I am thinking especially about Iraq with the internal conflict. Assuming that a Sunni met a Shia in the streets of Bagdad, is there anything that might give them an indication of the others religion, such as clothing, accent, name etc
E.g an anology would be northern Ireland where I would have a good probability of telling a persons religion from either their accent or name
Right now I’d say that Shiites explode suddenly slightly more often…
I doubt that you can even begin to speculate which sect of Isam produces the most suicide bombers, given that the ‘insurgency’ in Iraq is currently held to be mostly the work of the Sunnis, who were formerly the rulers of Iraq.
Quite a number of suicide bombs have been aimed at almost exclusively Sh’ite parts of town, so it seems likely that these were Sunnis carrying them out.
The situation is possibly more like Yugoslavia, except that the divisions are even more difficult to discern. Family names will be identifiers, perhaps differances in dress but mostly it will be attitudes and associations that will be the clincher.
Sunnis and Sh’ites do have certain areas where they are in the majority, but there are also may areas where the balance is far more even, down to districts and even individual households being mixed through intermarriage.
The possibility of civil war was always pointed out, long before the invasion and by those opposed to the fabricated excuses for doing so.
It is to be hoped that a lid can be kept on it, as its also recognised that it could cross borders firstly through material support and then through ad-hoc intervention through sympathisers, though to a certain extent this is already happening anyway.
Hail Ants. Tasteless jokes aren’t appropriate for General Questions. Try to restrain yourself.
samclem
The name I can accept, and a regional accent might tip the scales of probability, but even some of my Northern Irish friends tell me they’ve had problems - doing stuff like leaving various political shades of newspaper lying around in the staffroom to see which paper the person picks up to read.
So, are you a Sunni atheist or a Sh’ite atheist? . . .
Along the same lines, I heard that one of the major ways the (non-practicing) Christians in Bosnia could recognize the (non-practicing) Muslims in town was by the Muslims’ reluctance to eat pork. So the Christians ate a whole lot of it, and kept their eyes open for anybody who declined to partake.
During the Hindu-Muslim riots in 1947 and afterward, they pantsed guys to check who was circumcised and who wasn’t.
Slate just ran an explainer article on this.
Note that the article’s comments on turbans in particular might hold true in Iraq or Iran, but not necessarily elsewhere. Headwear conventions ( if any ) appear to vary enormously across the Muslim ( and non-Muslim for that matter ) world.
- Tamerlane
It’s probably easiest to tell them apart when observing them at prayer:
-Sunnis will wash their feet as part of the pre-prayer washing, unless they’re wearing impermeable footwear and don’t want to take it off. Shi’as merely wipe the feet.
-In the adhaan or call to prayer, Shi'as have a line that says "Hasten to the best act!" and sometimes insert a line acknowledging the leadership of Ali; Sunnis don’t say either of these lines.
-Shi’as will perform the noon and afternoon, and the evening and night prayers right after each other; Sunnis only do this when travelling.
-Most Sunnis fold their hands during prayer, Shi’as don’t; Sunnis say “Amen” after the first part of the prayer, Shi’as don’t.
-Shi’as will only prostrate on natural material, such as dirt or straw, and often carry around a little baked piece of clay for this purpose; Sunnis will prostrate on anything that’s clean.
Aside from having to carry around a bit of terra cotta, it sounds like Shi’a is the more conveinient of the two.
Another difference between Sunni and Shi’a is that the latter, in addition to the yearly 2.5% zakat tax on savings, also pay a yearly 20% khums tax on all income in excess of basic living expenses, whereas the Sunni only pay khums on things like war booty and mining operations, i.e. extraordinary sources of income. It all evens out in the end.