In the final analysis, it all comes down to one question: how real and how deep is the Shia-Sunni divide? How much of it is ideological, and how much caused by political and social vested interests? Is there an element of tribal, ethnic and class struggle also involved? On the other hand, how much of apparent sectarian harmony is promoted by external factors – the perceived threat from Hindu fundamentalism in the case of India, and the need to drive out the US occupation forces in the case of Iraq?
Both Shias, who constitute a 15 percent-strong minority of the world's Muslims, and the rest of the Muslims who are Sunnis, follow basically the same ideology. Minor ideological differences and major misunderstandings have, however, crept into their perceptions of each other in the course of the history of their quarrels that spans almost the entire Islamic history of about 1,400 years.
The genesis of the Shia-Sunni divide lies in a dispute over succession to the Prophet Mohammed that started soon after his death in 632 AD, even before his funeral, and culminated in the brutal killing of his grandsons and other family members at Karbala, in modern-day Iraq.
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10:38 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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