As historian Timothy Furnish has written,'The major difference is that for Shi`is he has already been here, and will return from hiding for Sunnis he has yet to emerge into history: a comeback v. Not'until the ascendancy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1978' did they believe that they had once again begun to live under the authority of a legitimate religious figure.Īnother difference between Sunnis and Shiites has to do with the Mahdi, “the rightly-guided one” whose role is to bring a just global caliphate into being. Scott Appleby, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame,'Shiite Muslims, who are concentrated in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, had suffered the loss of divinely guided political leadership' at the time of the Imam's disappearance. This was a seminal event in the history of Shiite Muslims. Shiites, in contrast, believe that only the heirs of the fourth caliph, Ali, are the legitimate successors of Mohammed. These heirs ruled continuously in the Arab world until the break-up of the Ottoman Empire following the end of the First World War. They recognize the heirs of the four caliphs as legitimate religious leaders. The Sunni branch believes that the first four caliphs-Mohammed's successors-rightfully took his place as the leaders of Muslims. There are two branches of the religion he founded. In 622 he founded the first Islamic state, a theocracy in Medina, a city in western Saudi Arabia located north of Mecca. The Islam religion was founded by Mohammed in the seventh century. Timothy Furnish: Ignorance May Be Bliss, but It Makes for Bad Policy: Analysis of the Iraq Study Group Report.Matthews, Jr: What Is the Difference Between Islam and Islamism?

Brave characters in shia history