WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Shias comprise a majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain, and a plurality in Lebanon, while Sunnis make up the majority of more than forty countries from Morocco to Indonesia.

Detailed explanation-2: -Sunni and Shi’i are the two largest branches of Islam, with the overwhelming majority of Iranians practicing Shi’i Islam. About 90 percent of Iranians practice Shi’ism, the official religion of Iran. [i] By contrast, most Arab states in the Middle East are predominantly Sunni.

Detailed explanation-3: -Though the two main sects within Islam, Sunni and Shia, agree on most of the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam, a bitter split between the two goes back some 14 centuries. The divide originated with a dispute over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Islamic faith he introduced.

Detailed explanation-4: -However, not only do the interpretations between three sects within Islam – Sunni, Shia, and Alawite – differ in terms of observable practice (Alawites, for example, do not worship in mosques or wear traditional hijab), but even within these three sects there can vast differences.

Detailed explanation-5: -Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims (also known as Shiites) comprise the two main branches of Islam. Sunni and Shia identities first formed soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 C.E., centering on a dispute over leadership succession.