Islam

Today was an interesting day in class. We had cultural briefs on Iraq and Afghanistan. We covered the usual information such as the economy, culture, customs and traditions. We also had a very interesting brief on Islam.

This is what I learned: Mohamed was the father of Islam. After he died, he was replaced by a Caliph (basically the leader of the faith). At the time, there were 2 schools of thought in the early days of Islam The Sunns basically endorsed another Imam to take over the faith. The Shia believed that Ali, the nephew of Mohamed should take over the faith. In the end, the Sunnis won. Three Caliphs later, Ali was elected as Caliph. Shortly after his election his was assassinated by a Suni in what is today modern day Iraq. The two factions have been split ever since. From what I learned, the Sunis consider themselves to be more orthodox than the Shias. It is interesting to note that that Shias are the minority in the Muslim world, with the exception of Iran and Iraq. Very interesting stuff.