# Islam a civil war between Shia and Sunni,?nd **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 8, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/islam-a-civil-war-between-shia-and-sunni-nd/577706 "2011-04-08T19:53:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/islam-a-civil-war-between-shia-and-sunni-nd/577706/21 "2011-04-12T17:02:30Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Sunnis have clergy too. The difference is that Shia has a centralized clerical authority. Quasi-centralized. And semi-hierarchical. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/islam-a-civil-war-between-shia-and-sunni-nd/577706/22 "2011-04-12T17:10:29Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > I haven’t done a head count but U.B.L was a Sunni, as was Al Zaquari,who when he wasn’t killing coalition forces was killing Shias. > > I may well be wrong in my impression of Al Quiada being a principly Sunni motivated organisation, but that is the reason that I started this thread. They’re Sunnis. **BrainGlutton** was asking about the part where you said Al Qaeda “apparently will accept all,for the cause.” I’ve never heard of anything like that. Al Qaeda kills Shia any chance they get. They’re much better at killing fellow Muslims (who are not the right kind of Muslims) than killing Westerners, which I think has turned into a PR problem for them. They are an organization of fanatical Sunnis, full stop. So your comment is a little like saying the I.R.A. might accept pro-Union British or if Hamas would accept Jews. AQ believes the Shia are apostates and they want to convert them or wipe them out. They were murdering Shia even when they were trying to get the Iraqi people to fight off the coalition. I don’t think you could say there’s a civil war between the Sunnis and Shia. They coexist in most places as far as I know. I think about 80 percent of all Muslims are Sunnis, and the only predominantly Muslim countries with that have a Shia majority are Iraq and Iran. Saddam oppressed the Shia, and there was more than a little resentment about that. Then when he was gone, Al Qaeda showed up and tried to blow up the Shia whenever they had a chance. And if you think that means Al Qaeda and Saddam would have gotten along because they hated some of the peope, you’re wrong. He was a secular leader, so they wanted him dead, too. They’re hard to please. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/islam-a-civil-war-between-shia-and-sunni-nd/577706/23 "2011-04-12T17:15:28Z")
high food prices may also be caused by a quiet build-up of national strategic stockpiles, let’s say in China. That’s purely hypothetical, and I don’t even know if there is any statistical mechanism to credibly prove or disprove if something of this nature is happening. But if Chinese government is internally less optimistic about medium-term future than Ben Bernanke at his press conferences, this would not be an irrational thing for them to do. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/islam-a-civil-war-between-shia-and-sunni-nd/577706/24 "2011-04-12T17:24:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I think about 80 percent of all Muslims are Sunnis, and the only predominantly Muslim countries with that have a Shia majority are Iraq and Iran. And Azerbaijan and Bahrain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/islam-a-civil-war-between-shia-and-sunni-nd/577706.md?page=1)