[sanchmo]

A few more terms:
Mullah - A male religious teacher or leader.
Imam - A male spiritual and temporal leader regarded by Shiites as a descendant of Muhammad divinely appointed to guide humans.

[freefly]

Mullah - A male religious teacher or leader.
Imam - A male spiritual and temporal leader regarded by Shiites as a descendant of Muhammad divinely appointed to guide humans.

This is one area that I find interesting.
My reading indicated that Islam is not supposed to have "religious leaders".
All men are supposed to be equal in the eye of G*d.
A person should read the word of the Prophet and convince themselves as to it being the true word...
He should not "follow" any other man as he is supposed to be listening to and following the word of G*d.
This should prevent anyone from following a leader into wrong thought and action.
How the Mullah and Imam came about is beyond me.
From what I understand, they should not have influence on a true Muslim's belief or actions.
Religious "leaders" have tremendous power over those that practice a religion...
good reason not to have them at all.