--

The Sunni-Shi'a divide has been painted as about obscure notions and rituals, not any serious
dogmatic disagreement. The popular Sheikh Hamza Yusuf considers Shi'a well-accepted
Muslims, and others, like the de facto head of the Washington D.C. Islamic Center mosque
actually align themselves with the Shi'a narrative of history.

The Salafist interprtation is more rejecting. A Salafist scholar was asked if Shi'a were still
considered Muslims, he said it depends on whether they were 12ers or 9ers: the ones who
believe in occultation, "maybe", the ones who believe in reincarnation, "no".

What about Hezbollah? He said "no", if they believe in the supremacy of the Iranian state.

-- But this Salafist makes a point: Shi'a cannot be considered monolithic, as most Sunnis and
non-Shi'a do. Most of Islamic scholarship accepts Sunni Islam as the default mainstream, and
the history of Shi'a is that of a sect of deviants.

The Shi'a certainly do not view it this way. They believe they hold the true banner of Islam,
and other sects are missing out on the religious truths of living Masters, mystics, and the
genetic inheritance of unseen traits.

The Bohra sect in India has 50+ imams, or successors of Ali. Mainstream Twelvers believe
there is always an Imam of the age (Wikipedia, "Imamah (Shi'a Twelver doctrine)"). The
Ismaili are small, but once controlled large swaths of the Middle East including the outskirts
of Baghdad, Alexandria and Mecca.

Just as Sunnis have a large compendium of sayings of the Prophet (pbuh), Shi'a sources
record Ali's every word, which forms the basis for Shi'ite law and jurisprudence. Further, it is
understood that many of the myths are poetic or literary in form, and therefore subject to
reenactment and reinterpretation, new understandings allow for an adaptable legal system.
(For example, Shi'ite scholars have concluded that sex change is permissible in Islam, as
there is nothing in the canon which says one cannot be born in a different body, or wish to
alter genders. Therefore, though Iran bans homosexuality, it permits sex changes, and as a
result, has one of the highest rates of sex change operations in the world. The Sunni maintain
their position against sex changes.)

I've always understood the structure of Sunni and Shi'a religious and political power to be
analogous to Protestant and Catholic. Shi'as split off as "the faction of Ali", much how
Protestantism began as a schism from the Church.

These analogies are not far-reaching. Shi'a and Catholics have an infallible leader who
supposedly represents all believers. Sunnism and Protestantism never came to power through
an infallible leader, their route to power is through caliphs and kings.

Individually, we were told that Shi'a spit in our cups and crossed the names of the first three
caliphs (usurpers of the throne of Ali) daily. I asked a Shi'ite friend if all this was true, he
remarked, "Who has time for that?". (Notice, he didn't deny it.) I would still not let him buy
me a drink on Ashura.

---
The dispute between Sunni and Shi'a is actually between a theological dispute as to the nature
of prophethood. Is it an incomprehensible energy that dies with the person, or a direct
transmission that is passed to companions (and especially descendants). The Sunni are almost
atheist in the denial of this mystic transmission. Merit, they claim, is the sole basis for
achievement, and the Prophet's most respected companions were not his relatives (i.e. Abu
Bakr lead the Muslim prayers when the Prophet was ill).

From the noble blood of Ali, come all the various imams of the various Shi'ite sects. They
believe their spiritual leaders, whether the Aga Khan or Mirza Ghalib, have the spiritual
energy transmitted by the Prophet 1,000 years ago.

To Sunnis, that is an absurd claim -- but note this denial of gnostic energy is also a Western
atheist view to take.

Perhaps the best way to present this idea to the layman, is the 1994 Disney picture "The Lion
King". After adult-Simba returns, Scar mistakens him for his father ("Mufasa?... No, it can't
be, you're dead.") -- There is this idea, that within the son, lives the presence, or seed of
transmission, or blessed lineage, Simba has to awaken to; Rafaki says, "He lives in you...",
during the experience of cloud in the form of his father. This is the Shi'ite idea of Ali and his
descendants. From all this comes infallible imams and messianic ferver and ayatollahs.

---

SUNNI-SHI'A RELATIONS

As already stated, Sunni have a very skewed view of Shi'a theology. (I cannot speak for the
Shi'a perspective on us, save that they frequently say we are "without guidance" because all
our knowledge is in books, and not descendants of the Prophet.)

I once asked my Arabic teacher (she was from Pakistan) if she was Sunni or Shi'a. She
hesitated, and then replied "Sunni" (same as me). Later, she talked to my mom, and said
children should not casually discuss such things. For Pakistani aristocracy, sectarian
differences are a vulgar, unfortunate cause for political violence. (Little did she know that it
was also my favorite topic.)

Salafists, on the other hand, usually begin with "Shi'a'ism was founded by a Jew", who else?,
"to sow dissent and heresy."

THE SHIA REVIVAL

The map of the Islamic world was not always what it is today. Although only three countries
are majority Shi'a (Iran, Iraq, Lebanon), huge swaths exist in Saudi Arabia, India,
Afghanistan, as well as an Iranian diaspora (of secular, wealthy types) in the West.
Prominently, Iran was not always Shi'a, converting under the Safavid king Isma'il,

1ST SHAH IRAN SHI'A YEAR:

An Abbasid valiphate alternated with the slaughter of Shi'a in one land, and the
corresponding culling of Sunnis in the other. Al-Azhar was originally a Shi'ite institution in
the Fatimid (Shi'ite) caliphate, until Saladin the Great restored Sunni Rule in

1ST YEAR EGYPT SUNNI

India also has an important debt to the Shi'a, not least because half the words in modern
Hindi come from Persian, as well an immense body of literature, music, and poetry. (You
know how English is either Greek or Latin, with a Germanic substructure? Modern
Hindi/Urdu is either Sanskrit or Arabic, with a Pali substructure. The more Arabic or Persian
roots you use, the more you identify as a Muslim or artsy type. THe more Sanskrit roots you
use, the more you identify as a Hindu or with classical antiquity.)

The future holds a powerful Iranian state; even with Iran's democracy movement, the Iranian
people want to be a nulear power. Rallying with Turkey and Syria, a shi'a revival theory
("The Shi'a Revival", HarperCollins, 2006) states that 1,o00 years of Sunni domination qill
come to an end (we're talking about a civilizational shift here), as Iran has the guns, oil, and
manpower to be a unilateral force in the Middle East.

Its scientists are well-educated and Western-raised, with a fatwa permitting stem cell research
that makes it more advanced than the united states in that respect. Another fatwa concludes
that nowhere did Muhammad (s.a.w.) or Ali (r.a.) outlaw sex changes, therefore sex changes
are permissible, therefore Iran has the highest per capita rate of transgendered people in the
world.

Tehran is also the MDMA capital of the world. (Maybe that's why all those protesters march
to their deaths.) Iran of the Future is therefore going to be very different from the messianic
fervor of Ahmedinejad, and in fact, very much like the United States in its hard-headed
hegemony.

Ironically, the rise in Iranian hegemony can only be credited to one man: George W. Bush.
By removing the henchman in the form of Sunni Arab Saddam Hussein, the natural sphere of
influence Iran *has in Iraq makes it an inevitable Shi'ite colony. Already, trade is booming
there because of the porous border between the two countries (apparently, you can get lost
hiking), as goods massproduced in Iran for (POPULATION OF IRAN) million IRanians
finds a perfect niche in Iraq's 4o million potential customers. -- Ironically, both countries
have been under sanctions for decades, so they boy enjoy the brisk trade.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia are very worried. No one prays more for Saddam's return.

Iran controls Syria already, headed by by an Alawi muslim (another deviant shi'ite sect).
Interestingly, Alawi were not considered Muslims by most mainstream Muslims, so Hafez ul-
Assad got a fatwa from a respected Shi'ite university in Beruit to declare Alawi's Shi'ite, and
therefore Muslim. And we all know how independent Beruit is from Damascus.

Turkey is eager to be the Sunni representative to the Iranian state. Jordan will at one point
become Hamastan, which will be a client to the Iranian state....

Saudi Arabia will collapse, with the Shiite northeast becoming a client to the Iranian state.

And Egypt will have to find friends on its own continent, eitehr that or until Saladin comes
back.