Sunni or Shiite?

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Ex-military here,
just woundering..

I see alot of the West vrs East,
and its us against them kinda thing going on.
For the most part i ate this up, my nation is better than someone elses, but i've gotten older now and I question things a little more.

I can't help but notice the Arab world seems to fight itself on every front...

What are the key diffrences in religion for
Sunni, Shiite, and Kurds?

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I guess it boil downs to the death of Muhammad in Medina that provoked a major crisis among his followers: The dispute over the leadership resulted in the most important "schism" in Islam: "Sunnis" and "Shiites:

The "Sunnis", followers of Abu, the majority, with 800 million Muslims.

The "Shiites", followers of Ali, with 100 million Muslims (Iran, Iraq, Palestine).

Despite the differences in detail and politics, the various branches do accept the basic tenets laid down in the Koran.

Differences stem from questions of details of practice or life, government, marriage, inheritance, minor differences in prayer time, determining when the moon is born, etc.

In the Shiite doctrine, if someone dies leaving only daughters, then his inheritance goes completely to those daughters. In the Sunni doctrine, the person's brothers get a share. This has been a frequent cause for conversion for such people 鈥?mainly in the cities. (One notable case that comes to my mind is a member of the now-defunct Governing Council who was generally regarded as "representing" secular Sunnis. This gentleman has only three daughters and has converted to Shi-ism).

In Islamic marriage, the dowry is in two parts; one part is paid to the wife in advance. The second part is called the deferred dowry. In the Sunni doctrine, this is paid in the case of divorce or death, whichever comes first. In the Shiite practice, this has to be paid on demand to the wife, at any time of her liking. In practice, this is hardly an issue as failed marriages are few and far between. In mixed marriages (which are numerous, especially in "mixed" areas) this question comes up and has to be agreed upon. In such marriages, there is no requirement for any of the partners to convert. The difference in sect between husband and wife is a constant source of family humor.

The allegiances of an Iraqi, like other people in other countries, cover a wide framework of beliefs and considerations. These include: Self, family, tribe, religion, race, town, nation, political doctrine and economic doctrine.

The important point is that the loyalty of many of these people to their kin is something fundamental in their make-up. They usually maintain considerable ties and contacts and are frequently brought together through tribal arbitration councils, paying respect in deaths, allegiance to respected tribal chiefs (who can be of a different sect), etc. This very significant factor is almost always overlooked by many two-color Sunni-Shiite analysts (including some Iraqis) when discussing the sectarian problem in Iraq.

Will go as far as to say that for many of these people, fighting their kin over a sectarian dominance is unlikely鈥?and even if such a thing is started by some overwhelming factor, there are so many channels between them that blood ties will ultimately come on top. Confusion with geography. Many people in Iraq think they can tell a Shiite from a Sunni from his or her accent or attire. I have heard and seen this so many times. The differences these people refer to are usually geographic in nature and have little to do with sect. People from southern provinces usually use a different style of head-gear (igal 鈥?smaller and thicker) and have a different accent from people in the western regions for example (in fact, each province has its own dialect, much like many other countries).

And, If you ask me all these differences are meaningless and not to mention it鈥檚 pulling the different sects of Islam away from their religion instead of towards. They need to stop playing 鈥渕y red bandana is better than your blue bandana鈥?sectarian game.

Also, another point one I know all too well since I mentioned about sectarian violence鈥?br />
With sectarian violence sweeping Baghdad, some Sunni parents as well are thinking twice about giving their new-born children identifiably Sunni names.

It鈥檚 a new dilemma. It reflects the increase in attacks simply because a person is the wrong religion in the wrong place at the wrong time. For the most part there鈥檚 no way to tell whether someone is Sunni or Shiite or Christian unless they make a point of dressing differently.

But some of the names are giveaways.

In Iraq, Omar is almost always Sunni and Haider tends to be Shiite. But some names like Ali and Hussein 鈥?two Imams particularly revered by Shiite Muslims 鈥?are common among Sunnis as well. Almost all of the names are rooted in Islamic history.

One of the biggest dangers now is being stopped at illegal checkpoints by militia members or being singled out of crowds by gunmen looking for either Sunnis or Shiites to kill. While parents are adept at disguising their identities, it鈥檚 much harder to get children to lie about their names.
See, when I was growing up if one or both of my parents said change your name or say your name is 鈥淏lah-Blah鈥?instead of 鈥淗a-Ha鈥?(examples and sorry but I am dead tired here) you did it without question but children born today don鈥檛 listen to that rule and end up getting killed.

paaatches --All in all, when it come to religion or not which are both fine. God, Allah whom ever doesn't care what "Religion" you belong to. He only cares if you belong to Him. Jews, Christians and Muslims believe that God (whichever you prefer) is going to come back at the end of time. And, it is stuff like this that makes me get belligerent in thinking if I were God and if I came back to see the mess that religion has caused I would zap everyone, telling them that they all got it wrong. Religion of any kind is supposed show, first love to God and then love to your fellow man. It鈥檚 as simple as that. You can鈥檛 love God or your fellow man if you鈥檙e trying to collect a different colored bandana than the color of bandana you stand on. It just doesn鈥檛 work that way.

By-the-way, the vast majority of Kurds are Sunnis. Turkmen are mostly Sunni. Within the Arab population of Iraq, the Sunni and Shiite doctrines are not related in any way to any ethnic or racial differences. As with other sects in Islam, there is no question regarding the ultimate source of all their belief: it's the Koran 鈥?the word of God.
Others

I don't know much about Sunnis,Shiites and Kurds but i know that there are differences between the Islamic religion.
Some group of Muslims are very tolerant of Christians and other religion. They do not enforce their religion on no-Muslims in their community.
On the other hand,some other group will go to the extreme to enforce their beliefs Islam on non-Muslims in their community.
That group is the intolerant type.
http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/compa...
http://www.4islam.com
http://www.amrkhaled.net/acategories/cat...
Sunni is the majority and Shia are the minority. Sunni believe that Abu Bakr; Prophet Muhammad's(PBUH*) father in law and close companion was the next ruler of the Umma(Muslim Nation) after the Prophet's(PBUH*) death and the Shia believe that it was Ali the Prophet's(PBUH*) nephew. I'm not sure how the Kurds got into existence.
Kurds is not a religion, it's nationality.
Kurds are either sunni or shiite.
its stupid for them to fight coz they think the exact opposite of each other.
just as christains and jews
sunnis follow what Umar said
and Shia's follow Imam Ali.
because immam ali got killed or something idk but umar took over countrys like egypt, morocco, algeria, and jordon and more ..
and ali took the rest