10-5-05 (Updated 6-13-14)

What Is the Difference Between Sunni and Shiite Muslims – And Why Does It Matter?

Related Links Melvin E. Matthews, Jr: What Is the Difference Between Islam and Islamism?

Paul Sullivan: Who Are the Shia?

Timothy Furnish: Ignorance May Be Bliss, but It Makes for Bad Policy: Analysis of the Iraq Study Group Report

The Islam religion was founded by Mohammed in the seventh century. In 622 he founded the first Islamic state, a theocracy in Medina, a city in western Saudi Arabia located north of Mecca. There are two branches of the religion he founded. The Sunni branch believes that the first four caliphs--Mohammed's successors--rightfully took his place as the leaders of Muslims. They recognize the heirs of the four caliphs as legitimate religious leaders. These heirs ruled continuously in the Arab world until the break-up of the Ottoman Empire following the end of the First World War. Shiites, in contrast, believe that only the heirs of the fourth caliph, Ali, are the legitimate successors of Mohammed. In 931 the Twelfth Imam disappeared. This was a seminal event in the history of Shiite Muslims. According to R. Scott Appleby, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame,"Shiite Muslims, who are concentrated in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, [believe they] had suffered the loss of divinely guided political leadership" at the time of the Imam's disappearance. Not"until the ascendancy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1978" did they believe that they had once again begun to live under the authority of a legitimate religious figure. Another difference between Sunnis and Shiites has to do with the Mahdi, “the rightly-guided one” whose role is to bring a just global caliphate into being. As historian Timothy Furnish has written,"The major difference is that for Shi`is he has already been here, and will return from hiding; for Sunnis he has yet to emerge into history: a comeback v. a coming out, if you will." In a special 9-11 edition of the Journal of American History, Appleby explained that the Shiite outlook is far different from the Sunni's, a difference that is highly significant: ... for Sunni Muslims, approximately 90 percent of the Muslim world, the loss of the caliphate after World War I was devastating in light of the hitherto continuous historic presence of the caliph, the guardian of Islamic law and the Islamic state. Sunni fundamentalist leaders thereafter emerged in nations such as Egypt and India, where contact with Western political structures provided them with a model awkwardly to imitate ... as they struggled after 1924 to provide a viable alternative to the caliphate. In 1928, four years after the abolishment of the caliphate, the Egyptian schoolteacher Hasan al-Banna founded the first Islamic fundamentalist movement in the Sunni world, the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun). Al-Banna was appalled by"the wave of atheism and lewdness [that] engulfed Egypt" following World War I. The victorious Europeans had"imported their half-naked women into these regions, together with their liquors, their theatres, their dance halls, their amusements, their stories, their newspapers, their novels, their whims, their silly games, and their vices." Suddenly the very heart of the Islamic world was penetrated by European"schools and scientific and cultural institutes" that" cast doubt and heresy into the souls of its sons and taught them how to demean themselves, disparage their religion and their fatherland, divest themselves of their traditions and beliefs, and to regard as sacred anything Western."14 Most distressing to al-Banna and his followers was what they saw as the rapid moral decline of the religious establishment, including the leading sheikhs, or religious scholars, at Al-Azhar, the grand mosque and center of Islamic learning in Cairo. The clerical leaders had become compromised and corrupted by their alliance with the indigenous ruling elites who had succeeded the European colonial masters. Osama bin Laden was a Sunni Muslim. To him the end of the reign of the caliphs in the 1920s was catastrophic, as he made clear in a videotape made after 9-11. On the tape, broadcast by Al-Jazeera on October 7, 2001, he proclaimed:"What America is tasting now is only a copy of what we have tasted. ... Our Islamic nation has been tasting the same for more [than] eighty years, of humiliation and disgrace, its sons killed and their blood spilled, its sanctities desecrated." Juan Cole, a well-known historian of the Middle East, has pointed out on his blog, Informed Comment, that the split between Sunni and Shiites in Iraq is of relatively recent origin: I see a lot of pundits and politicians saying that Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq have been fighting for a millennium. We need better history than that. The Shiite tribes of the south probably only converted to Shiism in the past 200 year s. And, Sunni-Shiite riots per se were rare in 20th century Iraq. Sunnis and Shiites cooperated in the 1920 rebellion against the British. If you read the newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s, you don't see anything about Sunni-Shiite riots. There were peasant/landlord struggles or communists versus Baathists. The kind of sectarian fighting we're seeing now in Iraq is new in its scale and ferocity, and it was the Americans who unleashed it. In 2014 Professor Cole summed up the differences between Sunni and Shiite this way: Shiites are more like traditional Catholics in venerating members of the holy family and attending at their shrines. Contemporary Salafi Sunni Islam is more like the militant brand of Protestantism of the late 1500s that denounced intermediaries between God and the individual and actually attacked and destroyed shrines to saints and other holy figures, where pleas for intercession were made. In December 2006 the New York Times reported that it is not just ordinary Americans who find it difficult to remember the difference between Sunnis and Shiites: SURPRISE quiz: Is Al Qaeda Sunni or Shiite? Which sect dominates Hezbollah? Silvestre Reyes, the Democratic nominee to head the House Intelligence Committee, failed to answer both questions correctly last week when put to the test by Congressional Quarterly. He mislabeled Al Qaeda as predominantly Shiite, and on Hezbollah, which is mostly Shiite, he drew a blank. “Speaking only for myself,” he told reporters, “it’s hard to keep things in perspective and in the categories.” Not that he’s alone. Other members of Congress from both parties have also flunked on-the-spot inquiries. Indeed, some of the smartest Western statesmen of the last century have found themselves flummoxed by Islam. Winston Churchill — in 1921, while busy drawing razor-straight borders across a mercurial Middle East — asked an aide for a three-line note explaining the “religious character” of the Hashemite leader he planned to install in Baghdad. “Is he a Sunni with Shaih sympathies or a Shaih with Sunni sympathies?” Mr. Churchill wrote, using an antiquated spelling. (“I always get mixed up between these two,” he added.) And maybe religious memorization should not be required for policymaking. Gen. William Odom, who directed the National Security Agency under President Ronald Reagan, said that Mr. Reyes mainly needs to know “how the intelligence community works.” Yet, improving American intelligence, according to General Odom and others with close ties to the Middle East and the American intelligence community, requires more than just a organization chart. A cheat sheet is in order. The Review asked nearly a dozen experts, from William R. Polk, author of “Understanding Iraq,” to Paul R. Pillar, the C.I.A. official who coordinated intelligence on the Middle East until he retired last year, to explain the region. Here, a quick distillation. What caused the original divide? The groups first diverged after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632, and his followers could not agree on whether to choose bloodline successors or leaders most likely to follow the tenets of the faith. The group now known as Sunnis chose Abu Bakr, the prophet’s adviser, to become the first successor, or caliph, to lead the Muslim state. Shiites favored Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law. Ali and his successors are called imams, who not only lead the Shiites but are considered to be descendants of Muhammad. After the 11th imam died in 874, and his young son was said to have disappeared from the funeral, Shiites in particular came to see the child as a Messiah who had been hidden from the public by God. The largest sect of Shiites, known as “twelvers,” have been preparing for his return ever since. How did the violence start? In 656, Ali’s supporters killed the third caliph. Soon after, the Sunnis killed Ali’s son Husain. Fighting continued but Sunnis emerged victorious over the Shiites and came to revere the caliphate for its strength and piety. Shiites focused on developing their religious beliefs, through their imams.

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syreda hunny ibrahim - 3/24/2011 you don't think Muhammad is the saviour of his people? how about those who believe in god but no religion.. just believe in human kindness... you think they will go to hell? i think our prophets acts base on the time they were in... we often forget that, it happened thousands of years ago. things were different, people were different, law, culture and civilisation was different... jesus was a saviour of his people during his time, and muhammad was a saviour of his people during his time. it's easy for us now to judge and say as we were not there to experience it. how about buddha? you think he is not a saviour of his people? i think what man stray from the real understanding and the teaching of their saviour. greed, money and power has made them corrupted... and corrupt people minds. oppression makes people act the way they act now... desperation to attract attention, and using religion to justify their action, who to blame? you can't blame religion and their prophet who had led their people to victory long time ago... you have to blame the leaders who manipulate the poor and those who is desperate for a change, to make them who they are now. they gave them wrong information, wrong idea about what life is all about... they use religion as a medium to sabotage other people believes and to make people hate each other. and end up fighting with each other. people who has nothing to loose will believe in anything for a promise of a better future.

forgive my english, it is not my first language.

chip bruce shreve - 2/18/2011 Jesus, a prophet, a great healer. No. Jesus who was known to walk this earth by almost all the religions of the world at that time is proof of God and man on earth. God Jesus the healer and riser from death walked as a man on earth. My friends of open minds I asked and state; Jesus Christ was either The son of God as he claimed or a raving mad man, you must choose for to say that he was a great healer/prophet/teacher would not make sense. He claimed to be nothing less or nothing more than Being God in human form

matt bacon - 2/4/2011 and i forgot to say. they are all in violation of the charters of their particular religions. Muslim terrorists are no more following the teachings of Mohamed then are Christian terrorists following the teachings of Jesus.

matt bacon - 2/4/2011 Christians are so funny because they are always preaching to you from their soap boxes, but without actually knowing what they are talking about. All three major religions. Christianity, Judaism and Islam are ALL sanctioned and blessed by God IN THE BIBLE ITSELF. You forget that God promised Abraham that his son Ishmael would be the father of a great nation and that that nation would have God's protection, not as much protection, and not as much knowledge as the children of Isaac, but it would still be a great nation unto him. Muslims just dont have as MUCH of the truth, but there is still truth in their religion. Just as there is truth in Judaism. Someday they will all come to recognize Christ as their savior. Remember, it says. Every knee shall bow and ever tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. Truthfully we are all brethren and we are all God's/Allah's/Whatever-else-you-want-to-call-him's children, and we forget that all too often. But I say unto you, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?"

matt bacon - 2/4/2011 To be fair, how many christian terrorists have you ever heard of? it is about as rare as being bitten by a shark in Colorado. Muslim terrorists, however, happen to be MUCH more common. Does this make Islam itself a worse religion? I dont think so. Thats just the way things happen to be right now. 1000 years ago Christians would have been the ones perpetrating more crimes against humanity. But you cant justify MODERN muslims actions by comparing them to MODERN christians. Because modern christians ARE more peaceable. Terrorism, no matter if its in the name of Allah, God, Ireland or Global Warming is still terrorism and they should all be put next to each other on the same firing squad.

matt bacon - 2/4/2011 Go back and burn some more crosses in your white bed sheet you ignorant prick. Yes, Muslim terrorists should be put to death, and we should absolutely under no circumstances accept shariah law here in America, not even for people who want to follow it. And we should greatly discourage the insulting and disgusting building of a Mosque at ground zero. But we need to remember, Muslims are people too. And they deserve the basic rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness as much as the next person. If we were to expulse all of them from our nation we would be going against everything that this nation was founded for. We would be violating every principle. We would be great hypocrites. I know it is easy to hate, but its not American.

matt bacon - 2/4/2011 Claiming one religion is better than another is just rediculous. I mean, you would have to prove that your particular religion leads people to be better people with more effectiveness than any other religion, which you cant prove. I would say the same to the christian lady who replied to you. Both of you have your opinion, and if you follow that religion with all your heart, God or Allah or whatever you want to call him will absolutely bless you. If having accurate knowledge was a determining factor in getting in to heaven God would make sure that EVERYONE had a perfect knowledge of the truth, which i think that NO religion on earth can claim to. Thats not what is important, sincerety and becoming a better, more charitable and selfless person is what is important. If you do that through Islam, or through Christianity you are still doing the righ thing. I agree with you, people shouldnt judge Islam by the few psychotic terrorists. and we DEFINITLY shouldnt be invading muslim countries considering that that is what caused the situation in the first place. But you need to be careful. You see, thinking that our way (the american way) is always better no matter what and that every sane person would obviously want a democracy is what made us invade Iraq in the first place. You see, good intentions, tainted by a belief in absolute infallibility lead us to do something very evil. And it is that same belief that you have about your religion, you believe it is the best and infallible. And it is that same belief that caused Osama bin Ladin to massacre thousands of people, something I am sure that Allah will cause him to eternally suffer for, because Allah most obviously does not appreciate ANYONE from ANY SIDE massacring his children and any Imam who teaches differently is not a muslim, but a fascist. How do you know that those people would not have converted to Islam had Osama just tried to convert them instead of killing them? All Im saying is be careful and slow to judge others for their beliefs and be slow to think that you have all the truth. I shouldnt even have to reply to the Christian person who replied to you. He/she should be ashamed of himself/herself. Christ himself said Judge not. That person is in direct violation of the tenents of their religion by judging you, and i havent read the Quaran, but i bet it says about the same thing.

cj Jenkins - 6/24/2009 Have you tried Mendeley? I use it all the time, it organises all your pdfs, is a bibliography manager, sorts out all the meta-data and also hosts a researcher network where you can collaborate with other researchers.



http://www.mendeley.com

sara al mousawi - 6/5/2009 In December 2006 the New York Times reported that it is not just ordinary Americans who find it difficult to remember the difference between Sunnis and Shiites:



SURPRISE quiz: Is Al Qaeda Sunni or Shiite? Which sect dominates Hezbollah??



well, i'm a shiite person , proud of that of course,

i love hezbollah so much ,hezbollah is shiites and will alwyas be and i believe that al qaeda is not muslim ( which means it's not shiite or sunni ) so, it's terrorist because muslims will never even do the horrible things that al qaeda have done whether they were muslims shiite or muslims sunni



Rida B. Khan - 5/29/2009 Yeah..u Guys probably don't know the difference between Shiite and Sunnis..And u certainly don't know who killed the Third caliph of Islam...cuz surely Shiaan-e-Ali(Shiites of Ali) didn't kill him. You people should expand your research and i would recommend that you see the Iranian movie 'Imam-e-Ali'. And u'll surely find who the really killed Caliph Usman. And for your information the 'Sunni' sect flourished after 700 AD, before that the term 'Sunni' wasn't used extensively. And the people to whom u r referring to as 'Sunnis' and the killer of Imam Hussain(a.s.) were actually the Ansars of Banu Saqeefa and the Kharjites. Muslims divided into many sects after the Prophet(p.b.u.h.)'s death as many people wanted to acquire the seat of Muslim Caliphate in Madina. This led to a lot of chaos and instead of performing the rituals of Prophet's rituals, many prominent companions( ashaab) went to Saqeefa to fight for the throne. The true successor of the Prophet(pbuh) was Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib(a.s.), whom Prophet(pbuh) had appointed Calipha himself after his last hajj in 10 A.H. at Ghadeer-e-Khum. But the Muslims after the Prophet's death denied Ali's succession. Many Sunni books confirm the event of Ghadeer-e-Khum and Ali's succession, including Ahmad bin Hanbal's Musnad.

Matthew Dickinson - 8/14/2008 Muslims might get respect if they stopped murdering everybody and strapping bombs on their children. Also they should stop marrying children. And Christians should stop believing that Jesus is God; that is idolatry. You're not supposed to believe that God is physical. Anything that's physical is a part of creation. Making fun of Muhammad isn't wrong either, especially since he was a child molestor and warmonger.

hesham t kahil - 7/21/2008 one last thing....i forgot to post.. the bible has been changed.... wasn't there a part about Jesus's childhood that was omitted not so long ago?

and by the way the original authors and manuscripts of the gospel are lost.. and also there was a time when over 500 bibles where in rotation.

Just check a 500 year old bible and check the one you have now and check for differences.

go to answering-Christianity.com

it has good info about the topic



and even better,watch the documentary "Banned from the Bible" it is on Youtube

hesham t kahil - 7/21/2008 There are some errors in the article.

The prophet did not found the 2 branches.. they appeared after the 4rth caliphate.

Also, i read a post here of the converted Christian that said that Islam orders the killing of non Muslims.



I can tell you a few things in Brief.

1) The Islamic Law allows NON MUSLIMS TO LIVE in Islamic states as long as they Pay Jizya(a tax thats almost equivalent to Zakah that Muslims pay); non muslims lived in Islamic states through out history AND DURING THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET so that shows how wrong you are. I am not going into details of how Muslim males are allowed to marry Christians and Jews.



2) The Quran is not the only Source of Islamic teachings... the Sunna(life of the prophet) is too.. the prophet's neighbor was Jewish so again you were wrong.



3) I can get you 5 Suras atleast IN THE QURAN on how to deal with non muslims... Yes it asks you to Fight WHO FIGHTS YOU in other words in self defense... it asks you to treat people with piety and mercy and helpfulness as long as there is no conflict between the two.



4) Read the Last 2 Aya's in Surat AL- OMRAN.... You could be non muslim and still go to heaven... also, there is a Hadith that said that there was AN ATHEIST WOMAN who went to heaven because she Fed a hungry Dog and another of a MUSLIM WOMAN that went to hell because she tortured a cat sooo....



5) The Quran DID NOT CHANGE NOT EVEN ONE WORD because of the Grammar of the Arabic language.. The Grammar in the Arabic language is very very complicated even scholars do not fully grasp it. There is some kind of balance that needs to be maintained if one is writing in the correct grammar (tashkeel).. i'll give you an example in chemistry.. if you have a chemical equation it must be balanced correct? we all had to go through the balancing of chemical equations in high school tests... you were taught how to pin point every mistake in that equation... the arabic language has something similar.. The ENTIRE QURAN is balanced in that way... if i add/remove/replace one word the balance falls within the Sura.

By the way the prophet wasnt able to read or write yet he allegedly "wrote" the entire Quran somehow with not one grammatical error WOW.



i can prove for you how Islam is anti terrorism and anti the killing of non muslims using suras from the Quran and hadith if i can.

my e-mail is

mastermind_kahil@hotmail.com



message me if you need clarifcations or if you have any questions.. i'll try to help





Sanju Simon - 1/19/2008 Do you mind if you could give me your e-mail address? Dont worrry,its not for spam.I hav a few questions thats it and i will not bother you ever again...My address---> getsanju2004@yahoo.co.in

www.love4uall.bebo.com

Sanju Simon - 1/19/2008 I jumped here when i searched the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslim in Google as today its a ritual day for Shiites.Im a Christian and found this very interesting.What i believe is that both the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible,teaches us the same things although differences may exists here and there.And if you are only set to find dissimilarities,then you will only find dissimilarities.Why do people take only the negative of something and project it.I have a Muslim friend,her name is Lukaa Murad.She is from Iraq.Being with her most of my college time,I was surprised how beautifull Islam is,and i wondered how does Islam produce such a beautifull and loving personality.She never stops telling me that Im a brother to her.Before i met her i had fogged impression on Islam and Muslims.I had stayed in an Islamic country for about 8 years.Im now 20 years old.And i come from the country that has the 3rd largest Muslim population in the world(around 150 million).And i never ever had thought like this staying in the midst of these people.All i can say is to stop fighting,and killing in the name of religion .We are humans,not animals.We know whats wrong and right.Don`t fool your conscience.All the fight thats goin on,is either for power,material goods or for money.All of these has no role in either Heaven or Hell(if you believe in them).Love and acceptance is the only answer, which i think is growing short in this world.Personally i think Christianity,Islam and Jewdism revolves around the same idea.

Peace to all of you...

God is Love....Jesus is the Light of the world..

Allahu Akbar...

Shajee Hassnain Syed - 12/25/2007 You talk highly of the Caliphs well i have read in a sunni book that imam ali did live through the times of omar abu bakr and osman but these caliphs valued imam alis word and made sure that no important decision was made without imam alis consent. Another thing that when abubakr was in the process of becoming a caliph imam ali was giving the prophet a burial. Hazrat fatima was not happy with decision of making abubakr the caliph because the prophet specifically said on hajj a tul wida that who ever follows me shall follow Ali. Hazrat fatima and the hashmite family were gathered in the house of the prophet to console fatima who was grieving her father and was angry that his disciples did not respect his wish and made their own caliph. After a while Omar came along and asked every body in the house to get out and accept the new caliph and when no one did he threatened to burn down the house of hazrat fatima. What did the prophet say that whoever angers my daughter anger me and who ever insults insults me. so tell me how would the threat to burn down Fatimas house make her feel? now before you deny I got the information from a sunni book and if i have time i will that ali was suppose to be the next caliph . You see Ali or the family of the prophet (syeds) do not follow a spirtual leader who doesnt even know half as much as Ali or Ahle Bait which is why imam husein scraficed himself and his family instead of following a ruthless brute. You see there is so much to say but not enough room, most of the thing that sunnis believe in about the caliphs contradicts with what some of their books say making it easier for the shites to prove their point. Shite books only use sunni books to prove their point and every thing i have said is backed by a sunni book.

Judith A. McDonald - 7/7/2007 Even born-again Christians disagree, even get angry and say things they shouldn't, but rarely do they pull out guns or knives and start killing each other. The number of deaths during two "Christian" atrocities, the Inquisition and Crusades, don't negate all the good that has been done in the name of Jesus Christ. Lutherans and Nazarenes may fiercely disagree on transubstantiaion, but they do agree on the merits of the shed blood and broken body of Jesus. Christians of different denominations, languages and cultures worship together in that name. Worldwide Christian assemblies prove that point. Musliims, on the other hand, find a reason to fight, each other or with anybody else who happens to be in their way. They fight, to the death if possible, over every perceived act or word of disrespect. That same attitude is found in America's worst neighborhoods, but the source of bad behavior is the same worldwide: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) The only hope we have for peace in our homes and neighborhoods is repentance and faith in Jesus. He alone is able to redeem us from the inside out. In my own heart, his love now replaces the hatred I once harbored for my stepson. Jesus replaces hopelessness with purpose and a vision to help, not exploit, the poor. That's why missionaries leave their safe, comfortable homes to share the gospel in hot, disease-infested world areas. It's not because some warlord has ordered them to, it's because the love of Christ compels them to share the love and joy they've found. Evil has worn many religious masks, but when the outward expression of "faith" is rape, murder, mutilation and psychological scarring, it is EVIL. It doesn't matter whether it's a Catholic priest molesting an altar boy, an egomaniac leading his followers in a suicide pact, or a revered imam encouraging impressionable young men to blow themselves up in the middle of a crowded market ... it's all evil. "Brother Andrew" asked a poignant question: "What kind of people does your book produce?" When individuals, Muslim or Christian, know and follow closely the tenants of their own "book," what kind of people do they become? Which is better...murder or mercy? I vote for Jesus.

Flo B - 5/8/2007 "Osama bina Laden is a Sunni Muslim. To him the end of the reign of the caliphs in the 1920s was catastrophic, as he made clear in a videotape made after 9-11."



the loss of the caliphate after World War I wasn't an American deal, why don't they take this out on Turkey?

Don't they really fear globalisation?



juls sky - 4/18/2007 If I understand what is printed there, so the whole war/terror/hate America problems stems from folks not being able to decide who to follow after the guy who started this religion died??? Cousin blood line or government figure..certainly there is more to the battle between Shiite and Sunni that just killed 178 in Baghdad than who to follow???

Dave Phelps - 3/30/2007 I have read the Holy Bible; I have not read the Holy Quran. A quote by samia fatima naqvi on February 13, 2005 at 1:31 AM. “i also know a bit about christianity and i know there are a lot of similarities in these religions because after all BIBLE and HOLY QURAN were both sent by the same God…” Food for thought Samia, reference to the Bible as just the Bible? but a reference to the Quran as the Holy Quran! is a slap in the face, but I forgive you and turn the other cheek. That’s water under the bridge so let’s drop it. I read the responses right up to the Holy Bible has changed. The true and loving GOD created everything, including human rights, civil rights and personal rights. My proof, GOD gave Adam and Eve the right to choose to eat or not eat of the tree of knowledge and evil. So GOD (not man) gave me the right to practice or not practice any religion I choose. Since I’m a non practicing Pentecostal let me step up to the plate, any zealot Holy Bible or Holy Quran thumper that kills in the name of GOD should be executed. As for that moron Fred Phelps in Kansas maybe a nice IRS investigation is due. Any one who uses their religion as a weapon or insists that you convert or be considered to be less than human and should die is not a religion of GOD, it’s a cult. For the record I consider Fred Phelps’ church to be a cult. A true warrior of GOD fights GOD’s battles on their knees in prayer, not in the streets. Matthew 17:20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

Mohamed A. Maher - 1/27/2007 hi brian,

i didn't say anything about muslims making problems !!!

the people that makes problems are extremists , that are not related to the islam.

and there are sunni's extremists and sheit's extremists as well...like any religion in the world , that could have extremists.

and how do u think that the muslims are the ones who are responsible of the problems of the world... !! i think that the americans and the isralis are the ones who are responsible of the world's problems...but this is not our issue in here.

and even if there is any muslim would make a problem in the world , so islam condemns him,whatever he was a sunni or sheit..

brian r timely - 1/25/2007 So you are saying the the 90% Sunni's are the ones causing all the problems in the world?!

brian r timely - 1/25/2007 Therefore, musn't the free world either KILL or NEGOTIATE with the IMAMS before anything positive can happen?!

Peace Parker - 1/22/2007 I got to this site the same way someone else in the chain did, by looking up the difference between Shiites and Sunnis. Interesting debate, but I think I'm going to go to those old fashioned things called books for some more complete and hopefully relatively unbiased (if that's possible) data. In case you are curious, I'm a secular humanist, my views about God are kept carefully my own, but I want to study the religious history in addition to the geopolitical events of the last 200 years, to try to understand the growing violence in the world better. I suspect that intelligent debate and diplomacy is gong to be the only solution to the problem and to those of you engaged in the more emotional (and sometimes downright vitriolic) aspects of the debate, I hope you will do the same.

Mohamed A. Maher - 1/19/2007 Hi shajee, well....i'm a sunni from egypt. first of all , sunnis are not the followers of caliphs as u said, but the followers of the prophet ( as sunni means the one who walks on the track of the prophet mohamed), and we have never ever tried to kill the descendents of the prophet, and by the way there are many sunnis are descendents of prophet mohamed also, but what really happend was a political war , between mawia and ali , why !!? if you read the history , you will find that ossman (the caliph) was killed , and the people has chosen ali as his succesor, but mawia said i won't accept ali as a caliph except if he found and judged the killers of ossman, but ali didn't do so , so a war occured between ali and mawia... until this point there was no difference at all, between sunnis and shiets, it was only a political problem...but what has happend , is that after the death of ali and his son hussin (which are both loved by the sunnis)

the sheits (the followers) of ali, started to consider ali as a holy person , and started to change many things in the religion , and saying that only the followers of ali are the right people and all the other muslims are wrong and will go to hell !!! , do you know that ali was there when abo bakr was a cliph and when omar was a caliph and when ossman was a caliph , and there was no problem at all between them , and they lived safely, and he has never said that you took my right ever, and the prophet mohamed didn't say that ali would be his succesor ever (as sheits say), and if he did so , the muslims at that time wouldn't have left any other person to be the caliph other than ali....

don't you know that our religion said that every decision between people should be taken by consultancy " wa amrohom shoora baynahom" , so if all the people at that time chose abo bakr as a caliph , so that would be the best decision because all the people took it. and i wonder , if you say that the descendents of the prophet should be considered as holy people , or only a 12 of them as sheits say , why the prophet mohamed didn't ever say so, and why it has not been ever said in the quran , and didn't mention even a small word about that or even about ali. and if the prophet said so , so at least you would find all the people who follow the prohet's track would try to make that happen, but all the muslims allover the world, say that this didn't happen.

i wonder , why in your festivals you take the swords and try to hurt your heads with it until blood gets down.....DID THE PROPHET MOHAMED EVER DID SO, NO HE NEVER DID SO EVEERRR , IT'S NOT IN THE ISLAM AT ALL....and i know that you do that because you are sad for the murder of hussien.....

i want to say that i thought that the sheits are considered muslims , but when i read more and more about what they do and what they believe in , i'm sure now that they have gone away from the islamic track and what the prophet mohamed said ........ the sunnis only believe in the quran and the prophet mohamed , and try to do the things written in the quran , and what prophet mohamed said, but the sheits believe in the quran and the prophet mohamed and ali and hussien and many others..which are not prophets .... and they do many things that contradicts the islam, by the way , 90% of the world muslims are sunnis, while only 10% are sheits....

if you can read arabic, take this link and read what's in it , it is written in arabic ( www.alburhan.com )

finally , i want you to read in history very good, and try to read about sunnis, and what prophet mohamed really said...i really want to talk about many and many thing that the sheits do , which is not in the islam at all..but let it be in the next time...

shajee H Syed - 1/19/2007 ya i liked the article but you say fighting continued between shite and sunnis, well i dont know about that but sunnis (the followers of the caliphs) did try to kill all the desendents of the prophet so the desendent fleed to neighbouring countries (since i am desendent of the prophet my parents are from pakistan) and you say that "In 656, Ali’s supporters killed the third caliph. Soon after, the Sunnis killed Ali’s son Husain."well i dont know about Alis supporters killing the third caliph may be they did but Ali was also murdered and its believed that his killer was a follower of the caliphs who came after Ali the caliphs name was Mawia. and it was Mawias son Yazid who tricked Hussain son of Ali to come to Karbala (city in Iraq) to preach the religion but they ambushed them and killed Hussain and his sons (youngest was 6 months)his other family members who he was with all in all 70 to a 100 people . an army of , i think the number is 10000 was sent to do this job. Yazid (son of Mawia) wanted Hussain (son of Ali) to accept him as a leader and a caliph, Hussain did not do so because he thought if he did muslims will think that Yazid is righteous and pure ( Yazid was a drunk, Yazid thought it was Okay to marry your aunts and many other things that are not appropriate and were forbidden in Islam ) well most sunnis today just like shiites hate Yazid, its the Wahabis who dont care about killing of Hussain .Let me tell you that the prophet did actually announce his successor and it was Ali and there were witnesses who remained silent when the first caliph was chosen and if the AlI did become the first Caliph and caliphate was given to the line of the prophet there wont be people like Osama Bin Laden today but instead the caliphate was given to lesser men who believed in ruling with and iron fist and converted many people to Islam at the tip of the sword. the caliphs actually consulted ALI for just about anything since Ali knew evrything about Islam And the Quran (holy book).

finally Islam calls Christians , Jews, and Muslims Ahle-Kitab meaning people of the book,bible, torah and Quran since all muslims believe in torah , bible and ofcourse the Quran well my point is christians and jews are NOT infedels (kafr)since extremists refer to them as infedals well they are wrong.





Alysyn Chayns - 1/18/2007 Mr Furnish,

I was so confused about the subtle intracacies of the situation and wondered many times, how can we ever resolve all these conflicts? Your article has finally shown me the way: Never talk to the people you identify as philosophical opponents... Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?



The only thing I can imagine more idiotic than holocaust denial conventions is refusing to speak to the people who convene them. We don't have to convince them the holocaust happened - It's not an issue. The issue is conciliation now. We get there by negotiating like civilized humans, regardless of how we feel about the beliefs of others, not by pouting over percieved blasphemies.



The factual knowledge is real impressive - I would have thought all that accumulated knowledge might have actually taught the lesons by now as well.

Mohamed A. Maher - 1/13/2007 Hi,

i'm a muslim..i raised in an islamic family, in an islamic country.

sometimes i ask myself, what is the difference between islam and other religions! why is it supposed to be better than them?...but when i read the quran.. i know all the answers of my questions!

first of all, muslims belive in all the prophets, like abraham ,isaac, noah...all of them..but we also belive that jesus is a prophet, not the god and not the son of god..

we believe in every miracle happened by jesus, but he was a prophet.

when i ask myself why is the christians wrong in this point, why aren't they right, i find the bible that you read , is written by men!! and each versions has many different things than the other one...so it had some changes when it was written by these men and when it was translated. on the otherhand i find that the quran is only one book for all muslims..there no versions in it, and not a single word is changed when you read another book, and the words in the quran were directly said by god...no man wrote his opinion in it...and i find that it believes in all the miracles and powers of jesus....so i think i would better believe the words that were said directly by god, rather than believing the words that a man wrote..

for the questions that came to your head, you will find that the quran answered it !!! just try to read it and you will find that..

we believe that when a man hadn't heard the message, god will judge him by his doings and his internal faith...but if he heard the message and droped it...he will be guilty and go to hell.

for your second question, i really didn't understand what you mean in it very well..so try to verify it better. finally if you want the answer of any question in your head just try to read the quran..may be it would satisfy your questions.

we live only once....and we hope that we enter the heaven when we die...so we have to be sure that we are on the right religion...just try to read the quran..may be you would see things by another point of view... just try , nothing to lose...

blank blank blank - 1/10/2007 look at Christianity's dark history of violence in the name of God—the Crusades, forced conversions, pogroms, the Inquisitions, and now those christian missionaries in poor third world countries taking advantage of people telling them convert for food or money. if we are talking about which religion is violent according to history and acts of it's believers then, christianity takes the prize. before you bash any religion acknowledge that any religion, including yours, can be manipulated and perverted to evil ends.

that's all folks

Mohamed A. Maher - 1/9/2007 Hi,

1st of all, i'm a muslim from egypt, and i have came to this page, just by chance..

i just wanted to say a few words..

first, we as muslims, belive in all the prophets abraham ,isaac,moses, jesus...all of them. and we belive in the bible. but not the one in your hands. we belive that god have sent the bible to jesus(who is a prophet) , but what u read now, is something different in our point of view, because the book you read, is written by people! not sent by god..so we believe that it has changed.

in the quran (god sent it as it is, and no man have ever changed a word in it) , there is chapter called " Mary" ( the mother of jesus)..and we belive that jesus was born with no father..and we believe in all the miracles of jesus..but we say that he was a prophet from god not god himself or his son...we don't believe in the trinity because, we don't believe that god and his son and the soul are all god !!! god has no sons

our god is all people's god. and how is god is his son and the son is god !! are they 2 different ones or the same one !!

some people think that that muslims are some suicide bombers and elqaeda and these stuff...but they are totally wrong...these people are extremists...by the way there are more than a 1 billion muslim around the world...no one of do these stuff..

there is something in our religion called "jihad" i'm sure that many of u have heard this word before but don't know what does it mean..

i think that the english translation for this word could "resistance"..

the jihad has many parts, like u have to resist yourself from doing bad things and so on ... and there is a part which we could fight in it...when 2 fight !! 1-defending my land 2-defending my money 3-defending myself or my soul if someone wanted to kill me 4-defending your wife or your sister or your relative, if someone wanted to rape her....i think they are occasions that any human have to fight in them.

finally about the difference between sunnis and shiets...it is not that big...the sunnis are about 90% of the world muslim's..and what is the main difference between them !? it's that the shiets say that we have to consider the sons of the prophet mohamed as a holy people..but sunnis say that there is nothing called holy people except our prophet mohamed and the other prophets including jesus ..

everyone of us will die someday..and he wishes that he is on the right religion....so what i want from u is just read the quran...u won't lose anything....may be its right...just try...

i hope that i have cleared the picture for u a little bit.

Andy Frueh - 1/9/2007 I strongly dispute that Sunni/Shiite violence is "recent" and was "unleashed by America."



Although "recent" is highly relative, the makers of such comments clearly mean to indicate that it's happened after the American invasion of Iraq.



Bull! I remember sitting in my FIFTH GRADE social studies class (we're talking 1985 here...20+ years ago) and being taught the difference between these factions and how they were fighting. I also distinctly remember NBC Nightly News discussions on the Iran/Iraq war and crises in Lebanon mentioning Sunni/Shiite conflicts.



In many ways, it's akin to the violence between Protestants and Catholics that we saw hundreds of years ago in central Europe (and even far more recently in the British Isles). Although these days, Jewish and Christian sects are more likely to schism than bomb each other, it's historical fact that conflict WITHIN a particular religion can be just as if not more heated than intra-religion conflict.



Quaint warm-and-fuzzies at your local Baptist joint on Sunday mornings and Ice Cream Socials and Jewish Community Centers aside, the world would be FAR happier WITHOUT religion.

jon mcfarland - 1/1/2007 Well i went to google and typed in sunni vs shiite because i read a local newspaper and it sead Saddaum Hussain has been hung. First off i agree with Mike, you people got way off topic. But I continued to keep reading because some Muslim towhead dude up there said he was better then me and it pissed me off, so obviously i had to just keep reading the rest of the thread. I probably speak for the majority of a 21 year old male in saying ur a faggot anyways ur not better then me. Anyways i might as well tell my two sense about this whole page. Im presbyterian and im not very religious. i often have great drunken conversations and philosiphical arguments of how the world runs, how it was made, and just questions about life and religion with my friends. I think the pagan religion was pretty cool but i honestly still to this day dont think any religion is correct. But i do have my doubts about some:HINT HINT: the muslim religion or the catholic religion. For instance yah u muslims go ahead and blow urselfs away, hack at it guys just leave ur highjacked airplanes away from my country. The catholic religion im not really ripping on just dont agree totally with it. I dislike the jewish religion because they just simply killed jesus which was kinda gay ya know. Ill leave this thread with a... i honestly dislike anyone, no matter what religion, that worships a guy like sadam. Sucks for all u muslims we did just like come to ur country rock ur world and capture torture and hang ur leader. no matter what americans>towlheads. God bless our troops over there-get em- (hopefully bush will be resigned soon and u can come home)



Ps. b4 u go critisizing me do allow me to say i do know there are cool muslims out there and im not very educated at all about the whole middle east situation but my harsh words only go to the ones that hate on my kind if your not that disregard the offensive language.

Lori Lyon - 12/17/2006 After the DaVinci code came out many television programs came out about religion. One of the issues I found to be interesting is what books were chosen to be in the bible. I did not know that Mary Magdeline and Judas as well as others wrote books that did not make it into the bible. From what I have read "continuity" was the deciding factor on which books made it. I would like to know more about this and hear what others think. Who decided, what was the criteria, why did only the books written by men make it in?

Lori Lyon - 12/17/2006 There are religious extremists in all religions. Do you think Christians that bomb abortion clinics pray first?

David Latz - 12/12/2006 I started asking myself the same just after 9/11 & began studying the topic as best I could. As an introduction, I would recommend "No God But God" by Reza Aslan and "Islam: A Short History" by Karen Armstrong.



After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 CE, there was no clear successor to the Prophet. A majority of Muslims elected Abu Bakr, one of the Prophet's closest companions, as caliph. A minority dissented, arguing that the Prophet had passed leadership of his community to Ali, his cousin & son-in-law (the dissenters became known as "Shiat-Ali," meaning Partisans of Ali, which was later shortened to Shi'a). Ali accepted Abu Bakr as caliph; two others (Umar and Uthman) would be elected as the 2nd and 3rd caliphs. In 656 CE, Uthman was murdered. Followers of Ali urged him to seek the caliph; other muslims refused to pledge allegience to Ali and launched a civil war. Ali himself was assassinated in 661 CE.



The followers, or partisans, of Ali became known as Shi'a and regarded Ali as the first Imam. Those who accepted the majority election of the first four caliphs (the "Rashidun," meaning the "rightly-guided ones") became known as Sunni (ie, followers of Muhammad's "Sunna," meaning tradition).



The pivotal moment in Shi'a history would come in 680 CE, when Ali's son Hussein and 72 of his follwers were massacred in the southern desert of present-day Iraq after challenging the authority of Islam's 6th caliph. For the Shi'a, Hussein came to symbolize resistance to tyranny & his martyrdom is commemorated to this day as a central act of Shi'a piety. These events helped establish a precedent of a martyrdom complex - that is, a communal sense of oppression and injustice (helped by the fact that the Shi'a, with few historical exceptions, have never really wielded political power, living mostly as a marginalized minority under Sunni rule), against which the Shi'a must struggle for justice, as well as the glorification of martyrdom.



In Shi'a teaching, 11 more imams succeeded Ali on the basis of male primogeniture. The 11th imam left no male heir, causing Shi'ites to split into several sects. One sect (Ithna- Ashari, ie, "Twelver," or Imami Shi'a) holds that the 11th imam actually did have a son after all, named Abul-Qasim Muhammad (the same name as that of the Prophet himself). The 12th imam is supposedly al-Mahdi, the savior of mankind who will return shortly before the Day of Final Judgment, waging war on the forces of evil, ushering in a period of perfect justice, and heralding the end-times. The nutcase that calls himself Iran's president (Ahmadinejad) is reported a member of one of the more radical sects following this tradition (if you really want to make yourself pessimistic about the future of international relations, try reading up on the sect - the Hojatieh - who are so radical they were actually banned by the Ayatollah Khomeini).



As for why Muslims pray towards Mecca, in 624 CE Muhammad, during the Salat prayer, told his congregation to turn around so that they prayed in the direction of Mecca rather than Jerusalem. This change was essentially a declaration of independence; by turning away from Jerusalem towards the Kabba (in Mecca) - which had no connection with Judism or Christianity - Muslims tacitly demonstrated that they were reverting to the original, pure monotheism of Abraham (who lived before the revelation of either the Torah or the Gospel).



I welcome any corrections to my mini-historical record; this is just what an infidel has been able to gleen from books, articles & the internet.

jo jo ho - 12/11/2006 nuke all muslims. take the oil. desecrate the remaining bodies. bomb the shit out of mecca.



btw, you guys are idiots. stevie's account was either hacked or changed by an admin. have a nice day.

Mike Fritzel - 12/6/2006 I found this discussion by putting in a search for "difference between Sunni's and Shiite's". I have to say that you people can sure get off a subject. I want to understand why two branches of the same religion are killing each other?

Pedar Gilley - 12/3/2006 Has anyone noticed most posts have a twinge of anger and some are seathing with anger. I think the angry prize goes to Stevie. I would also add



from Galatians 6:7 (NIV)

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.



A man reaps what he sows. If one is angry he gets anger in return. If one is kind he will get kindness in return. If a man gives respect he will get respect. If a man plants corn he will get corn. If a man works he will be rewarded. If that work is in aid to a community then his reward will come in the form of what he sought for that community. If a man sows havoc,, he has not yet wildly dreamnt of the havoc that will be reaped unto him.



Yet another off topic comment. I just felt it should be said. Good luck

Pedar





Jason Skrzypiec - 11/29/2006 First, let me start off with my religious upbringing. I grew up with my parents in the Roman Catholic Church until I was about 13. We then moved to a small town and continued to go to the Catholic Church. After a while, we realized it was just lip service. The only thing we were getting was a big dent in our wallets, and the assurance that if we continued giving money, we would go to Heaven (kind of sounds like indulgences all over). We then tried the Lutheran church, and it was infinitely better. We actually read the Bible in church. What a concept! I also started studying the Bible intensively with the pastor, and didn’t like what I found. I did find many contradictions in the text. When the pastor was questioned, he just said to take it on faith. That didn’t sit well with me, so we arranged meetings with his superiors that were to know the book even better than him (himself having 3 doctorates relating to religion, theology, and biblical studies). Each person I spoke to knew of my contradictions and many more and told me to have faith.



As time went on, I lost touch with the church. I figured if they couldn’t write a book the flowed smoothly, I didn’t want to have any part of it. Also, one of my biggest problems was one brought up earlier in this discussion: those that hadn’t heard the message going to Hell. Another problem I had was that because I wasn’t XYZ (insert here) religion I would either suffer for all eternity, or should be killed for my beliefs. After a lot of soul searching, and a 12-step program my outlook on religion has changed.



I now believe in the loving, caring God. I still believe in the Lutheran faith, and was just appointed to church council, but have my own skew on it. Just because a person is in a jungle in Africa, and has never heard of God is no reason to punish him for all eternity. Likewise, if a Muslim or Hindi or any other religion believe in their faith, and live their faith, they will be rewarded in the afterlife. I have spoken to my current pastor, and she agrees with me. It may not be the strict Lutheran stance, but she believes that religion is something personal between a being and his or her higher power, whatever it may be.



Jason Skrzypiec - 11/29/2006 First, let me start off with my religious upbringing. I grew up with my parents in the Roman Catholic Church until I was about 13. We then moved to a small town and continued to go to the Catholic Church. After a while, we realized it was just lip service. The only thing we were getting was a big dent in our wallets, and the assurance that if we continued giving money, we would go to Heaven (kind of sounds like indulgences all over). We then tried the Lutheran church, and it was infinitely better. We actually read the Bible in church. What a concept! I also started studying the Bible intensively with the pastor, and didn’t like what I found. I did find many contradictions in the text. When the pastor was questioned, he just said to take it on faith. That didn’t sit well with me, so we arranged meetings with his superiors that were to know the book even better than him (himself having 3 doctorates relating to religion, theology, and biblical studies). Each person I spoke to knew of my contradictions and many more and told me to have faith.



As time went on, I lost touch with the church. I figured if they couldn’t write a book the flowed smoothly, I didn’t want to have any part of it. Also, one of my biggest problems was one brought up earlier in this discussion: those that hadn’t heard the message going to Hell. Another problem I had was that because I wasn’t XYZ (insert here) religion I would either suffer for all eternity, or should be killed for my beliefs. After a lot of soul searching, and a 12-step program my outlook on religion has changed.



I now believe in the loving, caring God. I still believe in the Lutheran faith, and was just appointed to church council, but have my own skew on it. Just because a person is in a jungle in Africa, and has never heard of God is no reason to punish him for all eternity. Likewise, if a Muslim or Hindi or any other religion believe in their faith, and live their faith, they will be rewarded in the afterlife. I have spoken to my current pastor, and she agrees with me. It may not be the strict Lutheran stance, but she believes that religion is something personal between a being and his or her higher power, whatever it may be.



Eric R Bush - 11/26/2006 Many historians do realize that the bible has been heavily altered throughout the ages as was previously mentioned. However, look at how and why it was written in the 1st place. It was ordered written by a non-christian Roman (he did not convert until he was on his deathbed) (this became known as the 1st vatican council) by a group of priests that went around eastern Europe and Eurasia gathering up the various books, or scrolls deposited by Paul during his travels.



They then decided what was important and what was not and included them in what became known as the bible. By the way most of these books are not in the King James version. It was then changed again after it was decided that the original was too long.



It was ordered written in the 1st place because the emporer was concerned that too many different belief systems were being practised and eventually this would create major problems.



Many christians tend to ignore this "true history" in favor of one that better fits their beliefs of a bible written by God. It is true that the Quran is probably more true to its original than the Bible by a long shot.



Muslims that truly follow their book are generally good people. Only the few that have twisted their faith into evil make it bad for everyone. Remember there is no right or wrong for the various belief systems, or more specifically which one you practise, there is only the evil that comes when they are twisted around into something else.

stephan chandler - 11/25/2006 I read here: “everyone has a right to his opinion…”. This is only PART of the statement. The statement should read “everyone has a right not to get tortured and/or murdered because of his opinion”. In America we HAVE that right. Obviously the people of Iraq are NOT expected to have that right. Sooo… why not?



Incidentally… if I can believe that actions speak louder than words, philosophy, or belief; what does the spectacle of Shiites and Sunnis slaughtering one another tell you about Islam? I for one shun it, and will have nothing to do with it. But it does not matter what I say or do about it ultimately: if Abraham Lincoln is to be believed (“A house divided upon itself cannot stand”), Muslims will just continue to kill each other off until there are none left, or they will convert to some other lesser-explosive religion.



eric mataras - 11/19/2006 Peace be to all. Muslim, Christian, Jew, Pagan and all. SOme commnets on this very interesting thread. I believe Mecca was where Hagar found water that saved her and her child after Sarah cast her out to die when she did surpringly get pregnant. She found the fountain of Mecca and now all muslims make a piligrimage.

The bible has been heavily altered by the english, romans and the translation called the Septuaguant (spelt wrong) the translation from latin to greek that is an adaptation a lot of modern reprints are based on.

If we were all one people at some point (genesis), butt naked in the woods, and time went on and our apperances changed, language divisions, as well as culture and the like, is it concievable that we are all trying to express the same thing. SOme of us hitting the nail better then others.

Buddhism has helped me, but not so much its particular spiritual idieals but practical spiritual living. I've taken a lot from christianity too and love to learn about Islam. Jews belive you can be saved without being a jew. Jesus was jewish. Does anyone suspect, the answer is to live with love and any means you do that is a manifestation of God in you on earth (you are experieng the son) Humanity as spent so long killing each other in the name of a god who loves us.



I ask us all to love eachother. Allah, Jah, Yeawah are all the same concept with cultural traditions and concepts that don't match.



Follow spirituality not lables and divisions. hopefully in a couple of more thousand years we will have been able to contribute to eachother. Seeing a full scope of the worlds developmental spiritual growth. This narrow minded righteousness has killed too many of your brothers, sisters, mothers and children. Every color and creed. You are all my brothers and sisters. I pray to something that you see it the same.







Gideon Moyo - 11/5/2006 Well three points I see here:

1. People misunderstood the English statement " the two branches of the RELIGION that MOHAMMAD FOUNDED"

2. People blame religion and war. You should be mature now oh, people. differences exist between married couples, between parents and children. War and terrorists are natural even without "religion" there will be another group opposing the "norms" this is natural. Don’t hate these things so much to end up being a "terrorist" yourself....like some hate President Bush, or someone else .... so much and even some hate Moslems and some hate Christianity as one said " [Christian]..they killed many people.." it was not Christians it was war. War has its causes, justified or not... it is natural with not only humans, but animals also. We celebrate if humans are at peace and not fighting ... but hating every war is not a solution that brings peace. You may hate it but in some cases it brings peace (forces irresponsible nations to obey international laws). Powerful nations must enforce international, humane laws even if it involves war (if not then remember .. Hitler and other dictators).

3.Christiannity is not involved in the above topic, please don’t be extremist, this has nothing to do with Christianity.



Ashfaque Alam - 10/20/2006 Sir, I would be grateful if you kindly provide the list of Caliphs of Sunni Muslims till 1920 as mentioned in your article.

TRENT D HUNTER - 9/30/2006 I mean, how dumb is it for the whole world to fight about who believes in what prophet or imam or whatever. Innocent people have been dying for hundreds of years because of ignorance, hate and basic stupidity.



The whole world just needs to stop and think. If we don't, it won't matter who believes what because there will be noone to believe.

Tired of Itall - 9/4/2006 Ok, so these guys are killing other for what reason? Because one thinks Zeus was the only God and the other thinks that Zues's buddies were given his power to rule? Lets face it, the limited gene pool of the middle east has made these people almost retards. If they weren't killing each other over fake gods, they'd be doing it because one guy looked at another guys woman, or because one guy dared to walk on another guys yard. Middle easterners still in the midddle east are the "high school harry's" of the world. The leave behinds, the ones that never went anywhere. As the only people who still are actively murdering in the name of some silly religion, evolution is slowly passing them by. History and evolution has taught us that if you don't assimilate, you die off. I look forward to the day that these inbreds have joined the rest of the world, or died off.

Wendell K Fry - 8/24/2006 "A god of absolute love, compassion, ominipotence is not going to send an otherwise good person to eternal hell if they have not heard of Jesus the Christ, Son of God."



George, Have you ever heard of "Jonathan Livingston, I presume?" God will send someone around the world if a heart genuinely cries out to him. A muslim woman who only heard of the name of Jesus in the Quran, cried out to God for help and He said, "You need Jesus" and then sent someone to confirm it with the Gospel message after she responded.



The Lake of Fire is God's affirmation to free will (though it is not torture, but torment. What's the difference? I'll elaborate at the end). People who reject Him in this life would only feign a desire to know Him in eternity. Those who reject Him in this life are not "Otherwise Good", for only God is Good.



God will honor peoples desire to be apart from Him and has created a place where His presence will not be. It would be wrong and poisonous to force people to be in His presence. There would forever be cries of injustice and unfairness by those who spent all their life trying to "Be like God, knowing good and evil" and trying to gain acceptance with good works, all the while not acknowledging there state of sin and rebellion against God, to which God Himself testified -- But also to which He sent Jesus to Ransom all who would humble themselves, change their mind as to not being a god, and making Him thier God. If God is Life and Love, than "Not God" is Death, Hatred and Destruction (Lake of Fire). Being away from His presence alone is ultimate pain and suffering, it is the emptiness of the complete converse of God's Character and Nature shown in His Presence -- Love-Utter Hatred, Joy-Complete Depression, Peace-Complete Unrest, Patience-Utter Impatience, Kindness-Meanness, Goodness-Evil, Gentleness-Roughness, Faithfulness-Total Unreliability, Self-Control--Well imagine no self control. Now, think of having the thoughts of everytime one rejected God, rejected His now obvious overtures (19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Romans 1:19-23).



Think of every sin, mistake and time you hurt someone or used them. Then think of every time someone hurt you, or lied to you or messed you over. Now you do not have even the feeling of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness or Self-Control to help you cope as in this world (believe me, people have some at least in this life), but rather you are living in the darkness, emptiness, anger and teeth-gnashing fire of their converse due to Separation from God. Now think of an eternity, with no patience and a second chance that will never come. That is torment, destruction and a lake of fire.



Those who try to live good out of genuine desire will not be judged the same as others, though all are sinners. Those who nonetheless reject God, though living a fairly decent life will not have as many tormenting thoughts to be agitated by the character and fire of emptiness I just described.



God Bless

greg judd - 8/16/2006 Well. If you accept everyone’s belief then you must accept mine that you are wrong.



BTW why are you quoting the OT to illustrate the beliefs of the NT? I admit there are many troubling things in the OT as well as contradictions in the NT.



If you were an ancient Jew you would have to conclude that 1. you are not the chosen people or 2. the nature of God is not what you think it is or 3. You are the chosen people, God is everything your people say, and Jews are in a miserable state because they can't follow Gods simple directions for how to live. Thus, the OT (in my understanding) is an explanation of why the chosen people look like anything but.



Then the NT becomes the new covenant; God has proven that you can’t ‘do it’ by following the rules. The NT opens the gates to rule breakers.



And: does everyone other than Christians go to hell? Beats me. But for me to say so is to say that God can not be reveled to others in other ways, which puts limits on the power of God. It just isn’t my problem. (But I do think you might be in trouble.)







Mike A - 8/10/2006 Something to think about.



Two sentences to solve all of this.



No matter race or religion, man or woman, obese or thin or any other difference humans come up with to convince themselves they are "SUPERIOR" to others (terrible human survival trait)They do so to gain advantage in life on every scale. PEOPLE ARE COMPETITIVE. Whether its people "keeping up with the Jones's", Sibling rivalry, climbing the corporate ladder or religious and political leaders vying for power, Humans will exploit every possible way to gain advantage.



With that said, Evil always has an open door.



However!



No matter what race, religion etc. someone may be, what would the world be like if we all practiced two simple things:



Work Hard (Self reliance)



Tell The Truth (Accountability)



These two sentences are deeper than you think.



Can you think of anyone you know that works hard and tells the truth.



I bet you do and you would say that person is a "Good Person"



Does anything else matter?



FYI

I do believe in god and I am of minority. Which of the two are not important for us to co exist. You can trust I work hard and tell the truth.

paul ie - 8/5/2006 There is one God. There are many religions. God comes first. If, as I walk along the path I find Osama reaching up his hand for help, then I would send my hand down to him because my other hand reaches up to God.

We are all the same. We will begin to get better when we stop choosing to see only our differences.

Carol Mwaniki - 8/3/2006 I worry when any religion is unable to take criticism, whether right or wrong, about its belief systems. Christianity and Jewry have typically "moved on" in this sense in that one can make public criticisms, no matter how vile, with no fear of being killed. I cannot say the same about Islam as the religion does not seem to have gone through a period of self analysis.



But all this is mute in that it is ridiculous that human beings need organized religion such as it is, to make them behave in a humane manner towards each other. We are supposedly evolved creatures but it seems some of us have not evolved socially, morally or ethically. This higher state of being is possible without the false guidance of organized religions greatly distorted by patriarchy, time, political and economic power struggles and the whims of the rulers over time.



To me, its all brainwashing nonsense and spirituality comes from individual self-assessment of ones place and role on this earth and his/her relationship to all other living creatures, human and otherwise.



It is time for the human race to take the next step!!



Chong Cho - 7/27/2006 To ALL Christians: If i'm going to hell for not believing ... So be it... LEAVE ME ALONE... Stop knocking on my door every Sunday morning.

Chong Cho - 7/27/2006 This comment is to Muslims, Christians, Catholics, and all you religious people of the world. Believe in what you want but don't hurt other people for their beliefs. Don't you think fighting over whose God is the right God is really f-ing stupid? People have been going to war since the CREATION of religion. It's 2006 and still going on... It's so ridiculous. I don't believe in any God, but if there is a God (any God), would he want people to be fighting over who loves Him a certain way? This war in mid-east, what a JOKE. Children, Children, Stop fighting over "he said she said"... Just stop it b/c it doesn't matter who's right or wrong.

By the wayI used to go to a christian church when i was young (forced to go) and they told me that I would go to Hell if I didn't believe in Jesus.

ronny i kanders - 7/21/2006 The control of our religions gives us (as humankind) very little leverage in assesing situations with out a filter. We can never do as our hearts allow if it is not in the best interest of our religion.



As you say, we are programmed from the womb and geography is the greatest decider in what we will ultimately belive.



Governing bodies thru history have played this to bitter resolve. The Cusades,and the Spanish Inquisition.

all the way down to suicide bombers and abortion clinic bombers.



Reaction to the misguided religious zealot has to be swift and lethal.



I belive in no god and no spirits and no afterlife I guess you can say that is my religion. I don't make excuses for my actions by envoking any god's name. I am my own man. With this I also belive any man or woman should be able to worship any way he/she sees fit.



Anyhow, the way I see it, you get rid of Religion and you solve the problem....as silly as this seems, I would much rather fight over tangible things like land or oil or musical taste than religion.

Wendell K Fry - 7/18/2006 saman fatima naqvi, This is really a discussion that would take a lot of conversation, but I studied Islam some (I read about 100 pages in the Karan (Quran)) and I saw what it truly is. Although sincere, truth is not determined by sincerity, but real power (and I don't mean the sword). Power to reconcile us to God and work in our lives, despite our selfish natures, is what truth has. There is a remnant of good desire in us, but it is corrupted, no matter how we paint it.



One religion is different, even though it is painted by some of those who claim to adhere to it in the same light as others. I will define it.



God created man in His own image, but the Bible reveals God is Love (not syrup and sugar, either), but Love has character and quality to it. Love even has a double negative in it, it Hates Hatred and Evil and that which would destroy its beloved. Love is like a doctor who tries to get a gangrene-infested body part to allow life flow and healing to flow through it, but at some point, in love, might have to cut it off to save the body. Love is selfless, and yet ultimately is a love community (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and is protected by its cycle in the community. Love created us in His image and His nature requires love to be returned by free choice, and so that free choice had to be tested. God is not "Safe" and created a world in risk that He would create man, many of those He loved might not choose Him, and He will honor that. I believe His plan was that this life we are living is a (Parentheses) if you will, where the creation and free will would be tested and those who will, will respond to Him not in their own strength, morality or intelligence, but in faith, believing His testimony and what only He could provide - salvation. He gave the Law (the 10 Commandments), not to save us, but to lead us to the conclusion that we can not be righteous, and the rest of the Old Testament, to foreshadow the Messiah and even Grace and the New Covenant (of course we can have good intentions and love others, but the depth of our sin resides in our independence in saying, "I'll do it! Help me in ways I ask, but I don't need you to do anything for me that I can do myself. Mankind can do it, we can be righteous and we want your Grace to give us the power to be good enough in ourselves and to make up the difference where we don't fully measure up. You expect us to be like you, so we will immitate you, and then you can accept us.") The Law is Good, but cannot save us. Romans 8:2,3 says the Law is weak through our flesh. What died immediately in the Garden of Eden (was separated) was our spirit and out bearing on right and wrong, and life then centered on the needs and cravings of our bodies and minds now also separated from God (the flesh), because we now noticed our nakedness, and the rest of our lives are spent in covering our lack of true innocence and righteousness. We cover it with attempts at being, looking and feeling righteous in ourselves "God, please notice and acknowlege my good attempts, my good intentions and my good points and ignore my bad points". "Isn't that Grace?" No, not that way. Grace makes a way where there is no way. You can't take a dead body and reform it, it is still dead. We must be reborn. Jesus Christ is God's provision, He did what we can not do. First He reconciles us to Himself. It's not deeds that need reformation and changing, (That is what all 'Religion' is), but God is a relational being (That's what the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is by nature) and it's a relationship that needs restoration. THEN deeds can and need to make a difference, coming out of a new life.



The Cross is humiliating, but it is the power of salvation for all of us, to believe that God would do what He did, removing any vestige or opportunity for us to save ourselves through our own honor.



The Quran, (in the version I read) about 100 pages in does away with the cross, that is what I saw is the center of the deceiver's purpose, to alienate an entire culture from the only thing that can save - the Grace of God in Christ on the Cross, testified to as God's Son through the many-witnessed resurrection, calling out to all, "Come to Me, all you who are heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, and you shall find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy, and My load is light." (in Matthew 11)



The Quran says (paraphrased from my memory) "do not say that Christ died on the cross, for I took him and I put an imposter to die in his place". As a spiritual detective one can see that Muhammed gives himself away. He injects his personal respect for Jesus in not allowing such an exalted figure to be killed so humiliatingly (almost all the prophets of God were killed), just like Peter would not let Jesus stoop so low as to wash his feet. God's testimony to us is that we are sinners, BUT ALSO that He has made a way in Jesus, ONLY in Jesus, through the humility, foolishness, horror and evil of the cross, something we have to humble ourselves to receive. But, if we hear His voice, let us also listen and respond, repent from self-governorship, self-godhood, really, and receive His FREE GIFT, and make Him your Lord and your God!

Steven Honeywell - 7/12/2006 If you read carefully at this string of comments, then you will clearly see that the largest problem that all humans have is understanding each other. Confidently, yet ignorantly, we speak as if we know the correct answers, but we don't. They are simply our beliefs ingrained into us since our childhood.



In our hearts we know that killing and violence is wrong. Why? Because that is what God (our hearts) tell us. No god or goddess would allow the atrocities that have besieged the world. The joke of humanity is not really seeing what we are doing to each other. We are all people, with the same basic needs, but very different thoughts and beliefs. Should these thoughts and beliefs encourage death and destruction?



I am a white (European descent)American. I struggle with what I believe as far as higher beings are concerned. I am just a man with many imperfections like all others.



If I am the only person that happens upon another who hangs by his/her hands from a cliff, I do not care what beliefs he/she has, what religion he/she follows, what color skin he/she has, what size he/she is, what poor choices he/she has made....I simply extend my hand and offer him/her my hand as a caring soul.



We are all just missing the point. Chase away the things that alienate us, cherish the things that bind us.

Ryan Letey - 7/6/2006 Removed at request of the poster.

G. Carrick - 7/1/2006 Maybe i am going to put show my ignorance but i think the wholesale slaghter of people under the guise of a religion, race, political stance shows our ignorance. Eastern, western, muslim, christian, whatever. And the current situation in the Middle East/Africa/etc... should be left for those involved to "sort" themselves out and then when they want to play nice with the rest of us then they can apply to the rest of the world.

kathy gardner - 6/26/2006 To everyone who’s written on this site:



1. Americans (and others in the world) tend to have a negative opinion of Muslims because all we see of Muslims in the news is the barbarism of Muslims beheading innocent people, Muslims suicide-bombing themselves and murdering innocents in the process, Muslims carrying signs reading such things as, “death to all who don’t believe in Islam,” and Muslims celebrating their murders of these innocents - ALL SUPPOSEDLY IN THE NAME OF GOD!!. But what we DON’T see are the good Muslims standing up AGAINST these crazed murderers. If all we ever saw of blue-eyed people was blue-eyed people murdering and celebrating their murders, then blue-eyed people would be thought of in a negative way by most. If, as I hear so many Muslims say, most Muslims are good, then why don’t we see any good Muslims standing up against the evil ones? That’s like saying there were so many GOOD Germans in World War II, but the BAD ones made them ALL look bad. The truth is that THE GOOD ONES SHOULD HAVE STOOD UP AGAINST THE BAD ONES. But, because they generally did not, all we saw were the bad ones. Don't blame Americans and others who "stereotype" you, if all we see are the stereotypical. [Of course, the mainstream American media is largely to blame for this, also - since all they show us is the bad. I mean, seriously, the American media wants us to believe that Middle-Easterners are not all bad – and yet all they show us is the bad! How about showing those who fight alongside the allies for freedom - and showing how MUCH they WANT freedom??!!)].



AND MY SECOND, AND MORE IMPORTANT POINT IS THIS:



2. GOD GAVE US FREE WILL – NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE THAT FREE WILL AWAY FROM US!!!! The Muslims we see in the news all the time are often murdering those who don’t believe as they do, and carrying signs STATING that they’ll murder those who don’t believe as they do!! THEY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DICTATE, YES I SAID DICTATE - AS IN DICTATORSHIP, TOTALITARIAN REGIME – THEY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DICTATE OR FORCE OTHERS TO BELIEVE AS THEY DO!!!! That’s why America was formed in the first place – RELIGIOUS FREEDOM!! Do you people believe in religious freedom or don’t you? AND, if you DON’T believe in religious freedom - then perhaps YOU should be the one FORCED TO BELIEVE AS OTHERS WILL HAVE YOU BELIEVE??!! Too many people – even in America – don’t understand why America is such a great country – it’s BECAUSE (ONE MORE TIME – ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?) GOD GAVE US FREE WILL - NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE THAT FREE WILL AWAY FROM US!! The founders of our great country understood that. I wish everyone did (of course, thanks to the political correctness crowd - the REAL neo-nazis - those freedoms are being stolen from under us). Whatever happened to: I MAY NOT AGREE WITH WHAT YOU SAY, BUT I WILL DEFEND TO DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT!!! Take heed those who don't believe in this statement -- for YOU MAY BE THE ONE BEHEADED SOME DAY FOR YOUR OPPOSITION!!



AND MY LAST POINT:



3. Jesus said, “love thy neighbor as yourself.” If you don’t want anyone to harm YOU, then don’t harm others – that means with word or deed. The Golden Rule - we don’t teach it in public schools any more, but we should.



William C - 6/25/2006 Your statement that Christians are to kill non-believers indicates that you have not actually studied the New Testament or Covenant. The Lord Jesus actually stated his objective was to establish a New Covenant, and that the rules could be summed up quite simply by loving the Lord God with all one's heart, mind, body, strenght and soul, obeying the 10 commandments, and loving one's neighbor as one's self. To be honest, I have to admit that there have been, and probably still are pseudo "Christian" groups who have used excerpts from the Old Testament to justify their evil acts. I find it interesting, though, that I am at a loss to come up with a Muslim country where this type of civil discourse could take place. God bless America

Jonathan Dresner - 6/25/2006 In Iraq -- perhaps elsewhere, I don't know -- there are distinctive naming traditions which serve as shorthand markers, though they do result in unfortunate "false positives"...

Milton Harmon Haynes - 6/10/2006 Tigger,

Your observations and comments seem to be very GOD like. (In my humble opinion.) In that, (if i'm correct), there IS only one GOD, regardless of what language we use to identify HIM for our own benefit. The few books i remember reading about GOD's messages to humanity seem to all parrot the same theme- LOVE one another. Somewhere along the way, we have been subverted into doing just the opposite! Oh, well, i guess i just want to go on record somewhere, (like here), to acknowledge the significance of the events taking place now- we may be in the final throes of this system of human experimentation. May Peace be within you.

George Rolff - 6/5/2006 A god of absolute love, compassion, ominipotence is not going to send an otherwise good person to eternal hell if they have not heard of Jesus the Christ, Son of God.

johnt mc ii - 6/5/2006 A recent example quoted from an AP article posted on Yahoo news:



Ismail said he had been driving his pickup truck behind the vans and was stopped too. About 15 masked men wearing traditional robes known as a dishdashas forced everyone out of the vehicles, he said.



"They asked us to show our IDs, and then instructed us to stand in a line, separating the Sunni from the Shiite due to the IDs and also due to the faces," said Ismail, a Shiite Kurd.





johnt mc ii - 5/29/2006 I've been wondering this for a while-- is it possible to recognize a Sunni or Shiite by sight? I often read of ethnic killings, e.g., a bus is stopped and all of one sect are killed, so what's the determination by the killers? 20 questions? clothing? slight difference in skin color? ID?

Tigger Steuart - 5/27/2006 Wow, I stumbled on this site by accident and have enjoyed the reading. Mostly good people stating their thoughts and opinions. I will introduce myself by saying I am a Pagan (Which means so many things, but in my case it means I accept everyone's belief) and I have a Doctorate in the Philosophy of Theology. Which means I still know nothing, but I know more of it.

First, has the bible been changed? If you are referring to the best seller known as the King James Version, the answer is yes. Three distinct revisions since it was published in 1611. And then you have to ask how accurate is the KJV? Created in England 60 years after Henry VIII had torn up the existing religious structure. This topic is too long for more details right now, but easy to learn about with minimal effort. As for the Muslim need to kill any non-believers, the Christians also have a need to do the same. Check out Deuteronomy 17 if you need proof of that. Shall I start dissecting the Quran now? Not worth it, it too has seen a number of changes in the past thousand years.

So what is my point in all this babble (here comes the sermon) stand strong in your beliefs, and gather strength in what you believe. Allow others to believe as they wish, and if it does not harm you, do not let it bother you. Believe in one God, and accept that the words of the Lord can be seen and interpreted in many different manners. Take the best you can, let the goodness fill you, and share it with all you can. That means whether you be Christian (Many options there), Muslim (Shiite or Sunni), or Pagan (way too many options), if you hold fast to your beliefs, you will not be affected if some one else has a different viewpoint. The good or bad in a person does not come from how they pray, but in who they are.

OK, I am done. Release the hounds and blast away at how wrong you think I might be.

Mourad Benrahmoune - 4/14/2006 In order to clarify some thoughts and ideas to the poeple who has made no accurate research about the personality and characteristics of the prophet of Islam, I wouldreveal to you what westerners says about him.



The following is a list of fair and impartial contemporary scholars' testimonies about Mohammed :



Fair contemporary celebrities, upon reviewing and reading the biography of Allah's Messenger SAAW fully admitted his honor, nobility and leadership. The following are dome of their testimonies



1. Mahatma Gandhi, in an interview with Young India Newspaper, said, 'I wanted to know the characteristics of the man who possesses the hears of millions of people, without any doubt. I became fully convinced that the sword was not the mean by which Islam gain it positions and grounds. It was rather the simplicity of the Prophet, his truthfulness, promptness, dedication, and devotion to his companions and followers, besides his unmatched courage and his unparalleled trust and confidence in His Lord; Allah, the Almighty, in addition to his full belief in his Mission and Message of Islam.

These matters were the qualities and descriptions that paved the way and eased the difficulties, and not the sword. After completing the second volume of the biography of Mohammed, I felt sorry that there wan not enough materials to learn more about his life.'



2. Professor Rama Chrishna Raw, in his book entitled, 'Mohammed, the Prophet', says: 'We can not know the entire personality of Mohammed, but all what I can present of his life is fantastic scenes…



There is Mohammed, the Prophet and messenger, Mohammed the fighter, the businessman, the spokesman, the reformer, the orphans' guardian, the slaves' protector, the women's liberator, the judge, and all these roles were enough to qualify him to be a hero.'



3. The Canadian orientlist Dr. Zuwaimer, in his book entitled, 'The East and its customs', says, 'Undoubtedly, Mohammed was on of the greatest Muslim religious leaders. We can rightly say that he was a super efficient reformer, eloquent, brave, courageous, great thinker whom we should not attribute to him any description that contradicts the above qualities. The Glorious Quran, which he brought forth for humanity, is a great testimony for this claim.



4. The German orientlist Britly Saint Heller, in his book entitled, 'The Orientlists and their creeds', says, ' Mohammed was the head-of-the-state, who looked out for the life of his people and their freedom.

He punished those who committed crimes and felonies during his lifetime. He called for the worship of One God; monotheism.

He was extremely kind in his call to his religion, even with his enemies.

He possessed two characteristics in his personality amongst the highest qualities: justice and mercy.



5. The British writer and critique, Bernard Show, in his book Mohammed, which was ordered to be burnt by the British authorities, says, 'This world is in a bad need for a man with the thinking style and ability of that of Mohammed. This Prophet who always placed his religion in a respectable and honorable position.

This religion is the strongest to digest all civilizations and be an eternal religion.

I notice that many British citizens embraced Islam rightfully. This religion will find great accommodation in Europe.



The clergy men in the middle ages, as a result of discrimination and ignorance, had painted a dim picture for Mohammed. They considered him an enemy for Christianity!.

However, after researching his personality, I discovered that he was a great man. I concluded that he was never an enemy for Christianity; rather he should be called the savior of the humanity.

In fact, if he is given the leadership in our world today, he will resolve the entire world problems in a manner that secure peace and prosperity for the entire humanity.



6. Senrasten Asoji; Semitic languages professor says in his book, 'The history of Mohammed's life', 'We would not be fair to Mohammed if we denied his great qualities and characteristics.

Mohammed led a real battle against ignorance and barbarism insisting on his principles.

He continued to fight against the oppressors until he reached a clear victory.

His religion is the greatest religion and he is above all great people in history.'



7. Senex, the American orientlist in his book, "The Arabs' Creed', says, ' Mohammed appeared after five-hundred-and-seventy years of Jesus, His mission was to promote and improve the human minds by introducing the best ethics and morals to them and teaching them monotheism, and informing them about the Hereafter, or life-after-death.'



8. Michael Hearts, in his book, 'The 100 most influential people in history', 'Choosing Mohammed to be the first, most important and greatest men in history may surprise the readers, but he is the only man throughout the history who succeeded on the religious and worldly affairs levels.



There are messengers, prophets and wise men who started great missions, but they died before completing them, such as the Messiah in Christianity, Moses in Judaism.



But Mohammed is the only messenger who completed his religious message and all it rulings were complete. Complete nations and peoples followed the religion of Mohammed during his lifetime.



Besides, he established a government and a state, which is considered as a worldly affair as well. Mohammed united all the tribes and clans in one people and established laws-of-life. He set his nation to preach the religion to the rest of the world. Therefore, he is the only man throughout the history who succeeded on the religious and worldly affairs levels.



9. The Russian writers; Tolstoy, whose literature and writings are considered to be on the best international literature: 'It suffice Mohammed that he salvaged a humiliated bloody nation from the grip of Satanic customs and put them on the road of development and progress. The Shariah laws of Mohammed shall spread all over the world because it agrees with the common sense and wisdom.



10. Dr. Shperk, the Austrian says, 'The entire humanity should be proud that a man like Mohammed belongs to it.

Despite his being unlettered man he was able to bring about a legislation system that we will be the happiest people is if we reached its peak and the maximum of that legal system.'



11. The English philosopher, Thomas Carlyle, the Nobel Prize winner says in his book, 'The Heroes', 'It is extremely shameful to anyone to believe that Islam is nothing but a bunch of lies. And, it is equally shameful to believe that Mohammed is a liar and cheater.'



We must fight such shameful rumors. The mission that Mohammed achieved and fulfilled is still the lit candle for the past twelve centuries for approximately two-hundred-million people.

How would one believe that the principles, which this huge number of people lived and died by were a mere lie and trick!?



12. Ghotte; the German writer also says, 'We, the European people, with all our thoughts and concepts, did not reach yet what Mohammed had achieved. There will be no one to beat Mohammed and his principles that he called for. I have searched the history for the best example, and found it to be in the personality of Mohammed.

Truth must prevail as Mohammed was able to subject the entire world by the pure words of monotheism.



These were some excerpts of the some of the renowned international scholars of the world concerning Prophet Mohammed .

Why then to say, write or publish harmful items that destroy and harm instead of construct and benefit.!!



Actually the list is still long there are so many philosophers and free thinkers that admitt the truth like:the philosopher thomas carlil in his book "the heros", gustav lobon,cont henry dicastry in his book "islam", the well known english philosopher margliot, the famous writer jerjes in his book "an article on islam", the two writers henry and denaly thomas in their books " the religious leaders", the two researchers dozy and len paul and the priest lozon and Dr H. marcus the islamic philosophy professor so many others...

melissa marie manicone - 4/11/2006 Would it hurt western society to continue to take steps forward and lead the world into the future with positive and peaceful assurances by "fessing up" to that which was brewed onto countries? Countries that were considered to be, by western comparitive standards, barbaric? The Western world should submit and reap the consequences of actions labored even long ago, because the persistance of the Shiites will not let up and unless reconciliation reveals itself in the matter of some form of submission from westerners, we may as well consider the future dead.

Mourad Benrahmoune - 4/10/2006 sorry the reply was for Nax Phonex and not to tatiana. sorry once again for the small mistake

Mourad Benrahmoune - 4/10/2006 Hi Tatiana,

I have read your comment, I do respect it but can´t accept it at all for one simple reason how come a man with all these sociopsycho deficiencies and sicknesses has today more than 1 billion folloer, alomost 1/5 of the world´s population.

it is cristal clear that in any objective study of a historical issue we should also be aware of so many variables as the social, economical and cultural aspects related to the topic.hense, I try imply the first step and clarify some misunderstandings in the text below:(there is a list of the prophet mohammed wives in the middle)



Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the prophet of Islam, is one of the most influential personalities in the history of humankind. More than one-fifth of the world population follows his teachings and the Quran, which was revealed to him by Allah (God).



The conduct and actions of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) were inspired by Allah ( God ). He possessed an excellent character, charming manners, and was highly revered. His noble character remained the same in victory and in defeat, in power and in adversity.



The following is a short introduction the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) wives, the years of marriag,e and possible reasons for the marriages. Except for Khadijah and Zainab bint Khuzayma, all of Muhammad's wives died after him:



*



Khadijah bint (daughter of) Khuwaylid married in 595 CE; widow; died in 619.

*



Sawada bint Zama married soon after 619; widow.

*



Aisha married in 622; virgin.

*



Hafsa bint Umar married circa 624-625; widow, political.

*



Zainab bint Khuzayma married circa 626-627; widow; died soon after marriage to Muhammad.

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Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya married in 626; widow.

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Zainab bint Jahsh married circa 625-627; widow and divorcee.

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Juwayriya bint al-Harith married circa 627-628; w