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Middle East Primer 3: Sunnis and Shiites
Islam, like other religions, has multiple schisms, factions and parties within it. Just like Christianity, there are divergent views. In the Islamic world the largest of these splits is that between Sunni and Shi’ite. Shi’ites represent 15–20 percent of Muslims worldwide, and these are grouped in certain geographic areas, such as Iran, where Shi’ites make up some 90 percent of the Muslim population, and the Gulf countries.
“Sunni” refers to the term “Sunna of the Prophet,” which are the collected sayings and actions of Muhammad–a kind of biography, from which the Islamic community created an orthodox religious textual basis. This, needless to say, suggests that the Sunnis self-identify as “orthodox.” The Sunni heartland is more-or-less the Fertile Crescent, but large numbers also reside in other Islamic countries such as Pakistan where the 80/20 Sunni/Shi’ite split is also present.
“Shi’ite” is the adjectival form of Shi’ism, a term which refers to the Shi’at ‘Ali, or “Party of ‘Ali.”
Shi’ites, therefore, in very basic terms, are Muslims who follow ‘Ali, who was the fourth Caliph (Islamic leader) after the death of the religion’s founder, Muhammad, in 632. ‘Ali had been passed over for leadership three times, but finally became Caliph in 656–only for a brief period, before being assassinated. Followers of ‘Ali believed that…
