages and formerly as Arsacia, is the capital of Rey County, Tehran Province, Iran, and is the oldest existing city in the province....
and Sabzawar
Sabzawar
Sabzawar is a town in Afghanistan, situated at an elevation of 3550 ft on the left bank of the river Harud, 93 miles south of Herat. Sabzawar was once a city of considerable size, and still possesses a fortress with sides of about 200 or 250 yards...
and resided in those cities. Third, through the school of Hillah under the leadership of Al-Hilli
Al-Hilli
Jamal ad-Din Hasan ibn Yusuf ibn 'Ali ibn Muthahhar al-Hilli , also known as al-Allamah al-Hilli , born December 15, 1250 CE , died December 18, 1325, was a Twelver Shia theologian and mujtahid. Known as a Marja , he was one of the greatest Muslim jurists and scholars of his time...
and his son Fakhr al-Muhaqqiqin. Fourth, through the scholars of Jabal Amel
Jabal Amel
Jabal Amel or Amil is a mountainous region of Southern Lebanon.The region is named after the Banu 'Amilah, a Yemenite tribe who, along with the kindred tribes of Hamadan, Lakhm, and Judham, settled in Syria, Palestine, parts of Jordan, and Lebanon. The area was known in ancient times as Jabal...
residing in that region, or in Iraq, during the 16th and 17th centuries who later migrated to Iran.
On the other hand, the Ismaili da‘wah
Dawah
Da‘wah or Dawah usually denotes the preaching of Islam. Da‘wah literally means "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation", being the active participle of a verb meaning variously "to summon" or "to invite"...
("missionary institution") sent missionaries (du‘āt, sg. dā‘ī) during the Fatimid Caliphate to Persia. When the Ismailis divided into two sects, Nizari
Nizari
'The Shī‘a Imami Ismā‘īlī Tariqah also referred to as the Ismā‘īlī or Nizārī , is a path of Shī‘a Islām, emphasizing social justice, pluralism, and human reason within the framework of the mystical tradition of Islam. The Nizari are the second largest branch of Shia Islam and form the majority...
s established their base in northern Persia. Hassan-i Sabbah conquered fortresses and captured Alamut
Alamut
Alamut was a mountain fortress located in the South Caspian province of Daylam near the Rudbar region in Iran, approximately 100 kilometres from present-day Tehran, Iran...
in 1090 CE. Nizaris used this fortress until the Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
finally seized and destroyed it in 1256 CE.
After the Mongols and the fall of the Abbasids, the Sunni Ulama
Ulama
-In Islam:* Ulema, also transliterated "ulama", a community of legal scholars of Islam and its laws . See:**Nahdlatul Ulama **Darul-uloom Nadwatul Ulama **Jamiatul Ulama Transvaal**Jamiat ul-Ulama -Other:...
suffered greatly. In addition to the destruction of the ucaliphate there was no official Sunni school of Law. Many libraries and madrasahs were destroyed and Sunni scholars migrated to other Islamic areas such as Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. In contrast, most Shia were largely unaffected as their center was not in Iran at this time. For the first time, the Shia could openly convert other Muslims to their movement.
Several local Shia dynasties like the Marashi
Marashi
Marashi is a Persian family name indicating ancestry from Ali al-Marash, the grandson of the fourth Shia imam, Ali ibn Husayn, also known as Zayn al-Abidin. The surname is generally associated with a clan of Shi'ite Muslims who are descended from Ali ibn Husayn, who himself was a great-grandson...
and Sarbadars were established during this time. The kings of the Ak Koyunlu
Ak Koyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu or Ak Koyunlu, also called the White Sheep Turkomans , was an Sunni Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled parts of present-day Eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, and Iran from 1378 to 1508.-History:According to chronicles from the Byzantine Empire, the Aq Qoyunlu...
and Kara Koyunlu
Kara Koyunlu
The Kara Koyunlu or Qara Qoyunlu, also called the Black Sheep Turkomans , were a Shi'ite Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled over the territory comprising the present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, north-western Iran, eastern Turkey and Iraq from about 1375 to 1468.The Kara Koyunlu Turkomans at one...
dynasties ruled in Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
with a domain extending to Fars and Kerman
Kerman
- Geological characteristics :For the Iranian paleontologists, Kerman has always been considered a fossil paradise. Finding new dinosaur footprints in 2005 has now revealed new hopes for paleontologists to better understand the history of this area.- Economy :...
. In Egypt the Fatimid government ruled.
Muhammad Khudabandah, the famous builder of Soltaniyeh
Soltaniyeh
Soltaniyeh is a city in and capital of Soltaniyeh District of Abhar County, Zanjan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 5,684, in 1,649 families. Soltaniyeh, located some to the north-west of Tehran, used to be the capital of Mongol Ilkhanid rulers of Persia in the 14th century....
, was among the first of the Mongols to convert to Shī‘ism, and his descendants ruled for many years in Persia and were instrumental in spreading Shī‘ī thought.
Shiism in Persia after Safavids
Ismail IIsmail I
Ismail I , known in Persian as Shāh Ismāʿil , was a Shah of Iran and the founder of the Safavid dynasty which survived until 1736. Isma'il started his campaign in Azerbaijan in 1500 as the leader of the Safaviyya, an extremist heterodox Twelver Shi'i militant religious order and unified all of Iran...
initiated a religious policy to recognize Shiism as the official religion of the Safavid Empire, and the fact that modern Iran remains an officially Shia state is a direct result of Ismail's actions.
Unfortunately for Ismail, most of his subjects were Sunni. He thus had to enforce official Shiism
Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism
The Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism made Iran the spiritual bastion of Shia Islam against the onslaughts of orthodox Sunni Islam, and the repository of Persian cultural traditions and self-awareness of Iranianhood, acting as a bridge to modern Iran...
violently, putting to death those who opposed him. Under this pressure, Safavid subjects either converted or pretended to convert, but it is safe to say that the majority of the population was probably genuinely Shia by the end of the Safavid period in the 18th century, and most Iranians today are Shia, although there is still a Sunni minority.
This led to a wide gap between Iran and its Sunni neighbors, particularly the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in the wake of the Battle of Chaldiran
Battle of Chaldiran
The Battle of Chaldiran or Chaldoran occurred on 23 August 1514 and ended with a victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire of Persia . As a result, the Ottomans gained immediate control over eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq...
. This gap continued until the 20th century.
During the early days of the Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
, Ayatollah
Ayatollah
Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...
Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
endeavored to bridge the gap between Shiites and Sunnis by declaring it permissible for Twelvers to pray behind Sunni imams and by forbidding criticizing the Caliphs who preceded Ali—an issue that had caused much animosity between the two groups.
Shia–Sunni in Levant
Shias claim that despite these advances, many Shias in SyriaSyria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
continued to be killed during this period for their faith. One of these was Muhammad Ibn Makki
Shahid Awwal
Muhammad Jamaluddin al-Makki al-Amili also known as Shahid Awwal was the first Islamic martyr and the author of Al-Lum'ah ad-Dimashqiya. He was one of the greatest Shi'a scholars.- Life :Shahid Awal was born in 734 A.H Muhammad Jamaluddin al-Makki al-Amili (1334–1385) also known as Shahid Awwal...
, called Shahid-i Awwal (the First Martyr), one of the great figures in Shia jurisprudence, who was killed in Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
in 1384 CE.
Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
Other important Muslim mystics carry the name Suhrawardi, particularly Abu 'l-Najib al-Suhrawardi and his paternal nephew Abu Hafs Umar al-Suhrawardi."Shahāb ad-Dīn" Yahya ibn Habash as-Suhrawardī was a Persian...
was another eminent scholar, killed in Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
on charges of cultivating Batini
Batiniyya
Batiniyya is a pejorative term to refer to those groups, such as Alevism, Ismailism, and often Sufism, which distinguish between an inner, esoteric level of meaning in the Qur'an, in addition to the outer, exoteric level of meaning Zahiri...
teachings and philosoph.
Shia–Sunni in South Asia
Shia in South AsiaSouth Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
faced persecution by some Sunni rulers and Mughal Emperors
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
which resulted in the killings of Shia scholars like Qazi Nurullah Shustari
Qazi Nurullah Shustari
Qazi Nurullah Shustari also known as Shaheed-e-Salis was an eminent jurist and scholar of his time, 1542 A.D.-1610/11. Qazi Nurullah Shustari also known as Shaheed-e-Salis (third martyr) was an eminent jurist (faqih) and scholar (alim) of his time, 1542 A.D.-1610/11. Qazi Nurullah Shustari ...
(also known as Shaheed-e-Thaalis, the third Martyr) and Mirza Muhammad Kamil Dehlavi
Shahid Rabay
Mirza Muhammad Kamil Dehlavi also known as Shahid Rabay was the author of Nuzhat-e-Isna Ashariya . This book was a complete response to Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlavi's Tauhfa Ithna Ashari...
(also known as Shaheed-e- Rabay, the fourth Martyr) who are two of the five martyrs of Shia Islam
Five Martyrs of Shia Islam
The Five Martyrs were five ulema of Shi'i Islam, living in different spans of history, who were executed by the Sunni regimes. The Shia remember them by the term Five Martyrs, and Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussain Najafi wrote a book Shuhada-e Khamsa kay Halaat-e Zindagi "Biographies of the Five...
. Shias in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
in subsequent years had to pass through the most atrocious period of their history. Plunder, loot and massacres which came to be known as Taarajs virtually devastated the community. History records 10 such Taarajs also known as Taraj-e-Shia between 15th to 19th century in 1548, 1585, 1635, 1686, 1719, 1741, 1762, 1801, 1830, 1872 during which the Shia habitations were plundered, people slaughtered, libraries burnt and their sacred sites desecrated.
Sunni–Shia clashes also occurred frequently in the 20th century in South Asia. There were many between 1904 and 1908 especially in the United Provinces
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 1902 to 1947; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces, by which the province had been commonly known, and by which name it was also a province of...
(Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
) area. These clashes revolved around the public cursing of the first three caliphs by Shias and the praising of them by Sunnis. To put a stop to the violence public demonstrations were banned in 1909 on the three most sensitive days: Ashura
Day of Ashura
The Day of Ashura is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram.It is commemorated by Shia Muslims as a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10...
, Chehlum
Arba'een
Arba'een or Chelom , is one of the largest pilgrimage gatherings on Earth, in which over 10 million people go to the city of Karbala in Iraq. As it is known by Persian-speaking and Urdu-speaking Muslims in Central and South Asia, Arba'een is a Shia Muslim religious observation that occurs 40 days...
and Ali's death on 21 Ramadan
Ramadan (calendar month)
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and the month in which the Quran was revealed.Ramadan is the holiest of months in the Islamic calendar, and fasting in this month is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month is spent by Muslims fasting during the daylight hours from dawn to...
. Intercommunal violence resurfaced in 1935-6 and again in 1939 when many thousands of Sunni and Shi'is defied the ban on public demonstrations and took to the streets. Shia are estimated to be 21-35% of the Muslim population in South Asia, although the total number is difficult to estimate due to the intermingling between the two groups and practice of taqiyya
Taqiyya
Taqiyya , meaning religious dissimulation, is a practice emphasized in Shi'a Islam whereby adherents may conceal their religion when they are under threat, persecution, or compulsion...
by Shia
Modern Sunni–Shia relations
In addition to Iran, Iraq has emerged as a major Shia government when the Twelvers achieved political dominance in 2005 under American occupation. The two communities have often remained separate, mingling regularly only during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. In some countries like Iraq, Syria and BahrainBahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, communities have mingled and intermarried. Some Shia have complained of mistreatment in countries dominated by Sunnis, especially in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, while some Sunnis have complained of discrimination in the Twelver-dominated states of Iraq and Iran.
1919-1970
At least one scholar sees the period from collapse of the Ottoman Empire through the decline of Arab nationalismArab nationalism
Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
as time of relative unity and harmony between traditionalist Sunni and Shia Muslims—unity brought on by a feeling of being under siege from a common threat, secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
, first of the European colonial variety and then Arab nationalist.
A remarkable example of Sunni–Shia cooperation was the Khilafat Movement
Khilafat Movement
The Khilafat movement was a pan-Islamic, political campaign launched by Muslims in British India to influence the British government and to protect the Ottoman Empire during the aftermath of World War I...
which swept South Asia following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the seat of the Caliphate, in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Shia scholars "came to the caliphate's defence" by attending the 1931 Caliphate Conference in Jerusalem. This was despite the fact they were theologically opposed to the idea that non-Imams could be Caliphs or successors to Muhammad, and that the Caliphate was "the flagship institution" of Sunni, not Shia, authority. This has been described as unity of traditionalists in the face of the twin threats of "secularism and colonialism."
Another example of unity was a fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
issued by the rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...
, Mahmud Shaltut
Mahmud Shaltut
Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltut was a prominent Egyptian Sunni religious scholar and Islamic theologian best known for his work in Islamic reform...
, recognizing Shia Islamic law
Ja'fari jurisprudence
Jaʿfarī school of thought, Ja`farite School, Jaʿfarī jurisprudence or Jaʿfarī Fiqh is the school of jurisprudence of most Shi'a Muslims, derived from the name of Jaʿfar as-Ṣādiq, the 6th Shi'a Imam...
as the fifth school of Islamic law. In 1959, al-Azhar University in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, the most influential center of Sunni learning, authorized the teaching of courses of Shia jurisprudence as part of its curriculum.
Post-1980
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is an influential Iranian politician and writer, who was the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until his resignation in 2011...
and Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a controversial Egyptian Islamic theologian. He is best known for his programme, ash-Shariah wal-Hayat , broadcast on Al Jazeera, which has an estimated audience of 60 million worldwide...
), unspecified "enemies" (Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), or American neo-liberal
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
s who wish to provoke "a debilitating Islamic civil war." (Dilip Hiro
Dilip Hiro
Dilip Hiro is a playwright, political writer, journalist, historian and analyst specializing in South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Islamic affairs. He was born to Hindu parents in Larkana, British India, who migrated to independent India after partition in 1947. Hiro received a masters...
).
Others lay the blame for the strife at a very different source, the unintended effects of the Islamic revival
Islamic revival
Islamic revival refers to a revival of the Islamic religion throughout the Islamic world, that began roughly sometime in 1970s and is manifested in greater religious piety, and community feeling, and in a growing adoption of Islamic culture, dress, terminology, separation of the sexes, and values...
. According to scholar Vali Nasr, as the Muslim world was decolonialised and Arab nationalism lost its appeal, fundamentalism blossomed and reasserted the differences and conflicts between the two movements, particularly in the strict teachings of Sunni scholar Ibn Taymiyyah. The Iranian Islamic revolution, changed the Shia–Sunni power equation in Muslim countries "from Lebanon to India" arousing the traditionally subservient Shia to the alarm of traditionally dominant and very non-revolutionary Sunni. "Where Iranian revolutionaries saw Islamic revolutionary stirrings, Sunnis saw mostly Shia mischief and a threat to Sunni predominance."
Although the Iranian revolution's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, was very much in favor of Shia–Sunni unity, he also challenged Saudi Arabia, in his view an "unpopular and corrupt dictatorship" and an "American lackey" ripe for revolution. In part because Saudi Arabia was the world's major international funder of Islamic schools, scholarships, fellowships, etc., this angered not only Saudi Arabia but its many fundamentalist allies and benefactors throughout the Sunni world.
Olivier Roy, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, sees the "Shia awakening and its instrumentalisation by Iran" as leading to a "very violent Sunni reaction", starting first in Pakistan before spreading to "the rest of the Muslim world, without necessarily being as violent." According to Roy, "two events created a sea change in the balance of power between Shia and Sunnis: the Islamic revolution in Iran and the American military intervention in Iraq" in 2003. "Today, Azerbaijan is probably the only country where there are still mixed mosques and Shia and Sunnis pray together."
Iraq
Shia–Sunni discord in Iraq starts with disagreement over the relative population of the two groups. According to most sources, including the CIA's World FactbookThe World Factbook
The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official paper copy version is available from the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office...
, the majority of Iraqis are Shia Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims are adherents of the religion of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, or genealogically as Arabs. They greatly outnumber other ethnic groups in the Middle East. Muslims who are not Arabs are called mawali by Arab Muslims....
(around 65%), and Sunnis represent about 32% of the population. However, Sunni are split ethnically between Arabs, Kurd
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
s and Turkmen. Many Sunnis hotly dispute their minority status, including ex-Iraqi Ambassador Faruq Ziada, and many believe Shia majority is "a myth spread by America". One Sunni belief shared by Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
's King Abdullah
Abdullah II of Jordan
Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein is the reigning King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He ascended the throne on 7 February 1999 after the death of his father King Hussein. King Abdullah, whose mother is Princess Muna al-Hussein, is a member of the Hashemite family...
as well as his then Defense Minister Shaalan is that Shia numbers in Iraq were inflated by Iranian Shias crossing the border. Shia scholar Vali Nasr believes the election turnout in summer and December 2005 confirmed a strong Shia majority in Iraq.
The governing regimes of Iraq were made mainly of Sunnis for nearly a century until the 2003 Iraq War. The British, having put down a Shia rebellion against their rule in the 1920s, "confirmed their reliance on a corps of Sunni ex-officers
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
of the collapsed Ottoman empire". The British colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
rule ended after the Sunni and Shia united against it.
The Shia suffered indirect and direct persecution
Persecution of Shia Muslims
The dispute over the right successor to Muhammad resulted in the formation of two main sects, the Sunni, and the Shia. The Sunni, or followers of the way, followed the caliphate and maintained the premise that any devout Muslim could potentially become the successor to the Prophet if accepted by...
under post-colonial Iraqi governments since 1932, erupting into full scale rebellions in 1935 and 1936. Shi'as were also persecuted during the Ba'ath party rule, especially under Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
. Under Saddam public Shia festivals such as Ashura were banned. It is said that every Shia clerical family of note in Iraq had tales of torture and murder to recount. In 1969 the son of Iraq's highest Shia Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim was arrested and allegedly tortured. From 1979-1983 Saddam's regime executed 48 major Shia clerics in Iraq. They included Shia leader Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister. Tens of thousands of Iranians and Arabs of Iranian origin were expelled in 1979 and 1980 and a further 75,000 in 1989.
The Shi'as openly revolted against Saddam
1991 uprisings in Iraq
The 1991 uprisings in Iraq were a series of anti-governmental rebellions in southern and northern Iraq during the aftermath of the Gulf War. The revolt was fueled by the perception that the power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was vulnerable at the time; as well as by heavily fueled anger at...
, following Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1991, and encouraged by Saddam's defeat in Quwait and simultaneous Kurdish uprising in the north. However, Shia opposition to the government was brutally suppressed, resulting in some 50,000 to 100,000 casualties and successive repression by Saddam's forces.
Iraq War
Some of the worst Shia–Sunni sectarian strife
Sectarian violence
Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is violence inspired by sectarianism, that is, between different sects of one particular mode of ideology or religion within a nation/community...
ever has occurred after the start of the Iraq War, steadily building up to present. Deaths from American and allied military collateral damage have become overshadowed by the cycle of Sunni–Shia revenge killing—Sunni often using car bombs,with Shia favoring death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s.
According to one estimate, as of early 2008, 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq. Sunni suicide bombers
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...
have targeted not only thousands of civilians, but mosques, shrines, wedding and funeral processions, markets, hospitals, offices, and streets. Sunni insurgent organizations include Ansar al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam is a Sunni Islamist group of Iraqis, promoting a radical interpretation of Islam, close to the official Saudi ideology of Wahhabism with strict application of Sharia. The group was formed in the northern provinces of Iraq near the Iranian border, and previously had established...
. Radical groups include Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad
Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a popular name for the Iraqi division of the international Salafi jihadi militant organization al-Qaeda. It is recognized as a part of the greater Iraqi insurgency....
, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura
Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura
Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura is a militant Sunni group known to take part in the Iraqi insurgency. The group was founded by Sheikh Abu Omar al-Ansari....
, Jeish Muhammad, and Black Banner Organization
Black Banner Organization
The Black Banner Organization is an Iraqi guerrilla organization battling multinational troops in Iraq. The organization's ideology appears to be radical Sunni Islamism.-Organization:...
.
Takfir
Takfir
In Islamic law, takfir or takfeer refers to the practice of one Muslim declaring another Muslim an unbeliever or kafir...
motivation for many of these killings may come from Sunni insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan...
. Before his death Zarqawi was one to quote Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, especially his infamous statement urging followers to kill the Shia of Iraq, and calling the Shias "snakes". An al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
-affiliated website posted a call for "a full-scale war on Shiites all over Iraq, whenever and wherever they are found." Wahhabi suicide bombers continue to attack Iraqi Shia civilians, and the Shia ulama have in response declared suicide bombing as haraam
Haraam
Haraam is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden", or "sacred". In Islam it is used to refer to anything that is prohibited by the word of Allah in the Qur'an or the Hadith Qudsi. Haraam is the highest status of prohibition given to anything that would result in sin when a Muslim commits it...
:
Some believe the war has strengthened the takfir thinking and may spread Sunni–Shia strife elsewhere.
On the Shia side, in early February 2006 militia-dominated government death squads were reportedly "tortur[ing] to death or summarily" executing "hundreds" of Sunnis "every month in Baghdad alone," many arrested at random. According to the British television Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, from 2005 through early 2006, commandos of the Ministry of the Interior which is controlled by the Badr Organization
Badr Organization
The Badr Organization previously known as the Badr Brigades or Badr Corps is an Iraqi political party headed by Hadi al-Amiri...
, and
The violence shows little sign of getting opposite sides to back down. Iran's Shia leaders, some of whom have strong ties with Iraqi Shia, are said to become "more determined" the more violent the anti-Shia attacks in Iraq become. One Shia Grand Ayatollah, Yousef Saanei, who has been described as a moderate, reacted to the 2005 suicide bombings of Shia targets in Iraq by saying the bombers were "wolves without pity" and that "sooner rather than later, Iran will have to put them down".
Jordan
Although the country of Jordan is 95% Sunni and has seen little Shia–Sunni fighting within, it has played a part in the recent Shia Sunni strife. It is the home country of anti-Shia insurgent Raed Mansour al-Banna, who died perpetrating one of Iraq's worst suicide bombings in the city of Al Hillah. Al-Banna killed 125 Shia and wounding another 150 in the February 28 vehicle bombing2005 Al Hillah bombing
The Al Hillah bombing killed 127 people, chiefly men lining up to join the Iraqi police forces, at the recruiting centre on February 28, 2005 in Al Hillah, Iraq....
of a police recruiting station and adjacent open air market. In March 2005 Salt
Salt, Jordan
Salt is an ancient agricultural town and administrative centre in west-central Jordan. It is on the old main highway leading from Amman to Jerusalem. Situated in the Balqa highland, about 790–1100 metres above sea level, the town is built in the crook of three hills, close to the Jordan River...
, al-Banna's home town, saw a three-day wake for al-Banna who Jordanian newspapers and celebrants proclaimed a martyr
Shahid
Shahid is an Arabic word meaning "witness". It is a religious term in Islam, meaning both "witness" and "martyr." While a martyr may die as a consequence of fighting, a shahid is a "witness" because he gives his life out of passion for truth. The shahid exchanges himself for the divine and thereby...
to Islam, which by definition made the Shia victims "infidels whose murder was justified." Following the wake Shia mobs in Iraq attacked the Jordanian embassy on March 20, 2005. Ambassadors were withdrawn from both countries.
All this resulted despite the strong filial bonds, ties of commerce, and traditional friendship between the two neighboring countries. Jordan, for example, had refused to ally itself against Iraq during the first Gulf War despite its alliance with America and the economic hardship that resulted.
Pakistan
PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, the country with the second largest Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
population in the world, has seen serious Shia-Sunni discord. Almost 80% of Pakistan's population is Sunni, with 20% being Shia, but this Shia minority forms the second largest Shia population of any country, larger than the Shia majority in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
.
Until recently Shia–Sunni relations have been cordial, and majority of people of both sects participated in the creation the state of Pakistan in 1940s. Despite the fact that Pakistan is a Sunni majority country, Shias have been elected to top offices and played an important part in the country's history. Several top Pakistani Generals such as General Muhammad Musa. Pakistan's President
President of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...
Yahya Khan
Yahya Khan
General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan Qizilbash, H.Pk, HJ, S.Pk, psc was the third President of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971, following the resignation of Ayub Khan...
were Shia. Pakistan's President
President of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...
and Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...
was Shia as her daughter Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
and her husband President
President of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....
. There are many intermarriages between Shia and Sunnis.
Unfortunately, from 1987–2007, "as many as 4,000 people are estimated to have died in sectarian fighting in Pakistan", 300 being killed in 2006. Amongst the culprits blamed for the killing are Al-Qaeda working "with local sectarian groups" to kill what they perceive as Shia apostates
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
, and "foreign powers ... trying to sow discord." Most violence takes place in the largest province of Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
and the country's commercial and financial capital, Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
. There have also been conflagrations in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan
Balochistan
Balochistan or Baluchistan is a region which covers parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. It can also refer to one of several modern and historical territories within that region:...
and Azad Kashmir
Azad Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir or Azad Kashmir for short, is the southernmost political entity within the Pakistani-administered part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir...
.
Arab states especially Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
and GCC states have been funding extremist Deobandi sunnis and Wahabis in Pakistan, since the Afghan Jihad. Whereas Iran has been funding Shia militant groups such as Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan
Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan
Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan is a Shi'a militant group formed in the early 1990s as a response to sectarian violence against Pakistani Shia' orchestrated by militant Sunni movements such as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi...
, resulting in a tit for tat attacks on each other. Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
has became a battleground between Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
funded Deobandi Sunni and Wahabis and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
funded Shia causing deaths of thousands of innocent Muslims.
Background
Some see a precursor of Pakistani Shia–Sunni strife in the April 1979 execution of deposed President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...
on questionable charges by Islamic fundamentalist
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
. Ali Bhutto was Shia, Zia ul-Haq a Sunni.
Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization
Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization
On December 2, 1978, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq delivered a nationwide address on the occasion of the first day of the Hijra calendar. He did this in order to usher in an Islamic system to Pakistan...
that followed was resisted by Shia who saw it as "Sunnification" as the laws and regulations were based on Sunni fiqh
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
. In July 1980, 25,000 Shia protested the Islamization
Islamization
Islamization or Islamification has been used to describe the process of a society's conversion to the religion of Islam...
laws in the capital Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
. Further exacerbating the situation was the dislike between Shia leader Imam Khomeini and General Zia ul-Haq.
Shia formed student associations and a Shia party, Sunni began to form sectarian militias recruited from Deobandi
Deobandi
Deobandi is a movement of Sunni Islam. The movement began at Darul Uloom Deoband in Deoband, India, where its foundation was laid on 30 May 1866.-History:...
and Ahl al-Hadith madrasahs. Preaching against the Shia in Pakistan was radical cleric Israr Ahmed
Israr Ahmed
Israr Ahmed was a Pakistani Islamic theologian followed particularly in South Asia and also among the South Asian diaspora in the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America. Born in Hissar, in India, the second son of a government servant, he is the founder of the Tanzeem-e-islami, an...
. Muhammad Manzour Numani, a senior Indian cleric with close ties to Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
published a book entitled Iranian Revolution: Imam Khomeini and Shiism. The book, which "became the gospel of Deobandi militants" in the 1980s, attacked Khomeini and argued the excesses of the Islamic revolution were proof that Shiism was not the doctrine of misguided brothers, but beyond the Islamic pale.
Anti-Shia groups in Pakistan include the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a militant organization. Formed in 1996, it has operated in Pakistan since Sipah-e-Sahaba activist Riaz Basra broke away from the SSP over differences with his seniors...
and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan is a militant Sunni Deobandi organization, and a formerly registered Pakistani political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi its stated goal is to primarily to deter major Shia influence in Pakistan in the wake of the Iranian...
, offshoots of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam is a political party in Pakistan. It formed a combined government in national elections in 2002 and 2008...
(JUI). The groups demand the expulsion of all Shias from Pakistan and have killed hundreds of Pakistani Shias between 1996 and 1999. As in Iraq they "targeted Shia in their holy places and mosques, especially during times of communal prayer." From January to May 1997, Sunni terror groups assassinated 75 Shia community leaders "in a systematic attempt to remove Shias from positions of authority." Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has declared Shia to be "American agents" and the "near enemy" in global jihad.
An example of an early Shia–Sunni fitna shootout occurred in Kurram, one of the tribal agencies
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...
of the Northwest Pakistan, where the Pushtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
population was split between Sunnis and Shia. In September 1996 more than 200 people were killed when a gun battle between teenage Shia and Sunni escalated into a communal war that lasted five days. Woman and children were kidnapped and gunmen even executed out-of-towners who were staying at a local hotel.
Afghanistan
Shia–Sunni strife in Pakistan is strongly intertwined with that in AfghanistanAfghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. Though now deposed, the anti-Shia Afghan Taliban regime helped anti-Shia Pakistani groups and vice versa. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, have sent thousands of volunteers to fight with the Taliban regime and "in return the Taliban gave sanctuary to their leaders in the Afghan capital of Kabul."
"Over 80,000 Pakistani Islamic militants have trained and fought with Taliban since 1994. They form a hardcore of Islamic activists, ever ready to carry out a similar Taliban-style Islamic revolution in Pakistan.", according to Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid
Ahmed Rashid
Ahmed Rashid is a former Pakistani revolutionary, a journalist and best-selling author of several books about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia.-Biography:...
.
Shia–Sunni strife inside of Afghanistan has mainly been a function of the puritanical Sunni Taliban's clashes with Shia Afghans, primarily the Hazara ethnic group.
In 1998 more than 8,000 noncombatants were killed when the Taliban attacked Mazar-i-Sharif and Bamiyan where many Hazaras live. Some of the slaughter was indiscriminate, but many were Shia targeted by the Taliban. Taliban commander and governor Mullah Niazi banned prayer at Shia mosques and expressed takfir of the Shia in a declaration from Mazar's central mosque:
Assisting the Taliban in the murder of Iranian diplomatic and intelligence officials at the Iranian Consulate in Mazar were "several Pakistani militants of the anti-Shia, Sipah-e-Sahaba party."
Iran and Shia statehood
Iran is unique in the Muslim world because its population is overwhelmingly more Shia than Sunni (Shia constitute 92% of the population) and because its constitution is theocraticTheocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
republic based on rule by a Shia jurist.
Although the founder of the Islamic Republic
Islamic republic
Islamic republic is the name given to several states in the Muslim world including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Mauritania. Pakistan adopted the title under the constitution of 1956. Mauritania adopted it on 28 November 1958. Iran adopted it after the 1979 Iranian...
, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, supported good Sunni–Shia relations, there have complaints by Sunni of discrimination, particularly in important government positions. In a joint appearance with former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani calling for Shia-Suni unity, Sunni Shiekh Yusuf al-Qaradawi complained that no ministers in Iran have been Sunni for a long time, that Sunni officials are scarce even in the regions with majority of Sunni population (such as Kurdistan
Iranian Kurdistan
Iranian Kurdistan is an unofficial name for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes Kurdistan Province, Kermanshah Province, Ilam Province and parts of West Azerbaijan province....
, or Balochistan). Sunnis cite the lack of a Sunni mosque in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, Iran's capital and largest city, despite the presence of over 1 million Sunnis there, and despite the presence of Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
churches, as a prominent example of this discrimination. Although reformist President Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...
promised during his election campaign to build a Sunni mosque in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, none was built during his eight years in office. The president explained the situation by saying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
would not agreed to the proposal. As in other parts of the Muslim world, other issues may play a part in the conflict, since most Sunnis in Iran are also ethnic minorities.
Soon after the 1979 revolution Sunni leaders from Kurdistan, Balouchistan, and Khorassan, set up a new party known as Shams, which is short for Shora-ye Markaz-e al Sunaat, to unite Sunnis and lobby for their rights. But six months after that, they were closed down, bank accounts suspended, and had their leaders arrested by the government on charges that they were backed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
A UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
report states that:
Members of the 'Balochistan Peoples Front' claim that Sunnis are systematically discriminated against educationally by denial of places at universities, politically by not allowing Sunnis to be army generals, ambassadors, ministers, prime minister, or president, religiously insulting Sunnis the media, economic discrimination by not giving import or export licenses for Sunni businesses while the majority of Sunnis are left unemployed.
There has been a low level resistance in mainly Sunni Iranian Balouchistan against the regime for several years. Official media refers to the fighting as armed clashes between the police and "bandits," "drug-smugglers," and "thugs," to disguise what many believe is essentially a political-religious conflict. Revolutionary Guards have stationed several brigades in Balouchi cities, and have allegedly tracked down and assassinated Sunni leaders both inside Iran and in neighboring Pakistan. In 1996 a leading Sunni, Abdulmalek Mollahzadeh, was gunned down by hitmen allegedly hired by Tehran as he was leaving his house in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
.
Members of Sunni groups in Iran however have been active in what the authorities describe as terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
activities. Balochi
Baloch people
The Baloch or Baluch are an ethnic group that belong to the larger Iranian peoples. Baluch people mainly inhabit the Balochistan region and Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast corner of the Iranian plateau in Western Asia....
Sunni Abdolmalek Rigi
Abdolmalek Rigi
Abdolmajid Rigi or Abdolmalek Rigi was the leader of Jundallah, an Islamist Sunni militant organization based in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of southeast Iran, until his capture and execution in 2010 by the Iranian government.-Biography:Born in 1983, Abdolmalek Rigi is from the Regi tribe...
continue to declare the Shia as Kafir
Kafir
Kafir is an Arabic term used in a Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever" or "disbeliever"...
and Mushrik. These Sunni groups have been involved in violent activities in Iran, and have waged terrorist attacks against civilian centers, including an attack next to a girl's school according to government sources. The "shadowy Sunni militant group Jundallah
Jundallah
Jundallah, or Jondollah , also known as People's Resistance Movement of Iran , is an organization based in Balochistan that claims to be fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran. It was founded by Abdolmalek Rigi who was captured and executed in Iran in 2010...
" has reportedly been receiving weaponry from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for these attacks according to the semi-official Fars News Agency
Fars News Agency
Fars News Agency is a news agency in Iran. While it describes itself as "Iran's leading independent news agency", news organizations such as CNN and Reuters describe it as a "semi-official" news agency with ties to the government...
. The United Nations and several countries worldwide have condemned the bombings. (See 2007 Zahedan bombings
2007 Zahedan bombings
The 2007 Zahedan bombings occurred from 14-17 February in Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan Province, Iran. While Jundallah claimed responsibility, the Iranian government has accused the governments of Pakistan and the United States of complicity. The first bombing occurred at 6:30 a.m...
for more information)
Non-Sunni Iranian opposition parties, and Shia like Ayatollah Jalal Gange’i have criticised the regimes treatment of Sunnis and confirmed many Sunni complaints.
Following the 2005 elections, much of the leadership of Iran has been described as more "staunchly committed to core Shia values" and lacking Ayatollah Khomeini's commitment to Shia–Sunni unity. Polemics critical of Sunnis were reportedly being produced in Arabic for dissemination in the Arab Muslim world by Hojjatieh
Hojjatieh
Hojjatieh — also called Hojjatieh Society — is a semi-clandestine traditionalist Shia organization founded in Iran in 1953 by Shaikh Mahmoud Halabi with permission of Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi...
-aligned elements in the Iranian regime.
Syria
Syria is approximately three quarters Sunni, but its government is predominately AlawiAlawi
The Alawis, also known as Alawites, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical and syncretic religious group centred in Syria who are a branch of Shia Islam.-Etymology:...
, a Shia sect that makes up less than 15% of the population. Under Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad
Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad was the President of Syria for three decades. Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government after decades of coups and counter-coups, such as Operation Wappen in 1957 conducted by the Eisenhower administration and...
, Alawi dominated the Baath Arab Socialist Party, a secular Arab nationalist party which has ruled Syria under a state of emergency since 1963 and does not tolerate opposition. Alawi are often considered a form of Shia Islam that differs somewhat from the larger Twelver Shia sect.
A very serious 20th century conflict in Syria with sectarian religious overtones was that between the Alawi-dominated al-Assad regime and the Islamist
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
Sunni Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
culminating with the 1982 Hama massacre
Hama massacre
The Hama massacre occurred in February 1982, when the Syrian army, under the orders of the president of Syria Hafez al-Assad, conducted a scorched earth policy against the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Sunni Muslim community against the regime of al-Assad...
, where an estimated 10,000 to 25,000 were killed by the Syrian military following a Muslim Brotherhood uprising. Prior to the uprising the Muslim Brotherhood attacks against military cadets at an artillery school in Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
, car bomb attacks in Damascus, and bomb attacks against the government and its officials had killed several hundred.
How much of the conflict was sparked by Sunni v. Shia divisions and how much by Islamism v. secular-Arab-nationalism, is in question, but according to scholar Vali Nasr the failure of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic of Iran to support the Muslim Brotherhood against the Baathists "earned [Khomeini] the Brotherhood's lasting contempt." It proved to the satisfaction of the Brotherhood that sectarian loyalty trumped Islamist solidarity for Khomeini and eliminated whatever appeal Khomeini might have had to the MB movement as a pan-Islamic leader.
Yemen
Muslims in Yemen including Shafi'i (Sunni) majority and Zaydi (Shia) minority. Zaidi are sometimes called "Fiver Shia" instead of Twelver Shia because they recognize the first four of The Twelve Imams but accept Zayd ibn AliZayd ibn Ali
Zayd ibn ‘Alī was the grandson of Husayn ibn Alī, the grandson of Muhammad. Zayd was born in Medina in 695. His father was the Shī‘ah Imam ‘Alī ibn Husayn "Zayn al-Abidīn"...
as their "Fifth Imām" rather than his brother Muhammad al-Baqir
Muhammad al-Baqir
Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Bāqir was the Fifth Imām to the Twelver Shi‘a and Fourth Imām to the Ismā‘īlī Shī‘a. His father was the previous Imām, ‘Alī ibn Ḥusayn, and his mother was Fatimah bint al-Hasan...
. Shia–Sunni conflict in Yemen involves the Sa'dah insurgency
Sa'dah insurgency
The Shia Insurgency in Yemen, also known as the Houthi rebellion, Sa'dah War or Sa'dah conflict is a civil war in Northern Yemen. It began in June 2004 when dissident cleric Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, head of the Shia Zaidiyyah sect, launched an uprising against the Yemeni government...
.
Both Shia and Sunni dissidents in Yemen have similar complaints about the government—cooperation with the American government and an alleged failure to following Sharia law -- but it's the Shia who have allegedly been singled out for government crackdown.
During and after the US-led invasion of Iraq, members of the Zaidi-Shia community protested after Friday prayers every week outside mosques, particularly the Grand Mosque in Sana'a
Sana'a
-Districts:*Al Wahdah District*As Sabain District*Assafi'yah District*At Tahrir District*Ath'thaorah District*Az'zal District*Bani Al Harith District*Ma'ain District*Old City District*Shu'aub District-Old City:...
, during which they shouted anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans, and criticised the government's close ties to America. These protests were led by ex-parliament member and Imam, Bader Eddine al-Houthi. In response the Yemeni government has implemented a campaign to crush "the Zaidi-Shia rebellion," and harass journalists.
These latest measures come as the government faces a Sunni rebellion with a similar motivation to the Zaydi discontent.
Bahrain
The small Persian GulfPersian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
island state of Bahrain has a Shia majority but is ruled by Sunni Al Khalifa family as a constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
, with Sunni dominating the ruling class and military and disproportionately represented in the business and landownership. According to the CIA World Factbook, Al Wefaq
Al Wefaq
Al Wefaq National Islamic Society , also known as the Islamic National Accord Association, is a Bahraini political society, and the largest party in the Bahrain, both in terms of its membership and its results at the polls...
the largest Shia political society, won the largest number of seats in the elected chamber of the legislature. However, Shia discontent has resurfaced in recent years with street demonstrations and occasional low-level violence."
Bahrain has many disaffected unemployed Shia youths and many Shia have protested Sheikh Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa's efforts to create a parliament as merely a "cooptation of the effendi
Effendi
Effendi, Effendy or Efendi is a title of nobility meaning a lord or master.It is a title of respect or courtesy, equivalent to the English Sir, which was used in Ottoman Empire...
s", i.e. traditional elders and notables. Bahrain's 2002 election was widely boycotted by Shia. Mass demonstrations by Shia have been held in favor of full fledged democracy in March and June 2005, against an alleged insult to Ayatollah Khamenei in July 2005.
Nigeria
An example of governments working "to drive wedges between Sunnism and Shiism" was found in NigeriaNigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
in 1998 when the Nigerian government of General Sani Abacha
Sani Abacha
General Sani Abacha was a Nigerian military leader and politician. A Kanuri from Borno by tribe, he was born and brought up in Kano, Nigeria. He was the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998....
accused Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zak Zaki of being a Shia. This was despite the fact that there are few if any Shia among Nigerias Muslims and the Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni organization.
Saudi Arabia
While Shia make up only between 8-15% of Saudi Arabia's population, they form a large portion of the residents of the eastern province of Hasa—by some estimates a majority—where much of the petroleum industry is based. Between 500,000 and a million Shia live there, concentrated especially around the oases of QatifQatif
Qatif or Al-Qatif is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the west...
and Al-Hasa
Al-Hasa
Al-Ahsa is the largest governorate in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, named after Al-Ahsa oasis. The name Al-Ahsa is also given to the biggest city in the region, Hofuf. In classic Arabic, Ahsa means the sound of water underground. It has one of the largest oases in the world with Date Palms of...
. The Majority of Saudi Shia belong to the sect of the Twelvers.
Relations between the Shia and the Wahhabis are inherently strained because the Wahhabis consider the rituals of the Shia to be the epitome of shirk, or polytheism
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
. In the late 1920s, the Ikhwan
Ikhwan
The Ikhwan was the Islamic religious militia which formed the main military force of the Arabian ruler Ibn Saud and played a key role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula, in his new state of Saudi Arabia. The Ikhwan were made up of Bedouin tribes...
(Ibn Saud's
Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia
King Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia was the first monarch of the Third Saudi State known as Saudi Arabia. He was commonly referred to as Ibn Saud....
fighting force of converted Wahhabi Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
Muslims) were particularly hostile to the Shia and demanded that Abd al Aziz forcibly convert them. In response, Abd al Aziz sent Wahhabi missionaries to the Eastern Province, but he did not carry through with attempts at forced conversion. In recent decades the late leading Saudi cleric, Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz, issued fatwa denouncing Shia as apostates, and according to Shia scholar Vali Nasr "Abdul-Rahman al-Jibrin, a member of the Higher Council of Ulama, even sanctioned the killing of Shias, a call that was reiterated by Wahhabi religious literature as late as 2002."
Government policy has been to allow Shia their own mosques and to exempt Shia from Hanbali
Hanbali
The Hanbali school is one the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. The jurisprudence school traces back to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal but was institutionalized by his students. Hanbali jurisprudence is considered very strict and conservative, especially regarding questions of dogma...
inheritance practices. Nevertheless, Shia have been forbidden all but the most modest displays on their principal festivals, which are often occasions of sectarian strife in the Persian Gulf region, with its mixed Sunni–Shia populations.
According to a report by the Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
:
And Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
adds:
As of 2006 four of the 150 members of Saudi Arabia's "handpicked" parliament were Shia, but no city had a Shia mayor or police chief, and none of the 300 girls schools for Shia in the Eastern Province had a Shia principal. According to scholar Vali Nasr, Saudi textbooks "characterize Shiism as a form of heresy ... worse than Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
."
Forced into exile in the 1970s, Saudi Shia leader Hassan al-Saffar
Hassan al-Saffar
Sheikh Hassan al-Saffar is a Shi'a scholar from Qatif, Saudi Arabia. He is considered one of the most important Shi'a leaders in Saudi Arabia. He established the Shi‘a Islamic Reform Movement in the early 1990's, which sought to improve the relations between the Shi'a and the ruling family...
is said to have been "powerfully influenced" by the works of Sunni Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
and by their call for Islamic revolution and an Islamic state.
Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Shia in Hasa ignored the ban on mourning ceremonies commemorating Ashura. When police broke them up three days of rampage ensued—burned cars, attacked banks, looted shops—centered around Qatif. At least 17 Shia were killed. In February 1980 disturbances were "less spontaneous" and even bloodier. Meanwhile broadcasts from Iran in the name of the Islamic Revolutionary Organization attacked the monarchy, telling listeners, "Kings despoil a country when they enter it and make the noblest of its people its meanest ... This is the nature of monarchy, which is rejected by Islam."
By 1993, Saudi Shia had abandoned uncompromising demands and some of al-Saffar's followers met with King Fahd
Fahd of Saudi Arabia
Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, was King of Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005...
with promised made for reform. In 2005 the new King Abdullah
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is the King of Saudi Arabia. He succeeded to the throne on 1 August 2005 upon the death of his half-brother, King Fahd. When Crown Prince, he governed Saudi Arabia as regent from 1998 to 2005...
also relaxed some restrictions on the Shia. However Shia continue to be arrested for commemorating Ashura as of 2006. In December 2006, amidst escalating tensions in Iraq, 38 high ranking Saudi clerics called on Sunni Muslims around the world to "mobilise against Shiites".
Shia Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi
Naser Makarem Shirazi
Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi is an ayatollah in Iran. He is a spiritual guide for many Shia Muslims.-In Iran:He started his formal Islamic studies at the age of 14 in the Agha Babakhan Shirazi seminary....
is reported to have responded:
Saudi Sunni
A large fraction of the foreign Sunni extremists who have entered Iraq to fight against Shia and the American occupation are thought to be Saudis. According to one estimate, of the approximately 1,200 foreign fighters captured in Syria between summer 2003 and summer 2005, 85% were Saudis.
Another reflection of grassroots Wahhabi or Saudi antipathy to Shia was statement by Saudi cleric Nasir al-Umar, who accused Iraqi Shias of close ties to the United States and argued that both were enemies of Muslims everywhere.
Al-Qaeda
Some Wahabi groups, often labeled as takfiriTakfiri
A Takfiri is a Muslim who practices Takfir, which is to accuse other Muslims of apostasy. The term Takfir derives from the word kafir and is described as when "...one who is, or claims to be, a Muslim is declared impure." Those to whom Takfir is applied are considered excommunicated in the eyes...
and sometimes linked to Al-Qaeda, have even advocated the persecution of the Shia as heretics. Such groups have been allegedly responsible for violent attacks and suicide bombings at Shi'a gatherings at mosques and shrines, most notably in Iraq during the Ashura mourning ceremonies where hundreds of Shias were killed in coordinated suicide bombings, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. However Al-Qaeda deputy Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
in a video message directed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, not to attack civilian targets but to focus on the occupation troops. His call seems to have been ignored, or swept away in the increasing tensions of Iraq under occupation.
Efforts to foster Sunni–Shia unity
In a special interview broadcast on Al JazeeraAl Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
on February 14, 2007, former Iranian president and chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council
Expediency Discernment Council
The Expediency Discernment Council of the System is an administrative assembly appointed by the Supreme Leader and was created upon the revision to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 6 February 1988...
of Iran, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and highly influential Sunni scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, "stressed the impermissibility of the fighting between the Sunnis and the Shi’is" and the need to "be aware of the conspiracies of the forces of hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
and Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
which aim to weaken [Islam] and tear it apart in Iraq."
Even on this occasion there were differences, with Rafsanjani openly asking "more than once who started" the inter-Muslim killing in Iraq, and Al-Qaradawi denying claims by Rafsanjani that he knew where "those arriving to Iraq to blow Shi’i shrines up are coming from".
Saudi-Iran summit
In a milestone for the two countries' relations, on March 3, 2007 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held an extraordinary summitSummit (meeting)
A summit meeting is a meeting of heads of state or government, usually with considerable media exposure, tight security and a prearranged agenda.Notable summit meetings include those of Franklin D...
meeting. They displayed mutual warmth with hugs and smiles for cameras and
promised "a thaw in relations between the two regional powers but stopped short of agreeing on any concrete plans to tackle the escalating sectarian and political crises throughout the Middle East."
On his return to Tehran, Ahmadinejad declared that:
Saudi officials had no comment about Ahmadinejad's statements, but the Saudi official government news agency did say:
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz
Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz
Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud , also known as Saud Al Faisal, has been the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia since 1975. He is the world's longest-serving Foreign Minister....
said:
See also
- Amman MessageAmman MessageThe Amman Message is a statement which was issued on 9 November 2004 by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, calling for tolerance and unity in the Muslim world...
- Criticism of Twelver Shi'ismCriticism of Twelver Shi'ismCriticism of Shi'a has occurred since the initial rift between the primary factions of Islam, the Sunni and Shi'a. Sunni commentators have identified several aspects of Shi'a belief which they allege are incorrect and even 'heretical.' Further, Shi'a commentators and authorities have criticised...
- Modern usage of al-QādisiyyahModern usage of al-QadisiyyahThe Battle of al-Qādisiyyah was the decisive engagement between the Arab Muslim army and the Sassanid Persian army during the first period of Muslim expansion which resulted in the Islamic conquest of Persia.- Modern usage of al-Qādisiyyah :...
- Qur'anic literalismQur'anic literalismQur'anic literalism is the belief that the verses of the Qur'an should be taken at their apparent meaning, rather than employing any sort of interpretation...
- Shia Crescent
- Shi'a Muslims in the Arab world
- List of countries by Muslim population
Further reading
- Crescent: “The Shia Crescent”, (English)
- The Arab Shia: The Forgotten Muslims, by Graham E. Fuller and Rend Rahim Francke. New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1999, ISBN 0-312-23956-4
- Shi'a IslamShi'a Islam (book)Shi'ite Islam is an important text on the history and thought of Shi'a Islam.Written by Muhammed H. Al-Tabataba'i, with the translation, editing, and introduction by Dr...
, by Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei and Hossein Nasr, SUNYState University of New YorkThe State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
Press, 1979. ISBN 978-0-87395-272-9 - Don’t Fear the Shiites: The Idea of a Teheran-Controlled »Shiite Crescent« over the Greater Middle East is at Odds with Reality, by Michael Bröning. In: International Politics and Society, 3 /2008, pp. 60–75.