Be careful how you pronounce it

So what's a shi'ite ?

Since it was asked in a comment below, let me explain quickly what the deal is with the Sunni and the Shi'ite tribes in Iraq.

Sunni Muslims: They are mainstream traditionalists. They constitute a 90% majority of the believers worldwide, but in Iraq they are a minority. (20%)
They have learned to keep their faith within secular societies, adapting to a variety of national cultures, including the old Iraqi regime. (Which was secular, remember.) They were given disproportionate power by Saddam in the old regime. This was a shrewd move, designed to keep appease radical religious fundamentalists who would want to overthrow the secular government and replace it with a theocracy.
Bin Laden and Al'Qaeda wanted to overthrow Saddam and install a theocratic government, much as the Taliban (an offshoot puritan Sunni sect) had been installed in Afghanistan.

Shi'ite Muslims: A small minority of Islam. They make up only 10% of the muslim world. They are a minority in nearly all muslim countries, except for Iran, where they are the state religion, and Iraq where they are about 60% of the population. They split from the Sunnis over a dispute about the successor to Muhammad. They would be considered conservatives and fundamentalists. Their leaders promote a strict interpretation of the Qur'an and close adherence to its teachings.
They believe in 12 heavenly Imams (perfect teachers) who led the Shi'ites in succession. Shi'ites believe that the 12th Imam, the Mahdi (guided one), never died but went into hiding waiting for the optimum time to reappear and guide humans towards justice and peace. They would have difficulty holding and promoting such beliefs in a secular society.

It is not really fair to say that one of these sects is more militant than the other. Neither is really the "bad guy". The extremists and cult-like breakaway sects (like any Jewish sect or Christian sect) are the ones to blame.

For example, the corrupted form of Sunni Islam promoted by men like BinLaden, embraced by the Taliban and the current government in the Sudan differs from other forms of Sunni Islam in these key areas :
1) They believe in "takfir wa hijr" which means they hold it impermissible for a Muslim to live in a country not governed by Islamic law without seeking to overthrow and make it Islamic. Otherwise they should immigrate to a place which is truly Muslim. This is totally against the Qu'ran, and a relatively recent belief.

2) Any Muslim government which does not abide by Islamic law is therefore really godless. Such a government should be overthrown and its leaders killed.
Again, totally against the Qu'ran. This belief resulted in most of the violence of Islamist groups being aimed at other Muslims. This belief is descended from the Kharijites, an early Islamic sect responsible for assassinating the Imam Ali. They are considered dangerous heretics by both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims alike.

3) They insist in regarding Christians and Jews as infidels rather than "people of the book" as they are called in the Qu'ran. They are therefore willing to withdraw their protection and even persecute them. This is the reason why there has been so much violence against Christians in both the Sudan and in Egypt.

I hope that tells you a little something about Sunni's and Shi'ites. They're not the enemy. They're not the "bad guys".
posted by Manchild at 9:30 AM