Shiite & Sunni muslims, what is the difference?

Question

I was recently told that there are no Muslim nations and then read in the news that they were calling some nations "Muslim Nations" .. Are the Shiite and Sunni both Muslim?? and Isn't Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and others called Muslim nations???

Thats two questions in one as I want to know the difference in the two Shiite and Sunni.

Answer 1

Sunnis and Shiites occured when Caliph Omar, King of the Islamic Empire passed away. Some people who claimed that someone from Muhammad's family should rule the Caliphate became todays Shiites. Those who wanted another person beside someone from Muhammad's family was a Sunni. Sunnis make the the majority (90%) while the Shiites make (8-10%). The Shiites wanted a man by the name Ali to become the next Caliph. Many muslims didn't agree because of political reasons. Then, they a man by the name of Yazid prepared war on the Shiites for control of the Caliphate and eventually Yazid won killing Ali and his family. This battle took place in Karbala, Iraq. Home to the Shiite shrine of Ali and his predecessors grave. Sunnis believe in the Sunnah, only Muhammad and the Hadith while the Shiites believe that Ali is a prophet of God (which he isn't), and do not accept the Sunnah. The stupidest part of all is the fact they still fight each other on who should dominate the Middle East in places like Lebanon (Hezbollah), Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and India. The new threat, Iran which is dominantily Shiite are "prepared for war".

Answer 2

They disagreed about the caliphate of the Muslim empire. The Shiites believed that Ali, a relative of Mohammed, should get the throne. While the Sunnis elected a different leader. Sunnis place greater emphasis on the Hadith than Shiites and the Shiites believe that the "hidden Imam" will come back and lead them to world dominance. Basically they are two different sects of Islam, but Sunnis sometime claim that Shiites are not "true" Muslims and vice versa. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are predominantly Sunni while Iran is predominantly Shiite.

Answer 3

They are called Muslim nations because the predominant religion is Islam and many of the laws are based on Islamic Law. However as governements themselves, no they are not Muslim Nations. Many of these countries have many christians and jews.
Shiite and Sunni came abotu after a split with the death of Prophet Muhammad. Sunni muslims follow islam to the letter as Muhammad did and taught and Shiite muslims disagreed with succession after the death of Muhammad and split off from the whole. Just as Christians have sects, so does Islam. Shiites and Sunnis disagreed with who would succeed Muhammad and thus split from one another.

Answer 4

The religion is called "ISLAM"... a Muslim is a follower of Islam.

Shia and Sunni are both Islamic. A follower of either is a Muslim.
The differences are slight differences of dogma.

An easier way to understand it would be to use the analogy of the bitter differences often found between Catholic and Protestant.
Both groups claim the generic title of Christian, and both have in history Killed each other. Most recently we remember the images coming out of Ireland.

Answer 5

I'll edit and find which is which. One of them believe the caliph (a Muslim ruler) should be a direct descendant of Muhammad. The other believes it can be any man who follows the Quran and is a good Muslim. It's obvious in some Muslim nations though that it doesn't exactly work this way.

Answer 6

You have to be under Sharia Law to be a Muslim Nation. Kind of like saying America is a Christian Nation. It is full of Christians, but our law is not based on the bible.

The 11th or so Calif is different in the religions. (like the Muslim pope I guess) That is the big difference.

Also they don't like you to know they are divided and will not tell you this themselves. They would rather you didn't know.

Additionally there are Sufi Muslims that we don't hear about. I can't tell you the difference there.

Answer 7

Shi'a Islam, also Shi'ite Islam or Shi'ism (Arabic: شيعة‎ ​, transliterated ShÄ«‘ah; Persian: شیعه‎ ​) is the second largest denomination of the religion of Islam. Shi'a Muslims adhere to what they consider to be the teachings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the religious guidance of his family whom they refer to as the Ahlul Bayt. Thus, Shi'as consider the first three ruling Sunni Caliphs a historic occurance and not something attached to faith. The singular/adjective form is ShÄ«`Ä« (Arabic: شيعي.) and refers to a follower of the Ahlul Bayt and of Ali ibn Abi Talib (Imam Ali) in particular.

Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam. They are referred to as Ahl ul-Sunna (Arabic: أهل السنة), the folks of the tradition. The word Sunni comes from the word sunna (Arabic : سنة ), which means the tradition of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad. Sunnis are also referred to as Ahl ul-Sunna wa-l-Jama'ah (Arabic: أهل السنة والجماعة) (people of tradition and congregation) which implies that the Sunnis are united.

Sunni (Arabic: سني ) means follower of the sunna of the Prophet, with some details.

Answer 8

when mohamed died he had no sons, so his son-inlaw & his brother i think disagreed over who was the right successor. the tribes split & formed the shia/sunni separation. with different interpretations of the Qoran they battled for truth.they sure can fight & kill each other but so can catholic/protestant, jew/christian...
i really think its all about the truth, no- power,no- money. thats what i was trying to really say.

Answer 9

Who cares????? they both need to pull their heads out of their butts... and see that the majority of the world thinks that they are freakin' nutcases... I know this is not the rule but the exception to the rule but unfortunately its they exceptional that stand out...

Answer 10

Salam. You can study Islam here; http://blacklight79.wordpress.com/category/islamic-books/