The "sunni vs. shia" war is a nonstarter; very few people recognize a distinction in terms of party membership, and outside of some localized areas in the middle east, there is no "battle between sunni and shia". It's not even equivalent to protestants and Catholics-more like bible doctrine debates between evangelicals.
I seem to notice that
plenty of
people all over have a
problem with the whole sunni vs. shia thing.
It would be a mistake to chalk up the highly localized conflicts in places like Lebanon and Pakistan to religious differences-the issue there is identity, not theology, and the battle lines are drawn accordingly...with secular/atheist members of the traditionally *expletive deleted*it communities lining up behind the religious parties, and vice versa.
The Islamfortoday piece is fairly exemplary of how most view the situation from a religious perspective-you might want to read the parts that say things like this:
Sunnis and Shias agree on the core fundamentals of Islam - the Five Pillars - and recognize each others as Muslims. In 1959 Sheikh Mahmood Shaltoot, Head of the School of Theology at Al Azhar university in Cairo, the most august seat of learning of Sunni Islam and the oldest university in the world, issued a fatwa (ruling) recognizing the legitimacy of the Jafari School of Law to which most Shias belong. As a point of interest, the Jafari School is named after its founder Imam Jafaf Sidiq who was a direct descendent through two different lines of the Sunni Caliph Abu Bakr. And Al Azhar University, though now Sunni, was actually founded by the Shia Fatimid dynasty in 969CE.
and
2) The Ja'fari school of thought, which is also known as "al-Shia al- Imamiyyah al-Ithna Ashariyyah" (i.e., The Twelver Imami Shi'ites) is a school of thought that is religiously correct to follow in worship as are other Sunni schools of thought. Muslims must know this, and ought to refrain from unjust prejudice to any particular school of thought, since the religion of Allah and His Divine Law (Shari'ah) was never restricted to a particular school of thought. Their jurists (Mujtahidoon) are accepted by Almighty Allah, and it is permissible to the "non-Mujtahid" to follow them and to accord with their teaching whether in worship (Ibadaat) or transactions (Mu'amilaat).
Signed, Mahmood Shaltoot.
