The two major branches of Islam are Sunni and Shiite (Shia). The division originated from the argument over who should succeed Muhammad and become a new leader for Muslims – a caliph. For the Sunnis, the main criterion was his qualities as a leader, while the Shiites paid more attention to his blood relation with Muhammad (Molloy, 2020). Originally, the Sunnis won the argument, and the first three caliphs were not related to Muhammad. However, the fourth one, Ali, was Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law and was considered his real legitimate successor or an Imam by the Shiites. Shia Islam has several subsections, which differentiate the accepted number of Imams and their exact line of succession. Most Shiites believe there were twelve Imams, and they are called Twelvers (Molloy, 2020). Some arguments exist over the identities of the fifth and the seventh Imams. The groups who disagree with the Twelvers over them are called the Fivers (or Zaydis after Hussein’s grandson, Zayd ibn Ali) and the Seveners (or Ismailis after Imam Ismail), respectively (Molloy, 2020). According to Molloy (2020), Shia Islam is widely practiced by non-Arab Muslims, who feel inferior to those from the Arabian countries, the origin of Islam. The two major centers of Shia Islam today are Iran, with “its large Shiite population,” and Iraq, with “its connection to Muhammad’s grandson Hussein,” who died there (Molloy, 2020, p. 414). In brief, the Shiites consider Muhammad’s God-given authority hereditary and pay special tribute to his family.
The original theological conflict between the Sunnis and the Shiites has turned into a political dispute that still affects Islam and international politics. As Finnbogason et al. (2019) noted, there were periods when the two factions managed to live peacefully. The scholars add that it is not the community itself but separate military groups and political regimes that further fuel the violence (Finnbogason et al., 2019). Thus, using theological disputes as a pretext, politicians and terroristic groups, such as ISIL, turn the countries and regions into war zones and inflict fear on the world community. Moreover, this conflict distorts the perception of Islam and falsely portrays it as a violent religion, which negatively affects innocent Muslims worldwide.
References
Finnbogason, D., Larsson, G., & Svensson, I. (2019). Is Shia-Sunni violence on the rise? Exploring new data on Intra-Muslim organised violence 1989-2017. Civil Wars, 21(1), 25-53. Web.
Molloy, M. (2020). Experiencing the World’s Religions (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.