Successors of Muhammad

Mahdi

The Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam. While Shia and Sunnis differ on the nature of the Mahdi, many members of both groups^[40] believe that the Mahdi will appear at the end of the world to bring about a perfect and just Islamic society.

In Shia Islam, "the Mahdi symbol has developed into a powerful and central religious idea."^[41] Twelvers believe the Mahdi will be Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth Imam returned from the Occultation, where he has been hidden by Allah since 874. Mainstream Sunnis' beliefs are somewhat different: The Mahdi forms an important component of Sunni eschatology, his appearance being considered the last of the minor signs of the Day of Judgment before its major signs. They believe the Mahdi will be a descendant of Muhammad named Muhammad, and will revive the faith.

Hadith

The Shia accept some of the same hadiths of Muhammad used by Sunnis as part of the sunnah and the basis of divine law and religious practice. In addition, they consider the sayings of Ahl al-Bayt that are not attributed directly to Muhammad as hadiths. Shia do not accept many Sunni hadiths unless they are also recorded in Shia sources or the methodology of how they were recorded can be proven. Also, some Sunni-accepted hadiths—for example by Aisha or Abu Hurairah—are less favored by Shia (Aisha's opposed Ali and Abu Hurairah is considered an enemy of Ali and according to Shia, only a Muslim for four years of his life before Muhammad's death. Although he accompanied Muhammad for only four years, he managed to record ten times as many hadiths as Abu Bakr and Ali each).^[42]

Shiism and Sufism

Shiism and Sufism are said to share a number of hallmarks: Belief in an inner meaning to the Quran, special status for some mortals (saints for Sufi, Imams for Shia), as well as veneration of Ali and Muhammad's family.^[43]

Pillars of faith

The Five Pillars of Islam (Arabic: أركان الإسلام) is the term given to the five duties incumbent on every Muslim, and are held by both Sunni and Shia. These duties are Shahada (profession of faith), Salat (prayers), Zakāt (giving of alms), Sawm (fasting, specifically during Ramadan) and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). In addition, Shia theology has two concepts that define religion as a whole. There are Roots of Religion (Usūl al-Dīn) and Branches of Religion (Furu al Din).

Practices

Many distinctions can be made between Sunnis and Shiaīs through observation alone:

Salat

A Sunni Muslim (left) beside a Shia Muslim (right) showing different ways of holding arms during 16 March 2018 Tehran Friday prayer, Iran.

When prostrating during ritual prayer known as Salah (one of the five pillars of Islam), Shia place their forehead onto a piece of naturally occurring material—most often a clay tablet (mohr), soil (turbah) from Karbala, the place where Hussein ibn Ali was martyred—instead of directly onto a prayer rug.

There are five salat prayers at different times of the day, but unlike Sunni, some Shia combine two sets of the prayers, (1+2+2, i.e. fajr on its own, Dhuhr with Asr and Maghrib with Isha') praying five times a day but with a very small break in between the prayer, instead of five prayers with some gap between them as required by Sunni schools of law.^[28]

Shia and the followers of the Sunni Maliki school hold their hands at their sides during prayer while Sunnis of other schools cross their arms (right over left) and clasp their hands;^[44] it is commonly held by Sunni scholars (especially of the Maliki school) that either is acceptable.^{[45][46][47][48][49]}

Abbasid era

Destruction of the Tomb of Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala, condemned in a Mughal era manuscript.

The Umayyads were overthrown in 750 by a new dynasty, the Abbasids. The first Abbasid caliph, As-Saffah, recruited Shia support in his campaign against the Umayyads by emphasising his blood relationship to Muhammad's household through descent from his uncle, ‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib.^[61] The Shia also believe that he promised them that the Caliphate, or at least religious authority, would be vested in the Shia Imam. As-Saffah assumed both the temporal and religious mantle of Caliph himself. He continued the Umayyad dynastic practice of succession, and his brother al-Mansur succeeded him in 754.

Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Shia Imam, died during al-Mansur's reign, and there were claims that he was murdered on the orders of the caliph.^[62] (However, Abbasid persecution of Islamic scholars was not restricted to the Shia. Abū Ḥanīfa, for example, was imprisoned by al-Mansur and tortured.)

Shia sources further claim that by the orders of the tenth Abbasid caliph, al-Mutawakkil, the tomb of the third Imam, Hussein ibn Ali in Karbala, was completely demolished,^[63] and Shia were sometimes beheaded in groups, buried alive, or even placed alive within the walls of government buildings still under construction.^[64]

The Shia believe that their community continued to live for the most part in hiding and followed their religious life secretly without external manifestations.^[65]

Iraq

Many Shia Iranians migrated to what is now Iraq in the 16th century. "It is said that when modern Iraq was formed, some of the population of Karbala was Iranian". In time, these immigrants adopted the Arabic language and Arab identity, but their origin has been used to "unfairly cast them as lackeys of Iran".^[66] However many of these Shia come from Sayyid families with origins in tribes from Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain, one of said tribes being al-Musawi, and two prevalent families that are descended from it and lived in Iran for some time before settling in Iraq are the al-Qazwini and al-Shahristani families. Other Iraqi Shia are ethnic Arabs with roots in Iraq as deep as those of their Sunni counterparts.^[67]

Persia

Shafi'i Sunnism was the dominant form of Islam in most of Iran until rise of the Safavid Empire although a significant undercurrent of Ismailism and a very large minority of Twelvers were present all over Persia.

The Sunni hegemony did not undercut the Shia presence in Iran. The writers of the Shia Four Books were Iranian, as were many other scholars. According to Morteza Motahhari:^[68]

The majority of Iranians turned to Shi'ism from the Safawid period onwards. Of course, it cannot be denied that Iran's environment was more favourable to the flourishing of the Shi'ism as compared to all other parts of the Muslim world. Shi'ism did not penetrate any land to the extent that it gradually could in Iran. With the passage of time, Iranians' readiness to practise Shi'ism grew day by day. Had Shi`ism not been deeply rooted in the Iranian spirit, the Safawids (907–1145/1501–1732) would not have succeeded in converting Iranians to the Shi'i creed Ahl al-Bayt sheerly by capturing political power.

Yavuz Sultan Selim who delivered a devastating blow to the Shia Safavids and Ismail I in the Battle of Chaldiran, a battle of historical significance.

Post-Safavid

Ismail I initiated a religious policy to recognize Shiism as the official religion of the Safavid Empire, and the fact that modern Iran and Azerbaijan remain majority-Shia states is a direct result of Ismail's actions.

Shah Ismail I of Safavid dynasty destroyed the tombs of Abū Ḥanīfa and the Sufi Abdul Qadir Gilani in 1508.^[77] In 1533, Ottomans reconquered Iraq and rebuilt Sunni shrines.^[78]

However, most of Ismail's subjects were Sunni. As a result, he enforced official Shiism violently, putting to death those who opposed him. Under this pressure, Safavid subjects either converted or pretended to convert. However, it is speculated that the majority of the population was genuinely Shia by the end of the Safavid period in the 18th century, and most Iranians today are Shia, although there is still a Sunni minority.^[79]

Immediately following the establishment of Safavid power the migration of scholars began and they were invited to Iran ... By the side of the immigration of scholars, Shi'i works and writings were also brought to Iran from Arabic-speaking lands, and they performed an important role in the religious development of Iran ... In fact, since the time of the leadership of Shaykh Mufid and Shaykh Tusi, Iraq had a central academic position for Shi'ism. This central position was transferred to Iran during the Safavid era for two-and-a-half centuries, after which it partly returned to Najaf. ... Before the Safavid era Shi'i manuscripts were mainly written in Iraq, with the establishment of the Safavid rule these manuscripts were transferred to Iran.^[72]

This led to a wide gap between Iran and its Sunni neighbors, particularly its rival, the Ottoman Empire, in the wake of the Battle of Chaldiran. This gap continued until the 20th century.

• 
  The declaration of Shi'ism as the state religion of the realm by Shah Ismail – 1501 Tabriz central mosque.
• 
  Monument commemorating the Battle of Chaldiran, which was fought between the Sunni Ottoman Empire and the Shia Safavid dynasty.

Hejaz

In the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, where Muslims, including Shia, perform Hajj (one of the pillars of Islam), tensions between Shia and Sunni have waxed and waned. Historian Martin Kramer writes that both Sunni and Shia spread "farfetched" libelous rumours about the other sect — Sunnis that Shia defiled the Ka‘bah with excrement, and Shia that Sunni considered he lives of Shi‘ite pilgrims to be "forfeit" in a holy shrine where in fact "all forms of strife and bloodshed are forbidden".^[57] According to English explorer Richard Francis Burton, a non-Muslim who journeyed to Mecca in disguise in 1853, when a Shi‘ite performs hajj,

“that man is happy who gets over it without a beating, [for] in no part of Al-Hijaz are they for a moment safe from abuse and blows.”^[80]

But in "the late Ottoman years" toleration had reached a level were Shi‘ites observed Muharram in Jidda (65 km from Mecca) openly.^[57] An Iranian Shi‘ite on hajj in 1885 reported:

Previously, in Mecca the populace greatly persecuted the Iranian pilgrims who were Shi‘ites, so they had to practice complete dissimulation. These days, because of the weakness of the Ottoman government and the European style civil law which is practiced there, and the strength of the Iranian government, this practice is completely abandoned. There is no harm done to the Iranians. No one would molest them, even if they did not practice dissimulation.^[81]

Levant

Rashid ad-Din Sinan the Grand Master of the Ismaili Shia at Masyaf successfully deterred Saladin, not to assault the minor territories under the control of their sect.

The Shia faith in the Levant started spreading during the Hamdanid rule, which commenced in the start of the 10th century. It was followed by the Mirdasid Shi'ite emirate in the 11th century, with both the emirates centered at Aleppo.

The general observations recorded by Muslim travellers passing through the Levant during the tenth and eleventh centuries, notably al-Maqdisi in his geographical works, “The best divisions in the knowledge of the regions”, as well as Ibn Jubayr, indicate that Shia Muslims made up the majority of the populations of the regions of the Levant during this era, notably in the cities of Damascus, Tiberias, Nablus, Tyre, Homs and Jabal Amel. In addition to the account of Nasir Khusraw who visited Jerusalem in the year 1045 AD and reported: "The population of Jerusalem is about 20,000, the populace being mostly Shi'a Muslims". However, with the advent of the Zengids and Ayyubids, the population of Shia dwindled greatly due to conversion and migrations.

In 1305, the Sunni Mamelukes carried out a grand campaign to erase the Shiite dominance in the coastal mountains of Lebanon. This campaign forced most of the Shiites to disperse, with some fleeing south to Jabal Amel and some to the Bekaa, while a very small portion of them took on the practice of Taqiyya until the Ottomans came in 1517. Many Shia in the Levant were killed for their faith. One of these was Muhammad Ibn Makki, called Shahid-i Awwal (the First Martyr), one of the great figures in Shia jurisprudence, who was killed in Damascus in 1384.^[73]

Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi was another eminent scholar, killed in Aleppo on charges of cultivating Batini teachings and philosophy.^[73]

On 21 April 1802, about 12,000 Wahhabi Sunnis under the command of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, the second ruler of the First Saudi State attacked and sacked Karbala, killed between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants and plundered the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Prophet Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib,^[82]: 74 and destroyed its dome, seizing a large quantity of spoils, including gold, Persian carpets, money, pearls, and guns that had accumulated in the tomb, most of them donations. The attack lasted for eight hours, after which the Wahhabis left the city with more than 4,000 camels carrying their plunder.^[83]

Caucasus region

The Sack of Shamakhi took place on 18 August 1721, when 15,000 Sunni Lezgins, of the Safavid Empire, attacked the capital of Shirvan province, Shamakhi (in present-day Azerbaijan Republic),^[84][85] massacred between 4,000 and 5,000 of its Shia population and ransacked the city.^[86]

India

1919–1979

At least one scholar sees the period from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire through the decline of Arab nationalism as a time of relative unity and harmony between traditionalist Sunni and Shia Muslims. A unity brought on by a feeling of being under siege from a common threat, i.e. secularism—first of the European colonial variety and then Arab nationalist.^[19]

An example of Sunni–Shia cooperation was the Khilafat Movement which swept South Asia following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the seat of the Caliphate, in World War I. Shia scholars "came to the caliphate's defence" by attending the 1931 Caliphate Conference in Jerusalem. This was despite the fact that theologically Shia held that Imams, not caliphs, were the successors to Muhammad, and that the caliphate was "the flagship institution" of Sunni, not Shia, authority. This has been described as unity of traditionalists in the face of the twin threats of "secularism and colonialism."^[19]

In 1938, Allama Muhammad Taqi Qummi travelled to Cairo for the purpose of rebuilding/strengthening Islamic unity at Al-Azhar University. His efforts, including connecting with scholars such as Mahmud Shaltut and Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi, led to the founding of Dar-al-Taghrib (community for reforming unity between Sunni and Shia Muslims).^[92]

Another example of unity was a fatwā issued by the rector of Al-Azhar University, Mahmud Shaltut, recognizing Shia Islamic law as the fifth school of Islamic law. In 1959, al-Azhar University in Cairo, the most influential center of Sunni learning, authorized the teaching of courses of Shia jurisprudence as part of its curriculum.^[93]

Post-Iranian Revolution era

Damage to a mosque in Khorramshahr, Iran

The leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini saw the revolution as an Islamic, not a Shi'i Islamic revolution.^[94] His revolution was (he hoped) just the first and would spread throughout the Muslim world, with Iran serving as "the base for a global Islamic movement", and himself as the leader, just as Lenin and Trotsky had hoped the Bolshevik Revolution would be only the first communist revolution.^[94] The year of the Revolution was "one of great ecumenical discourse",^[95] and shared enthusiasm by both Shia and Sunni Islamists. Khomeini endeavored to bridge the gap between Shiites and Sunnis by declaring it permissible for Twelvers to pray behind Sunni imams and by forbidding criticizing the Caliphs who preceded Ali—an issue that had caused much animosity between the two groups.^[96] He focused on issues that united Muslims — anti-Imperialism, anti-Zionism, anti-Americanism, and "the battle against outsiders" — rather than "religious questions that were likely to divide them".^[94] In addition, Khomeini designated the period of Prophet's Birthday celebrations from 12th to the 17th of Rabi Al-Awwal as the Islamic Unity Week, (there being a gap in the dates of when Shiites and Sunnis celebrate Muhammad's birthday).^[97]

Outside conspiracies

Many in the Muslim world explain the bloodshed as the work of conspiracies by outside forces—"the forces of hegemony and Zionism which aim to weaken [Arabs]" (Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Yusuf al-Qaradawi),^[110] unspecified "enemies" (Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad),^[114] or "oppressive pressure by the imperialist front." (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).^{[109] [note 1]}

Some Western analysts assert that the US is practicing divide and rule strategy through the escalation of Sunni-Shia conflict. Nafeez Ahmed cites a 2008 RAND Corporation study for the American military which recommended "divide and rule" as a possible strategy whereby the US takes "the side of the conservative Sunni regimes ... working with them against all Shiite empowerment movements in the Muslim world".^[116] On the other hand, the Pakistani Sunni jihadist organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has declared that it is the Shia of Pakistan and Iraq who are "'American agents' and the 'near enemy' in the global jihad against America".^[117] Christopher Davidson argues that the current crisis in Yemen is being “egged on” by the US, and could be part of a wider covert strategy to “spur fragmentation in Iran allies and allow Israel to be surrounded by weak states”.^[118]

Islamic revival

Others (Martin Seth Kramer, Vali Nasr) lay the blame for the strife at a very different source, the unintended effects of the Islamic revival.

Historian Martin Seth Kramer (writing circa mid-1990s), argues that the focus on alleging "plots" by outsiders and/or claims by one side that the issue is only with an extremist group on the other side (for example Wahhabism or Khomeinism), distracts from the seriousness of the problem:

For most Muslims, it is no longer considered politic to dwell openly on the differences between Sunni and Shi‘ite Islam. Indeed, merely to cite these differences is regarded by many as part of an imperialist plot to foment division in Islam. The new sectarianism takes a subtler form: Shi‘ites profess their unity of purpose with Sunnis, but then declare that a major expression of Sunnism (in this case, Saudi Wahhabism) is a deviation from ecumenical Islam. Sunnis declare their acceptance of Shi‘ites as Muslims, but then declare that a major expression of Shi‘ism (in this case, Iran’s revolutionary activism) constitutes a deviation from ecumenical Islam. In this manner, sectarian prejudice is insinuated, even as the unity of Islam is openly professed.^[57]

According to scholar Vali Nasr, as the Muslim world was decolonialised and Arab nationalism lost its appeal, religion filled its place. As religion became more important, so did a return to its fundamentals and a following of its finer points; differences once overlooked became deviations to be denouncing and fought, and there were many differences between Sunni and Shia. Fundamentalism blossomed and conflicts reasserted, in particular when Sunni followed the strict teachings of Sunni scholar Ibn Taymiyyah,^[111] who considered Shia apostates^[119] and who is held in high regard by Sunni Salafi.

US invasion of Iraq

Among those blaming the US invasion of Iraq for the growth in sectarianism are Fawaz Gerges, who writes in his book ISIS: A History,

By destroying state institutions and establishing a sectarian-based political system, the 2003 US-led invasion polarized the country along Sunni-Shia lines and set the stage for a fierce, prolonged struggle driven by identity politics. Anger against the United States was also fueled by the humiliating disbandment of the Iraqi army and the de-Baathification law, which was first introduced as a provision and then turned into a permanent article of the constitution.^[113]

Malise Ruthven writes that the post invasion de-Ba'athification by the US occupiers deprived Iraq of "the officer class and administrative cadres that had ruled under Saddam Hussein, leaving the field to sectarian-based militias".^[113] Many of officers joined the anti-Shia takfiri ISIL group.

The US-led invasion also “tilted the regional balance of power decisively" in favor of Shia Iran, alarming Sunni and leading to talk of a “Shia Crescent”.^[113]

Counter-revolutionary tactic

Marc Lynch in his book The New Arab Wars: Uprisings and Anarchy in the Middle East, argues that as old regimes or political forces sought to control "the revolutionary upsurge" of the Arab Spring, sectarianism became “a key weapon” to undermine unity among the anti-regime masses. Christians were pitted "against Muslims in Egypt, Jordanians against Palestinians in Jordan, and, above all, Sunnis against Shi’ites wherever possible.”^[113]

Iraq

Shia–Sunni discord in Iraq starts with disagreement over the relative population of the two groups. The governing regimes of Iraq were composed mainly of Sunnis for nearly a century until the 2003 Iraq War, but according to most sources, the majority of the population is Shia. The CIA's World Factbook, estimates Shia Arab Muslims as making up 60% of Iraqis, and Sunni muslims 37%.^[134] However, Sunni are split ethnically among Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. Many Sunnis hotly dispute their minority status, (including ex-Iraqi Ambassador Faruq Ziada),^[135] and many believe Shia majority is "a myth spread by America".^[136] One Sunni belief shared by Jordan's King Abdullah as well as his then Defense Minister Shaalan is that Shia numbers in Iraq were inflated by Iranian Shia crossing the border.^[137] Shia scholar Vali Nasr believes the election turnout in summer and December 2005 confirmed a strong Shia majority in Iraq.^[138]

The British, having put down a Shia rebellion against their rule in the 1920s, "confirmed their reliance on a corps of Sunni ex-officers of the collapsed Ottoman empire". The British colonial rule ended after the Sunni and Shia united against it.^[139]

The Shia suffered indirect and direct persecution under post-colonial Iraqi governments since 1932, erupting into full-scale rebellions in 1935 and 1936. Shia were also persecuted during the Ba'ath Party rule, especially under Saddam Hussein. It is said that every Shia clerical family of note in Iraq had tales of torture and murder to recount.^[140] In 1969 the son of Iraq's highest Shia Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim was arrested and allegedly tortured. From 1979 to 1983 Saddam's regime executed 48 major Shia clerics in Iraq.^[141] They included Shia leader Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister. Tens of thousands of Iranians and Arabs of Iranian origin were expelled in 1979 and 1980 and a further 75,000 in 1989.^[142]

The Shia openly revolted against Saddam following the Gulf War in 1991 and were encouraged by Saddam's defeat in Kuwait and by simultaneous Kurdish uprising in the north. However, Shia opposition to the government was brutally suppressed, resulting in some 50,000 to 100,000 casualties and successive repression by Saddam's forces.^[143]

Iran

Iran is unique in the Muslim world because its population is overwhelmingly more Shia than Sunni (Shia constitute 95% of the population) and because its constitution is theocratic republic based on rule by a Shia jurist.

The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, supported good Sunni–Shia relations. However tension developed between Sunnis and Shia as a result of clashes over Iranian pilgrims and Saudi police at the hajj.^[168] Millions of Saudi adhere to the school of Salafism which is a branch of Sunni Islam.^[169]

Inside Iran there have been complaints by Sunni of discrimination, particularly in important government positions.^[170] In a joint appearance with former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani calling for Shia-Sunni unity, Sunni Shiekh Yusuf al-Qaradawi complained that no ministers in Iran have been Sunni for a long time, that Sunni officials are scarce even in the regions with majority of Sunni population (such as Kurdistan, or Balochistan)^[171] and despite the presence of Christian churches, as a prominent example of this discrimination. Although reformist President Mohammad Khatami promised during his election campaign to build a Sunni mosque in Tehran, none was built during his eight years in office. The president explained the situation by saying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would not agree to the proposal.^[172] As in other parts of the Muslim world, other issues may play a part in the conflict, since most Sunnis in Iran are also ethnic minorities.^[173]

Soon after the 1979 revolution, Sunni leaders from Kurdistan, Balouchistan, and Khorassan, set up a new party known as Shams, which is short for Shora-ye Markaz-e al Sunaat, to unite Sunnis and lobby for their rights. But six months after that they were closed down, bank accounts suspended and had their leaders arrested by the government on charges that they were backed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.^[170]

A UN human rights report states that:

...information indicates Sunnis, along with other religious minorities, are denied by law or practice access to such government positions as cabinet minister, ambassador, provincial governor, mayor and the like, Sunni schools and mosques have been destroyed, and Sunni leaders have been imprisoned, executed and assassinated. The report notes that while some of the information received may be difficult to corroborate there is a clear impression that the right of freedom of religion is not being respected with regard to the Sunni minority.^[174][175]

Members of the 'Balochistan Peoples Front' claim that Sunnis are systematically discriminated against educationally by denial of places at universities, politically by not allowing Sunnis to be army generals, ambassadors, ministers, prime minister, or president, religiously insulting Sunnis in the media, economic discrimination by not giving import or export licenses for Sunni businesses while the majority of Sunnis are left unemployed.^[176]

There has been a low level resistance in mainly Sunni Iranian Balouchistan against the regime for several years. Official media refers to the fighting as armed clashes between the police and "bandits," "drug-smugglers," and "thugs," to disguise what many believe is essentially a political-religious conflict. Revolutionary Guards have stationed several brigades in Balouchi cities, and have allegedly tracked down and assassinated Sunni leaders both inside Iran and in neighboring Pakistan. In 1996 a leading Sunni, Abdulmalek Mollahzadeh, was gunned down by hitmen, allegedly hired by Tehran, as he was leaving his house in Karachi.^[177]

Members of Sunni groups in Iran however have been active in what the authorities describe as terrorist activities. Balochi Sunni Abdolmalek Rigi continue to declare the Shia as Kafir and Mushrik.^[178] These Sunni groups have been involved in violent activities in Iran and have waged terrorist^[179] attacks against civilian centers, including an attack next to a girls' school^[180] according to government sources. The "shadowy Sunni militant group Jundallah" has reportedly been receiving weaponry from the United States for these attacks according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.^[181] The United Nations^[182] and several countries worldwide have condemned the bombings. (See 2007 Zahedan bombings for more information)

Following the 2005 elections, much of the leadership of Iran has been described as more "staunchly committed to core Shia values" and lacking Ayatollah Khomeini's commitment to Shia–Sunni unity.^[183] Polemics critical of Sunnis were reportedly being produced in Arabic for dissemination in the Arab Muslim world by Hojjatieh-aligned elements in the Iranian regime.^[184] Sunni mosques are not allowed in the capital city of Tehran, and a number of Sunni mosques in other cities have been demolished,^[185] Sunni literature and teachings are banned in public schools and construction of new Sunni mosques and schools are banned.^[186]

Syria

Syria is approximately three quarters Sunni,^[187] but its government is predominantly Alawite, a Shia sect that makes up less than 13% of the population. Under Hafez al-Assad, Alawites dominated the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, a secular Arab nationalist party which had ruled Syria under a state of emergency from 1963 to 2011. Alawites are often considered a form of Shia Islam, that differs somewhat from the larger Twelver Shia sect.^[188]

During the 20th century, an Islamic uprising in Syria occurred with sectarian religious overtones between the Alawite-dominated Assad government and the Islamist Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, culminating with the 1982 Hama massacre. An estimated 10,000 to 40,000 Syrians, mostly civilians, were killed by Syrian military in the city. During the uprising, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood attacked military cadets at an artillery school in Aleppo, performed car bomb attacks in Damascus, as well as bomb attacks against the government and its officials, including Hafez al-Assad himself, and had killed several hundred.

How much of the conflict was sparked by Sunni versus Shia divisions and how much by Islamism versus secular-Arab-nationalism, is in question, but according to scholar Vali Nasr the failure of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic of Iran to support the Muslim Brotherhood against the Baathists "earned [Khomeini] the Brotherhood's lasting contempt." It proved to the satisfaction of the Brotherhood that sectarian loyalty trumped Islamist solidarity for Khomeini and eliminated whatever appeal Khomeini might have had to the MB movement as a pan-Islamic leader.^[189]

Saudi Arabia

While Shia make up roughly 10% of Saudi Arabia's population,^[193] they form a large portion of the residents of the Eastern Province—by some estimates a majority^[194]—where much of the petroleum industry is based. Between 500,000 and a million Shia live there,^[195] concentrated especially around the oases of Qatif and al-Hasa. The Majority of Saudi Shia belong to the sect of the Twelvers.^[196]

The Saudi conflict of Shia and Sunni extends beyond the borders of the kingdom because of international Saudi "Petro-Islam" influence. Saudi Arabia backed Iraq in the 1980–1988 war with Iran and sponsored militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan who—though primarily targeting the Soviet Union, which had invaded Afghanistan in 1979—also fought to suppress Shia movements.^[197]

Relations between the Shia and the Wahhabis are inherently strained because the Wahhabis consider the rituals of the Shia to be the epitome of shirk, or polytheism. In the late 1920s, the Ikhwan (Ibn Saud's fighting force of converted Wahhabi Bedouin Muslims) were particularly hostile to the Shia and demanded that Abd al Aziz forcibly convert them. In response, Abd al Aziz sent Wahhabi missionaries to the Eastern Province, but he did not carry through with attempts at forced conversion. In recent decades the late leading Saudi cleric, Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz, issued fatwa denouncing Shia as apostates, and according to Shia scholar Vali Nasr "Abdul-Rahman al-Jibrin, a member of the Higher Council of Ulama, even sanctioned the killing of Shia,^[195] a call that was reiterated by Wahhabi religious literature as late as 2002."^[198]

Government policy has been to allow Shia their own mosques and to exempt Shia from Hanbali inheritance practices. Nevertheless, Shia have been forbidden all but the most modest displays on their principal festivals, which are often occasions of sectarian strife in the Persian Gulf region, with its mixed Sunni–Shia populations.^[196]

According to a report by the Human Rights Watch:

Shia Muslims, who constitute about eight percent of the Saudi population, faced discrimination in employment as well as limitations on religious practices. Shia jurisprudence books were banned, the traditional annual Shia mourning procession of Ashura was discouraged, and operating independent Islamic religious establishments remained illegal. At least seven Shi'a religious leaders-Abd al-Latif Muhammad Ali, Habib al-Hamid, Abd al-Latif al-Samin, Abdallah Ramadan, Sa'id al-Bahaar, Muhammad Abd al-Khidair, and Habib Hamdah Sayid Hashim al-Sadah-reportedly remained in prison for violating these restrictions."^[199]

And Amnesty International adds:

Members of the Shi‘a Muslim community (estimated at between 7 and 10 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s population of about 19 million) suffer systematic political, social, cultural as well as religious discrimination.^[200]

As of 2006 four of the 150 members of Saudi Arabia's "handpicked" parliament were Shia, but no city had a Shia mayor or police chief, and none of the 300 girls schools for Shia in the Eastern Province had a Shia principal. According to scholar Vali Nasr, Saudi textbooks "characterize Shiism as a form of heresy ... worse than Christianity and Judaism."^[201]

Forced into exile in the 1970s, Saudi Shia leader Hassan al-Saffar is said to have been "powerfully influenced" by the works of Sunni Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islami and by their call for Islamic revolution and an Islamic state.^[202]

Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Shia in Hasa ignored the ban on mourning ceremonies commemorating Ashura. When police broke them up three days of rampage ensued—burned cars, attacked banks, looted shops—centered around Qatif. At least 17 Shia were killed. In February 1980 disturbances were "less spontaneous" and even bloodier.^[203] Meanwhile, broadcasts from Iran in the name of the Islamic Revolutionary Organization attacked the monarchy, telling listeners, "Kings despoil a country when they enter it and make the noblest of its people its meanest ... This is the nature of monarchy, which is rejected by Islam."^[204]

By 1993, Saudi Shia had abandoned uncompromising demands and some of al-Saffar's followers met with King Fahd with promises made for reform. In 2005 the new King Abdullah also relaxed some restrictions on the Shia.^[205] However, Shia continue to be arrested for commemorating Ashura as of 2006.^[206] In December 2006, amidst escalating tensions in Iraq, 38 high ranking Saudi clerics called on Sunni Muslims around the world to "mobilise against Shiites".^[207] A year later, Shia Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi is reported to have responded:

The Wahhabis ignore the occupation of Islam's first Qiblah by Israel, and instead focus on declaring Takfiring fatwas against Shia.^[208]

• Saudi Sunni

Another reflection of grassroots Wahhabi or Saudi antipathy to Shia was a statement by Saudi cleric Nasir al-Umar, who accused Iraqi Shia of close ties to the United States and argued that both were enemies of Muslims everywhere.^[209]

Lebanon

Though sectarian tensions in Lebanon were at their height during the Lebanese Civil War, the Shia–Sunni relations were not the main conflict of the war. The Shia party/militia of Hezbollah emerged in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War as one of the strongest forces following the Israeli withdrawal in the year 2000, and the collapse of the South Lebanese Army in the South. The tensions blew into a limited warfare between Shia dominated and Sunni dominated political alliances in 2008.

With the eruption of the Syrian Civil War, tensions increased between the Shia-affiliated Alawites and Sunnis of Tripoli, erupting twice into deadly violence—in June 2011, and the second time in February 2012. The Syrian war has affected Hezbollah, which was once lauded by both Sunnis and Shi'ites for its battles against Israel, but now has lost support from many Sunnis for its military assistance to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

^[214] The bombings are thought to be in retaliation^[215] for a large car bomb which detonated on 15 August 2013 and killed at least 24 and wounded hundreds in a part of Beirut controlled by the Hezbollah^[216]

Jordan

Although the country of Jordan is 95% Sunni and has not seen any Shia–Sunni fighting within, it has played a part in the recent Shia-Sunni strife. It is the home country of anti-Shia insurgent Raed Mansour al-Banna, who died perpetrating one of Iraq's worst suicide bombings in the city of Al-Hillah. Al-Banna killed 125 Shia and wounded another 150 in the 2005 Al Hillah bombing of a police recruiting station and adjacent open air market. In March 2005 Salt, al-Banna's home town, saw a three-day wake for al-Banna who Jordanian newspapers and celebrants proclaimed a martyr to Islam, which by definition made the Shia victims "infidels whose murder was justified." Following the wake Shia mobs in Iraq attacked the Jordanian embassy on 20 March 2005. Ambassadors were withdrawn from both countries.^[217][218] All this resulted despite the strong filial bonds, ties of commerce, and traditional friendship between the two neighboring countries.^[218]

Egypt

According to Pew, roughly 99% of Egyptian Muslims regarded themselves as Sunni Muslims.^[219][220] others put the number of Shia somewhere between 800,000^[221] to about two to three million.^[222][223] The Syrian Civil War has brought on an increase in anti-Shia rhetoric,^[224] and what Human Rights Watch states is "anti-Shia hate speech by Salafis".^[225] In 2013 a mob of several hundred attacked a house in the village of Abu Musallim near Cairo, dragging four Shia worshipers through the street before lynching them.^[225][224]

Yemen

Muslims in Yemen include the majority Shafi'i (Sunni) and the minority Zaidi (Shia). Zaidi are sometimes called "Fiver Shia" instead of Twelver Shia because they recognize the first four of the Twelve Imams but accept Zayd ibn Ali as their "Fifth Imām" rather than his brother Muhammad al-Baqir. Shia–Sunni conflict in Yemen involves the Shia insurgency in northern Yemen.^[18]

Both Shia and Sunni dissidents in Yemen have similar complaints about the government—cooperation with the American government and an alleged failure to following Sharia law^[226]—but it's the Shia who have allegedly been singled out for government crackdown.

During and after the US-led invasion of Iraq, members of the Zaidi-Shia community protested after Friday prayers every week outside mosques, particularly the Grand Mosque in Sana'a, during which they shouted anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans, and criticised the government's close ties to America.^[227] These protests were led by ex-parliament member and Imam, Bader Eddine al-Houthi.^[228] In response the Yemeni government has implemented a campaign to crush to the Zaidi-Shia rebellion"^[229] and harass journalists.^[230]

These latest measures come as the government faces a Sunni rebellion with a similar motivation to the Zaidi discontent.^{[231][232][233]}

A March 2015 suicide bombing of two mosques (used mainly by supporters of the Zaidi Shia-led Houthi rebel movement), in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, killed at least 137 people and wounded 300. The Sunni Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant movement claimed responsibility, issuing a statement saying: "Let the polytheist Houthis know that the soldiers of the Islamic State will not rest until we have uprooted them." Both the Sunni al-Qaeda and "Islamic State" consider Shia Muslims to be heretics.^[234]

Bahrain

The small Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain has a Shia majority but is ruled by Sunni Al Khalifa family as a constitutional monarchy, with Sunni dominating the ruling class and military and disproportionately represented in the business and landownership.^[235] According to the CIA World Factbook, Al Wefaq the largest Shia political society, won the largest number of seats in the elected chamber of the legislature. However, Shia discontent has resurfaced in recent years with street demonstrations and occasional low-level violence."^[236] Bahrain has many disaffected unemployed youths and many have protested Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa's efforts to create a parliament as merely a "cooptation of the effendis", i.e. traditional elders and notables. Bahrain's 2002 election was widely boycotted by Shia. Mass demonstrations have been held in favor of full-fledged democracy in March and June 2005, against an alleged insult to Ayatollah Khamenei in July 2005.^[237]

Pakistan

Pakistan's citizens have had serious Shia-Sunni discord. Almost 90% of Pakistan's Muslim population is Sunni, with 10% being Shia, but this Shia minority forms the second largest Shia population of any country,^[238] larger than the Shia majority in Iraq.

Until recently Shia–Sunni relations have been cordial, and a majority of people of both sects participated in the creation the state of Pakistan in the 1940s.^[17] Despite the fact that Pakistan is a Sunni majority country, Shia have been elected to top offices and played an important part in the country's politics. Several top Pakistani military and political figures such as General Muhammad Musa, and Pakistan's President Yahya Khan were Shia, as well as Former President Asif Ali Zardari was a Shia. There are many intermarriages between Shia and Sunnis in Pakistan.

Unfortunately, from 1987 to 2007, "as many as 4,000 people are estimated to have died" in Shia-Sunni sectarian fighting in Pakistan",^[239] another estimate is nearly 4,000 people have been killed and 6,800 injured from the beginning of 2000 to 2013.^[240]

Amongst the culprits blamed for the killing are Al-Qaeda working "with local sectarian groups" to kill what they perceive as Shia apostates, and "foreign powers ... trying to sow discord."^[239] Most violence takes place in the largest province of Punjab and the country's commercial and financial capital, Karachi.^[241] There have also been conflagrations in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Azad Kashmir,^[241] with several hundreds of Shia killed in Balochistan killed since 2008.^[242] Shia have responded to attacks creating a classic vicious cycle of "outrages and vengeance".^[243]

Arab states especially Saudi Arabia and GCC states have been funding extremist Deobandi Sunnis and Wahhabis in Pakistan, since the Afghan Jihad.^[244] Whereas Iran has been funding Shia militant groups such as Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, resulting in tit-for-tat attacks on each other.^[241] Pakistan has become a battleground between Saudi Arabia-funded Deobandi Sunni and Wahhabis and Iran-funded Shia resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent Muslims.

Afghanistan

Shia–Sunni strife in Pakistan is strongly intertwined with that in Afghanistan. The anti-Shia Afghan Taliban regime helped anti-Shia Pakistani groups and vice versa. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, have sent thousands of volunteers to fight with the Taliban regime and "in return the Taliban gave sanctuary to their leaders in the Afghan capital of Kabul."^[253]

Shia–Sunni strife inside of Afghanistan has been between the Sunni Taliban and Shia Afghans, primarily the Hazara ethnic group—a function of the puritanical religious character of the Taliban and their "traditional Pashtun biases against Shias".^[254]

In 1998 more than 8,000 noncombatants were killed when the Taliban attacked Mazar-i-Sharif and Bamiyan where many Hazaras live.^[255] Some of the slaughter was indiscriminate, but many were Shia targeted by the Taliban. Taliban commander and governor Mullah Niazi banned prayer at Shia mosques^[256] and expressed takfir of the Shia in a declaration from Mazar's central mosque:

Last year you rebelled against us and killed us. From all your homes you shot at us. Now we are here to deal with you. The Hazaras are not Muslims and now we have to kill Hazaras. You must either accept to be Muslims or leave Afghanistan. Wherever you go, we will catch you. If you go up we will pull you down by your feet; if you hide below, we will pull you up by your hair.^[257]

Assisting the Taliban in the murder of Iranian diplomatic and intelligence officials at the Iranian Consulate in Mazar were "several Pakistani militants of the anti-Shia, Sipah-e-Sahaba party."^[258] There were other pogroms of Shia as well in the first Taliban reign prior to the U.S. invasion.^{[259][260][261]}

In 2021 Human Rights Watch warned on a "surge in Islamic State Attacks on Shia" in Afghanistan "that amount to crimes against humanity".^[262] Attacks on the Hazara Shia community include

• suicide bombings that killed at least 72 people at the Sayed Abad mosque in Kunduz on October 8, 2021,^[262]
• a bombing that killed at least 63 people at the Bibi Fatima mosque in Kandahar on October 15, 2021.^[262]

In a statement ISIS declared it would target Shia

“in every way, from slaughtering their necks to scattering their limbs… and the news of [ISIS’s] attacks…in the temples of the [Shia] and their gatherings is not hidden from anyone, from Baghdad to Khorasan.”^[262]

Nigeria

In Nigeria—the most populous country in Africa—until recently almost all Muslims were Sunni.^[263] As of 2017, estimates of the number of Nigeria's 90–95 million Muslims who are Shia vary from between 20 million (Shia estimate), to less than five million (Sunni estimate)^[264] but according to Pew research center, less than 5% of the Muslim population in Nigeria are Shia.^[14]

In the 1980s, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky—a Nigerian admirer of the Iranian Revolution who lived in Iran for some years and converted to Shia Islam—established the Islamic Movement of Nigeria. The movement has established "more than 300 schools, Islamic centers, a newspaper, guards and a `martyrs’ foundation`".^[264] Its network is similar to that of Hezbollah in Lebanon, with a focus on Iran, its Supreme Leader, and fighting America as the enemy of Islam.^[265] According to a former U.S. State Department specialist on Nigeria, Matthew Page, the Islamic Movement receives "about $10,000 a month" in Iranian funding.^[264] Many of the converted are poor Muslims.

The Shia campaign has clashed with Saudi Arabian, which also funds religious centers, school, and trains students and clerics, but as part of an effort to spread its competing Wahabbi interpretation of Islam.^[264] According to Wikileaks, "Saudi cables" released in 2015 "reveal concern" about "Iran-driven Shiite expansion from Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Nigeria" to Shia Islam has taken place in Nigeria since the Iranian Revolution.^[264]

Shia Muslims protest that they have been persecuted by the Nigerian government.^[266] In 1998 Nigerian President General Sani Abacha accused Ibrahim El-Zakzaky ^[267] of being a Shia. In December 2015 the Nigerian government alleged that the Islamic Movement attempted to kill Nigeria's army chief-of-staff. In retaliation, troops killed more than 300 Shiites in the city of Zaria. Hundreds of El-Zakzaky's followers were also arrested.^{[264][268][269]} As of 2019, El-Zakzaky was still imprisoned.^[264]

South East Asia

Islam is the dominant religion in Indonesia, which also has a larger Muslim population than any other country in the world, with approximately 202.9 million identified as Muslim (88.2% of the total population) as of 2009.^[14][270]

The majority adheres to the Sunni Muslim tradition mainly of the Shafi'i madhhab.^[271] Around one million are Shias, who are concentrated around Jakarta.^[272] In general, the Muslim community can be categorized in terms of two orientations: "modernists," who closely adhere to orthodox theology while embracing modern learning; and "traditionalists," who tend to follow the interpretations of local religious leaders (predominantly in Java) and religious teachers at Islamic boarding schools (pesantren). In Indonesia, in 2015, Sunni clerics denounced the Shia as "heretics", and the mayor of Bogor proposed banning the Shia Ashura holy day.^[273] The Shia community (which makes up approximately 1% of Indonesia's Muslims) has also been subject to hate campaigns and intimidation, with fears of this escalating into violence.^[274]

Malaysia claims to be a tolerant Islamic state, however since 2010 it has banned the preaching of Shia Islam, with a "particular ferocity"^[275] and warns against Shiism with its, "evil and blasphemous beliefs".^[276]

United States

In late 2006 or early 2007, in what journalist Seymour Hersh called The Redirection, the United States changed its policy in the Muslim world, shifting its support from the Shia to the Sunni, with the goal of "containing" Iran and as a by-product bolstering Sunni extremist groups.^[277] Richard Engel, who is an NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent, wrote an article in late 2011 alleging that the United States Government is pro-Sunni and anti-Shia. During the Iraq War, the United States feared that a Shiite-led, Iran-friendly Iraq could have major consequences for American national security. However, nothing can be done about this as Iraq's Shiite government were democratically elected.^[278] Shadi Bushra of Stanford University wrote that the United States’ support of the Sunni monarchy during the Bahraini uprising is the latest in a long history of US support to keep the Shiites in check. The United States fears that Shiite rule in the Persian Gulf will lead to anti-US and anti-Western sentiment as well as Iranian influence in the Arab majority states.^[279] One analyst told CNN that the US strategy on putting pressure on Iran by arming its Sunni neighbors is not a new strategy for the United States.^[280]

Europe

In Europe Shia-Sunni acrimony is part of life for tens of millions of European Muslims.^[275]

Australia

Conflict between religious groups in the Middle East have spread to the Australian Muslim community^{[281][282][283][284][285]} and within Australian schools.^[286]

ISIL and the 2013–2017 war in Iraq

Growing out of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, a Salafi jihadi extremist militant group led by Sunni Arabs from Iraq and Syria,^[287] developed an insurgency that by March 2015 had control over territory in Iraq and Syria^[288][289] occupied by ten million people.^[290] It proclaimed itself a worldwide caliphate,^[291][292] with religious, political, and military authority over Muslims worldwide.^[293] and dubbed itself the Islamic State (الدولة الإسلامية, ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah),^[294] but by December 2017, it controlled just 2% of the territory it had at the peak of its expansion,^[295] and had been driven underground in Iraq.^[296]

In the few years of its success, it was responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes (United Nations), and ethnic cleansing on a "historic scale" (Amnesty International), particularly of Shia Muslims. According to Shia rights watch, in 2014 ISIS forces killed over 1,700 Shia civilians at Camp Speicher in Tikrit Iraq, and 670 Shia prisoners at the detention facility on the outskirts of Mosul.^[297] In June 2014, after ISIS had "seized vast territories" in western and northern Iraq, there were "frequent accounts of fighters’ capturing groups of people and releasing the Sunnis while the Shiites are singled out for execution", according to the New York Times. ISIS used a list of questions to "tell whether a person is a Sunni or a Shiite"—What is your name? Where do you live? How do you pray? What kind of music do you listen to?^[298]

After the collapse of the Iraqi army and capture of the city of Mosul by ISIS in June 2014, the "most senior"^[299] Shia spiritual leader based in Iraq, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who had been known as "pacifist" in his attitudes, issued a fatwa calling for jihad against ISIS and its Sunni allies, which was seen by the Shia militias as a "de facto legalization of the militias’ advance".^[300] In Qatari another Shiite preacher, Nazar al-Qatari, "put on military fatigues to rally worshipers after evening prayers," calling on them to fight against “the slayers of Imams Hasan and Hussein” (the second and third Imams of Shia history) and for Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.^[300]

Shia militias fighting ISIS have also been accused of atrocities. Human Rights Watch has accused government-backed Shia militias of kidnapping and killing scores of Sunni civilians in 2014.^[301]

Saudi–Iran summit

In a milestone for the two countries' relations, on 3 March 2007 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held an extraordinary summit meeting. They displayed mutual warmth with hugs and smiles for cameras and promised "a thaw in relations between the two regional powers but stopped short of agreeing on any concrete plans to tackle the escalating sectarian and political crises throughout the Middle East."^[308]

On his return to Tehran, Ahmadinejad declared that:

Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are aware of the enemies' conspiracies. We decided to take measures to confront such plots. Hopefully, this will strengthen Muslim countries against oppressive pressure by the imperialist front.^[308]

Saudi officials had no comment about Ahmadinejad's statements, but the Saudi official government news agency did say:

The two leaders affirmed that the greatest danger presently threatening the Islamic nation is the attempt to fuel the fire of strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and that efforts must concentrate on countering these attempts and closing ranks.^[309]

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz said:

The two parties have agreed to stop any attempt aimed at spreading sectarian strife in the region.^[310]

Effort to bring unity between Sunni and Shia Muslims had been attempted by Allama Muhammad Taqi Qummi.^[92]

Scholarly opinions