Can someone who has served in Iraq please explain this to me?

Question

Why are the Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq killing each other indiscriminately with no mercy and whats the reason? WHY?

they are the same race of people and they kill each other because of the difference beliefs of Allah? I am really confused. I read all the time that Sunnis and Shiites vice versa round up, kidnap, torture, and kill each other, just regular everyday people.....WHY??

it's not even like a black guy white guy asian guy thing. they are the same race, just different beliefs. yet they discriminately pick someone out because hes a Sunni/Shiite and kill?

thanks alot for your explanation

also its not like the holocuast with germans going after the jews and killing them, they can tell who is a jew and who isnt....how do u tell if someone is a shiite or sunni in iraq????? they dress differently or something?

well wise one i dont need a history lesson thats why i asked for someone who has served there maybe he/she will know more of an inside reason to why.

when saddam was in power the indiscriminately killing wasnt like this at all and for the past 3 years or it has been in full throttle.

note:i understand the history...but this daily suicide car bombings and street to street take out kidnap execution style killings didnt happen before the invasion......

Answer 1

i didnt serve in iraq, but i know the answer.

back about 1400 years ago , muhammed, the founder of the islamic religion died. he didnt have a male heir to become leader of the religion. the religion broke into two factions. the sunni supported a relative of muhammed to lead. the shia wanted a high ranking, but not related to muhammed, islamic cleric to become the leader. this started the trouble.

since then, it was killing, revenge killing, revenge killing for the revenge killing, etc.. there is never an end to it.

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edit. response to last paragraph.

iraq is a country with both factions , sunni and shia, living in it. most countries have a vast majority of one or the other.
over history, the violence has had long periods of peace, then periods of fighting. it ebbs and flows.

when saddam was in charge, he kept a tight lid on things. the overthrow of saddam led to long periods of time with no one in charge, no police, chaos and violence returned.

Answer 2

They fight because of two interpretations of the Koran. One group followed one prophet, the other followed a different prophet. This has been going on for centuries. Colonialism and dictators suppressed it for a while.

In the eyes of each other, the other is committing blasphemy.

The other thing is, the Sunni abused power while Saddam was in power. A lot of those sex slaves, murders and torturing that you hear about Saddam and his sons doing was done to the Shia and Kurds. So there is a payback factor in there now also.

Answer 3

just like catholics and protestants are "enemies" shiites and sunnis are also "enemies" its a looooooong story that has to do with the Prophet Mohammad, and something that happened at that time (1500 years ago)... i didnt serve in iraq, but i live in lebanon which is right next to iraq, and im surrounded by a muslim society, so i know. beleive me...

and no. they dont dress differently. they just live in different areas... and if they want to know, they know. thats exactly what happened in the civil war in leabnon 16 years ago... christians from the same sect were killing eahother just for following different political parties....

well when saddam was in power, there was SOME for of control and peace. when the americans came along, they made everything fall apart, and what was some form of constraint just dissolved. the control was lost. now there is no "government" to control things...

Answer 4

It doesn't take someone who has served in Iraq to answer this - just look in a history book to realize these 2 sides (or sects) of the same religion have been warring for hundreds and hundreds of years!