What are the Siites and Sunnis main point of disagreement?

Answer 1

You know that is the best question that I've seen asked on this site. The differences are almost to many to mention here but Time Mag printed an article that explains it best ,I feel, Here is the URL read and learn http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1592849,00.html

Answer 2

The difference is a theological ones....
Sunni's believe that Allah has a body, Shia's do not believe this.
Sunni's believe that Allah can be seen, Shia's do not.
Sunni's believe that all of Allah's attributes are eternal, Shia's
believe they fall into two distinct groups, His person and His actions.
There are more differnces, but, they all are theological points of difference. While religious differences are real and remain important, the breakdown over Shiite and Sunni is about group identity as much as it is about disagreements over proper worship.
Sunni Islam is much less centralized. In this respect, the differences between Sunni and Shiite Islam superficially approach the differences between the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant denominations.
Shiites make up just 15 percent of the world's Muslims. Their history of defeat and frequent subjugation has also led to a cult of death and martyrdom within Shiism.

Answer 3

There are a number of main points. Off the top of my head:

a) Who Ali was (Sunnis beleive he was one of the prophet's important companions but Shias believe he was holy and that he and his children after him were the rightful heirs of Islam - anyone who is from Ali's lineage and thus from the prophet's lineage [Ali married his daughter] are holy people)
b) The interpretation of the quran (Shias believe that the quran can only be interpreted by special gifted people because it contains hidden meanings)
c) Alot of Shias look down upon what the Sunnis call the 3 rightly guided caliphs (the fourth was Ali) and say that they were bad people (since they beleive it was Ali and his descendants alone who were promised the rule of Islam after the prophet's death)

That's all the major differences that I can think of. There are lots of minor ones. But keep in mind there are different sunni and shia sects so these points don't necessarily apply to everyone.

Answer 4

The religious disagreement goes abck to when Mohammed died and there ws a dispute as to which bloodline was the rightful descendant to rule. Each side believes a different person should have been the next Islamic leader.

Answer 5

As I recall, the issue dates back to the death of Mohammad and who was supposed to take over in his place. The "debate" was between his bloodline heirs and his successors.