Shiite and Sunni.why do they fight each other in Iraq?

Question

their of the same religion.why do they hate each other.?Thanks

Answer 1

According to Muslim tradition, the Shiite-Sunni divide originates in a disagreement over the inheritance of the Prophet Muhammad's spiritual authority and political power. Should it go to Muhammad's chosen subordinates and generals? Or to Muhammad's descendants: his son-in-law and nephew, Ali, and his grandson Hussayn? (The term "Shi'ite" is derived from "Shiat Ali," the party of Ali.)

The question was settled violently. Ali was assassinated, Hussayn killed in a battle fought on the site of the city of Karbala, Iraq, in 680.

Again, many in the West will wonder: Is it really possible that people are detonating car bombs in 2007 because of a succession dispute 1,300 years ago? There has to be more to it than that! And so of course there is.

Islam, as the great Islamicist Bernard Lewis has worked hard to explain, has no concept of the separation of church and state. Islamic teaching envisions a community united by shared beliefs, led by a just leader with the duty to "command right and forbid wrong." Shi'a Islam teaches that this ideal was betrayed almost from the very earliest beginnings of Islam: that the rightful leader was excluded and then murdered and his place seized by usurpers and tyrants.

The Ali/Hussayn story may or may not be literally true. (The oldest sources on the early days of Islam were composed 200 years and more after the events they chronicle). But you can see how the story would speak powerfully to individuals or communities that felt themselves maltreated by the holders of power. At the same time, you can see how the mainstream of a religion that propounded the absolute impersonality of God--and rejected any whiff of deification of its most revered prophet -- would condemn as heretical or worse any cult of the prophet's family.

So was launched a cycle over many centuries of rebellion and reprisal, heresy and martyrdom. The cycle continues to this day. If George W. Bush's surge plan for Iraq fails, the cycle will accelerate.

Can an exit be found? The outlook is not promising. On Friday, one of Saudi Arabia's leading clerics, Abdul Rahman al-Barak, issued a fatwa condemning Shiites as infidels upon whom jihad can legitimately be waged. Shiites, al-Barak said, "are the most evil sect of the [Islamic] nation and they have all the ingredients of the infidels. The general ruling is that they are infidels, apostates and hypocrites."

Al-Barak has close ties to the supposedly moderate Saudi royal family. Yet his language is more violent than that of the al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in his declaration of war against Iraq's Shiites on Sept. 14, 2005.

We in the Western world did not reason our way to religious freedom. We accepted it (often very reluctantly) because we got tired of fighting religious wars. In his Letter on Toleration in 1689, the philosopher John Locke did not talk about the right of free inquiry or the beauty of diversity. He founded his argument for toleration on one promise: social peace.

"[It is] the common disposition of all mankind, who when they groan under any heavy burthen endeavour naturally to shake off the yoke that galls their necks. . . . There is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotions, and that is oppression."

The Western world learned its lesson the hard way, but we learned. Over the years, many had hoped that the Islamic world and the Middle East could profit from the ghastly example of the West: that peace and justice are achieved not by "commanding right and forbidding wrong," but by establishing equal laws and respecting all who live by them.

Answer 2

Sunni and shia don't wanna fight. They lived in piece for centuries.
The wahabi element like Al-qaida which is supported by radical wahabis, engage in these kind of tactics. They believe that everyone is eligible to die bcz THEY think so. They interperated the verses of Quran and hadees(saying of Muhammad(pbuh)) by their own thinking, without any rightful religous knowledge. They created this heatred against shias so they can unite sunnis with them in their fight.
for example shia and sunni used to live peacfully in Pakistan, but they started killing shias in several locations and in such a manner that sunni shia conflict arose.
People like them did the same thing long time ago and justified the killing of Imam Hussain (grandson of Prophet Muhammad(pbuh)) and his houshold at Karbala.. Only bcz THEY thought that THEY are right and family of Prophet is wrong.

Answer 3

U shuld get to know in depth of that reason is the America wants it that they shuld fight each other so that it will take more oil from that land say me one thing what America is still doin there now the War is over now the Saddam is dead and the game is over and the mass weapon destructuion chish America said has no evidence in Iraq then what Americans are doin on that land till now can u explain that....look brother before getin into any conlusion first see the things goin around over there then speak......

Answer 4

POLITICS , how bad it changes hearts!!!!!

Instead of holding 2 gether, trying to help the poor Iraqi people, suffering thirst, hunger, death and invasion they kill each other, killing more innocents and giving bad example when pretending that they apply Islam.
In ISLAM, no Muslim can kill another Muslim or any innocent, because Islam taught us that human life is 2 valuable that we can't put and end to it just like that.

Answer 5

It's like Protestants and Catholics, Sunnis are liberal and Shiites are conservative. People who disagree think the other needs to die, rather than just coexisting in peace.

Answer 6

They're like Protestants and Catholics: they have the same religion, but it differs in many respects. At one point, Protestants and Catholics were engaged in wars in Europe. This is much the same.

Answer 7

Politics. If they were true believers of the Islamic faith they would place their love of Allah before any political or physical gains.

Answer 8

Power struggle and OIL ofcourse

Answer 9

there just dumb jawas angered by the stupid hypocratic christian and greedy jew population of america. freedom of speech unfortunately is used to often by dumb people.

Answer 10

politics