The Sunni-Shia Divide and Islam’s Puzzling Origins

Gates of Vienna Blog ^ | August 2, 2016 | Emmet Scott

[JAKraig]

I fail to see the great similarity between Catholicism and Islam though.

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The ONLY similarity that I pointed out was that there was a time that believing in the wrong form of Christianity could make you forfeit your life.

[BeauBo]

At first, I thought that you were specifically talking about Catholicism being similar to Islam.

Now it seems to me that you mean that all of Christianity is similar to Islam:

“It is all a sham, to control.” sounds like a restatement of Marx’s “Religion is the opiate of the masses”.

[Mr. M.J.B.]

At first, I thought that you were specifically talking about Catholicism being similar to Islam.

Now it seems to me that you mean that all of Christianity is similar to Islam:

>>> I meant to address Catholicism but there is larger applicability.

“It is all a sham, to control.” sounds like a restatement of Marx’s “Religion is the opiate of the masses”.

>>> Introducing Marx might be a bit of a stretch.

[Cronos]

The Hadiths were collected and written down centuries after Mohammad allegedly lived. I think the theory is plausible. In a very literate society where the Moslems were rulers, why is it that the Koran is not written until the 8th century? And no coins commemorating MOhammad or Islam until much later?

[Capt. Tom]

In a very literate society where the Moslems were rulers, why is it that the Koran is not written until the 8th century?

I would disagree with that since their is strong evidence the "KORAN" was written down in Caliph Uthman's reign and that would be be around the mid 600s- the Hadiths are a different story. - Tom

[odds]

I don’t understand why the author is surprised that the Sassanid had Arab Generals and Arab soldiers in their military. The Sassanid Empire ruled today’s Iraq, hence Arabs there. Yes, those Arabs were the very first to convert to Islam and there was betrayal - the Sassanid were primarily brought down from within.

Also, the population of Iran post initial Arab-Islam remained largely SUNNI for a 1000 yrs. There were Shia sects during that time but they were mostly Arabs.

It wasn’t until the Safavid dynasty (a Turkic speaking dynasty ruling Iran) starting in 14th century that Iranians were brutally forced to convert to Shi’ism by the Safavid, and had to say “Ali is Vali”, meaning “Ali is the guardian”. Shi’sm then became the official state religion in Iran, presumably to give Iran a distinct identity vis a vis others in the Islamic world. But it’s important to know that Shi’ism in Iran is relatively new.

[wtd]

Thank you for providing this background. Very helpful.