Iraq is still in turmoil. Iran and Syria are still firmly hostile toward the West. The recent conflict in Lebanon shows Hezbollah and Hamas getting closer to Shia militant groups for anti-Israeli purposes. It seems that the warning given by King Abdullah of Jordan, back in 2004, about a “Shia crescent” have come back into the limelight during the past few months, eloquently expressing Sunni Arabs’ uneasiness about the other side of the Islamic moon. Today, Shiites represent about 10-15% of the Muslim population. They constitute a religious majority in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and Bahrain and are a significant minority in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

As a matter of fact, far from being unitarian, the Muslim world is riven with divisions and partitions, the most prominent being the one between Sunnis and Shiites which dates back to Muhammad’s death. But what is it that makes Sunnis and Shiites different although they are still sides of the same moon? The answer lies in Islamic history. Since Islam lacked a centralized organization, after Muhammad’s death succession disputes occurred often, separating the ummah. Abu Bakr, the first of the “Rightly Guided Caliphs” who had been close to Muhammad during his life, was chosen as the Prophet’s heir. However, while he died of natural death, the following three caliphs were all murdered – Umar ibn al-Khattab in 644, Uthman ibn Affan in 656, and Ali ibn Abi Talib in 661.

It was after Ali’s killing that the Party of Ali gave rise to the Shia denomination and the fissures became deeper when Ali’s sons – Hasan and Husayn – both died during the battle of Karbala. As Vartan Gregorian points out in his book Islam. A Mosaic not A Monolith, Khalid Durán notes that “The conflict between Sunnism and Shi’ism resembles that between Judaism and Christianity. Just as Christians have held Jews responsible for the killing of Christ, Shias hold Sunnis responsible for the killing of Ali and his sons, Hasan and Husayn”. Nonetheless, the initial reasons for the break lay in the system chosen for Muhammad’s succession. Shiites maintained that only those who had blood ties with Muhammad could succeed him, while Sunnis supported an elective system. Basically, Shiites believed that Ali – not Abu Bakr nor the other two Rightly Guided caliphs – should have succeeded the Prophet and that Muhammad had decided so during his last days.

Shias main denomination is that of the Twelvers, which is wide-spread in southern Iraq, Iran and India. This denomination maintains as fundamental the doctrine of the imami, the direct line of succession of Muhammad’s family. They believe in the succession of twelve imams, beginning with Ali and his sons. The twelfth and last imam is still alive and will one day reappear as a messiah to bring tyrannical power to an end and make justice triumph. Twelvers see imams as infallible and devoid of sin while according to the Sunnis an imam is simply a leader of prayer. Another main controversy divides Shiites from Sunnis. For the former, Qu’ran has been created while for the latter Qu’ran has always existed. Shia justice is based on the Qu’ran, on the traditions concerning the Prophet and the imams, as well as on the consensus among scholars.

It is a Shia belief that as long as the twelfth imam won’t reappear, his will is represented by the jurists, because only these scholars are capable of interpreting the Qu’ran and other sources of Islamic law. For this reason, major Shia jurists are given the title of ayatollah which means “sign of God”. On the other side, Sunnis are the followers of the four Islamic juridical schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi, and Hanbali) that rose in the IX century as expression of the sunnah (i.e. custom, tradition) in the effort to formalize Islamic doctrine. Sunnah stands for the Prophet’s tradition – his deeds, sayings as well as those of his companions that the Sunnis recognize as representatives and guarantors of his tradition. Contrary to the Shiites, Sunnis maintain the sunnah and the acknowledgement of the Rightly Guided Caliphs’ authority as the general rule for political, juridical and religious practice. However in Sunni Islam today the recognition of the four juridical schools as guarantees of the Prophet’s tradition is not undisputed anymore.