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Two Middle Eastern men approached Zwemer Institute executive director James Dretke after he delivered a speech in Arlington, Texas, and said they objected to something he said. He quickly thought through his speech and assumed they referred to comments he made about Muslim beliefs.

What they complained about instead surprised him. "You said that 90 percent of the world's Muslims are Sunni and 10 percent are Shi'ah," one of the men said. "We wanted you to know that the Shi'ah are not Muslims at all."

While such heated tensions have existed within Islam since the seventh century, the fall of Saddam Hussein's mostly Sunni regime and last week's massive Shi'ite procession to Karbala have brought extensive media attention to the division between the Sunni and Shi'ite branches of Islam.

While adherents to Sunni (more than 1 billion) far outnumber those of Shi'ah (more than 170 million), Shi'ites have long held the majority in Iran and Iraq. Iran is a Shi'ite theocracy, but Iraq has long been ruled by a secularist Sunni government despite its 60 percent Shi'ite population. Now that the nation is in political flux, observers are unsure how the religious division will shape the new government and its perspective on religious freedom.

But do the differences between Sunni and Shi'ah have implications for evangelism, Christian-Muslim dialogue, and Iraq's church?

What split the Shi'ah and Sunni?

The division between the two groups dates to the death of Muhammad in A.D. 632. The orthodox Sunni (or "example of the prophet") first emerged during a dispute about who would become the next caliph, the leader of the Islamic community.

According to Dudley Woodberry, professor of Islamic studies at the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, the Sunni followed the Arabian practice of appointing a committee of elders to choose the leader. They elected Abu Bakr as caliph.

A second group, however, felt the rightful heir was Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. Advocating that only direct descendents of the prophet should become caliph, Ali's supporters would become known as Shi'ites (or "the party of Ali"). They believe in a "divine light" that passes from Muhammad through his line to rightly guided imams. The Sunni do not believe in the divinity of Muslim leaders.

Ali did become caliph, but not until 656. He was the fourth leader after Muhammad. Don Wagner, executive director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University, says that Shi'ites believe Ali was framed for the assassination of his predecessor, Uthman. Ali was killed by one of his men after losing a battle against Uthman's cousin, Mu'awiya Ummayad, who declared himself caliph.

While Ali's oldest son, Hassan, was compensated for not becoming caliph, the youngest son, Hussein, agreed to wait until Mu'awiya died to become leader. This didn't happen because Mu'awiya's son Yazid took the position. In a war against Yazid, Hussein was killed in Karbala (which is now in Iraq).

For most Shi'ites, who are known as the Twelvers, the line of Muhammad ended in A.D. 873 with the disappearance of the twelfth imam, 4-year-old Al-Askari. Making up the majority of Shi'ites, the Twelvers believe that Al-Askari is hidden and will usher in a new great era when he returns. The Sunni say this belief is heretical.

"The Sunnis have a more literal interpretation of the Qur'an," says Wagner. "They don't allow some of the added teaching the Shi'ah have brought in, like reverence for Ali or belief in the hidden imam."

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April (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47