Friday, April 18, 2003
Trying to understand differences between Muslims today. This seems like a good place to start, www.understanding-islam.org. Of pertinent interest, Overview of Muslim Differences. It goes into the difference between the Shiite (those who ascribe to the religious and political authority of Imams, leaders appointed by god) and Sunni (those who look only to the words of the prophet Mohammed as the religious and thus political authority) sects of Islam. I'm sure there's more types of Muslims out there but this has the appeal of applying towards Iraq. The fundamental difference seems to revolve around who to defer to as the ultimate authority on Islam, the Imams or the word of the prophet.
Actually, I feel out of my depth here because I really don't know anything about Islam itself.
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