Jeff Stein in the Op Ed Section of the NY Times this morning wrote a “gotcha” piece by asking notable people if they knew the difference between the two major sects of Islam.  He found that most did not know there were differences or could tell who they were and where did the differences arise.

Here is some basic information.  First there were the Hebrews who gifted the world with the notion that there was one god.  Other peoples were polytheistic and the Hebrew notion was an anomaly.  Then, from amongst the Hebrew (now Israelite) people a teacher arose who released his followers from obeying the basic laws of the Jews – i.e., eat no pork, drink little wine and a host of other laws about dress and holding on to the Torah or the Five Books of Moses The Father of the Jews and Christians was Abraham, the first Jew.  He also was a wanderer in the desert of the Middle East and left Ur to go west and was promised a land flowing in Milk and Honey. The Muslims, who came later, kept the no pork, no wine but added prayer 5 times a day. Abraham also made a visit to the Black Stone, a meteorite housed in a square building called the Kaaba which was a supernatural visitation of powers greater than those held by men on earth. Later, pilgrimages to Mecca and marching around the Kaaba became a tenet of Islam.

About six hundred years following the ascendancy of Christianity in much of the world of Paganism, a man, Muhammad, arose in Arabia (making him an Arab) who was a merchant and traveled widely and knew of the Jews and Christians. He denied that Jesus, acknowledged as a prophet, was the son of God.  He, Mohammad was the Messenger of God (Allah) and was the last prophet. His followers had made a Hegira from Medina and captured Mecca where the Kaaba was situated and his religion was spread quickly over most of the Middle East, northern Africa and made inroads into Spain almost into France and in the East hammered at the doors of Constantinople – now Istanbul.

Enough of history:  There is little left on the page to tell the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.  When Mohammad died, he left no successor but belief was divided between his father-in-law Abu Bakr and his cousin Ali Ibn Talib who had political and doctrinal differences although they accepted the Quran as the word of Mohammad and Allah.  Today, the Shiites “exalt their Imams as a line of inspired teachers while the Sunnites, a majority throughout the world, rely on the authority of the line going back to Mohammad through Abu Bakr.  This survey will not include a discussion of Wahabism, a very limited and strict version supported by the Saudis.  Conclusion: put a Shiite next to a Sunni and you can’t tell the difference – but they will know.