A serious question for Muslims who may know?

Question

I asked this question before in all sincerity. I want to know why Sunnis and Shiites hate and kill each other? Isn't that the heart of the conflict in Iraq right now? NO I do not want to hear a bunch of dribble from feeble minded people, such as I got last time I posed the question.http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ajtzj2Ae8I6yGHu35p4IYADd7BR.?qid=20070303043803AAtCkUy
I would really appreciate an answer to the question. I want to know.

Answer 1

When he died in 632, Muhammad left a daughter, Fatima, but no son and he did not name anyone to succeed him. His friend and father-in-law, Abu Bakr, was chosen as first caliph (successor), but an argument soon broke out between Muhammad's followers. Some, known as Shiites, thought only descendants of Fatima and her husband, Ali, should succeed Mohammad. Others who came to be known as Sunnis, believed that any follower of Islam could succeed Muhammad. The argument soon became political as well as religious and has not been settled to this day.

Answer 2

The Muslims will not fight with each other without the instigation of the third party. The third party is interested in the wealth of these 2 countries Iraq ( Sunni ) and Iran ( Shiites ). If the third party attacked any of these 2 countries they will lost thousands of their army personnel when the 2 countries unite together and attack the third party. As such, the third party supported Iraq ( Sunni ) with weapons and used them to attack Iran ( Shiittes ) As such, the Sunni and Shiites start to have War on their own. When the third party discovered that the 2 countries are no longer in good terms, and if they attack one of them, they will not help each other, the third party launched an attack on 1 of them and killed its leader. After defeating the country, now the third party is turning around to the next country and finding ways to attack the country.Unless all of them unite together and protect each other, no one will be able to invade their oil rich countries. Oil is the prime target that the invader wanted to control. When the third party control the Oil, it will control the world economy. When they already control the world, they will make others to kneel to them.

Answer 3

The Sunnis and Shiites used to live in Harmony and tolerance for hundreds of years in Iraq without any distinctions, hate or fights. They even lived together and married from each others normally. It is just after the US invasion of Iraq that this fight starts and I think the answer to this question should be from Bush and his associates. Yes there were major differences between the two sects but they never fought each other on that bases.

Answer 4

After Muhammed died, there was a conflict as to who was to be the khalif. This is when the muslims split into two different groups.

It really isn't that strange that they are fighting. People fight all over the world and find the silliest reasons. If you think about it, it is the same within Christianity. Just look at Northern ireland where Catholics and Protestants fight each other.

Answer 5

you have a question that does not have a single answer but I will try to give you MY point of view of what is happening in Iraq

in a nut shell, Alqaida thought that by provoking a civil war they can kick the Americans out. This civil war will happen when they attack, not sunnis like themselves, but when they attack Shiiat so the other side will retaliate.

There are RUMERS/Evidence that the British has a similar interest like Alqaida you can follow it in this story with a link to the BBC web page related to it.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2005/200905stagedterror.htm

but in a nut shell it is exactly like the Northern Ireland situations where Christians are fighting each other

God bless

Answer 6

According to most sources, including The CIA World Factbook, the majority of Iraqis are Shi'ite Arab Muslims (around 60-65%), and Sunnis represent about 32-37% of the population.[12] However, Sunni are split ethnically between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. Many Sunnis hotly dispute their minority status, including ex-Iraqi Ambassador Faruq Ziada [13], referring to American sources [14]. They claim that many reports or sources only include Arab Sunnis as 'Sunni', missing out the Kurdish and Turkmen Sunnis. Some argue that the 2003 Iraq Census shows that Sunnis were a slight majority[15]. Various monarchies, and secular regimes sourced mainly, but not exclusively, from Sunni areas, controlled the government for nearly a century until the 2003 Iraq War. The British, who, 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". It was when the Sunni and Shia united against colonial rule that it ended[16].

The Shia suffered indirect and direct persecution under independent Iraqi governments since 1932, especially that of Saddam Hussein. In 1969 when the son of Iraq's highest Shia Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim was arrested and allegedly tortured, during widespread persecution of Shia, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Badri, a Sunni Islamic lawyer (Alim), leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, criticised the regime, and was killed under torture. A Sunni leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir is thus seen as the first martyr for the rights of Shia in Iraq, against the old Baathist regime [39]. This party has also called for Sunni, Shia, Arab and Kurdish citizens to unite in Iraq.[40] Shia religious leaders were particularly targeted. "Between 1970 and 1985 the Baathist regime executed at least 41 clerics" [17], and Shia opposition to the government following the first Gulf War was reportedly suppressed.

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi has quoted Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab on various occasions in statements he made, especially the infamous statement that urged his followers to kill Shi'a of Iraq [18], calling the Shias "snakes".[19] Wahabi suicide bombers continue to attack Iraqi Shia civilians[20], and the Shia ulema have in response declared suicide bombing as haram:

"حتي كساني كه با انتحار مي‌‏آيند و مي‌‏زنند عده‌‏اي را مي‌‏كشند، آن هم به عنوان عمليات انتحاري، اينها در قعر جهنم هستند"
"Even those who kill people with suicide bombing, these shall meet the flames of hell."[21]
However this seems to contradict the policy [citation needed]of some Shia such as "what some say" the Hizbullah suicide bombing of the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut [22], according to Tel Aviv University analyst Yoram Schweitzer.[23]

It has been reported by Channel 4's flagship program Dispatches that Shia "death squads", have been targetting Sunnis physically, or through intimidation. These death squads, primarily led by the government's Interior Ministry and the Badr Organization have allegedly been forcing the mainly Sunni intelligentsia to leave their posts, jobs and neighbourhoods. Shias in Iraq have traditionally been from the poorer south, the death squads have targetted educated Sunni's, to replace the posts they hold with Shias. The documentary said:

"Over the last eighteen months these commandos - who are almost exclusively Shia Muslims - have been implicated in rounding up and killing thousands of ordinary Sunni civilians"[41]

The report also showed that many Sunnis register themselves as Shia for identification cards to avoid being targetted by the 'death squads'. These groups however are rivaled by Sunni militant organizations such as what the US state department describes as the "terrorists" Ansar al-Islam[24], as well as radical groups like Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura, Jeish Muhammad, and Black Banner Organization. According to the report released by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the U.S. State Department, Sunni groups form the largest of the terrorist organisations operating in Iraq.[25]

However according to George Monbiot in The Guardian newspaper, up until before the Al Askari Mosque bombing;

"The media are minimising US and British war crimes in Iraq...The reporting of the Iraqi death toll - both in its scale and account of who is doing the killing - is profoundly dishonest...twice as many Iraqis - and most of them civilians - are being killed by US and UK forces" compared to those killed by insurgents."[26]

After the Al-Askari Mosque bombing, relations between the Sunnis and the Shia severely declined, sparking off a wave of 'revenge' killings against Sunnis (with alleged Sunni responsibility), more people were killed in April of 2006 by the death squads, compared to terrorist bombings [27] Many Sunnis and Shia have argued that this was a planned sectarian division to help continue the US occupation (see Al Askari Mosque bombing)