Understanding Islam | Differences between Sunnis, Shiites stem from Muhammad succession

From: Daily Breeze | Date: April 12, 2003| Author: Gayle White | Copyright information

COX NEWS SERVICE

From religious rhetoric to fighting around holy sites, the conflict in Iraq has drawn attention to the country's pervasive Islamic culture.

For almost half a millennium _ until about 1250 _ Baghdad was the center of the Muslim world. Iraq today is one of a few countries where significant numbers of two important branches of Islam coexist.

Saddam Hussein himself is a Sunni Muslim, but most Iraqis are Shiites, a minority in the rest of the world. Shiites, wh...

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