Question to the Muslims here

Shia Sunni relations - Differences in beliefs and practices

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia–Sunni_relations#Differences_in_beliefs_and_practices

80–90% of the world's Muslims are Sunni and 10–20% are Shia.

The first (so I assume the most important difference).

Sunnis believe that Abu Bakr, the father of Muhammad's wife Aisha, was Muhammad's rightful successor and that the method of choosing or electing leaders (Shura) endorsed by the Quran is the consensus of the Ummah, (the Muslim community).

Shiites believe that Muhammad divinely ordained his cousin and son-in-law Ali (the father of his grandsons Hasan ibn Ali and Hussein ibn Ali) in accordance with the command of God to be the next caliph making Ali and his direct descendants Muhammad's successors. Ali was married to Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter.
 
@OP: The difference has its roots in the events the occurred following the death of the Prophet (pbuh), with regard to choosing the leader of the Muslims - the Caliph. In a nutshell, the Sunnis wanted an election and the Shias believed that leadership should have remained in the family of the Prophet (pbuh).

More here: http://islam.about.com/cs/divisions/f/shia_sunni.htm

Over the last centuries following this split in political ideology, differences in the practice of faith have also arisen. Shias still believe in the divinity of the line of the Prophet (pbuh), whereas Sunnis believe this is heresy. Shias reject the hadith - the teachings of the Prophet (pbuh).

As you can imagine, this gets ugly, and with some psychotic/terrorist elements thrown into the mix, it also gets bloody. And then, as you can imagine, it becomes a cycle of revenge killings as everything goes to hell and spirals into violence.

EDIT: Also, given events like the Iran-Iraq war in the 80s, and the cycle of sectarian violence in the years following the utterly disastrous US/UK intervention in Iraq, and the events of the so-called "Arab Spring", animosity between the two groups - especially in the Middle East - is probably at an all-time high.
 
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Not sure if this is just a troll-bait post, but to add to my commentary above, there is a rather excellent article here:

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/vie...mb-for-writing-on-Sunni-Shiite-concepts-.html

This article explains exactly why you simply cannot view the current conflicts solely in the light of the events of the 8th Century (TLDR, its because of history/culture/geopolitics that evolved since the 8th Century).
 
Basically it's optimists vs pessimists

One group has a Sunni outlook on life while the others think that everything will go to Shia(t).
 
Within those two groups are a couple of hundred schools who all believe different things anyway, sometimes these groups get kicked out for not being proper Muslims. The differences are apparently over really minor things, but maybe explain why the whole religion is a mess, with Imans popping up all the time declaring all sorts of nonsense as the true interpretation.

The middle east is like Ireland, different versions of the same religion and a bunch of people who will start a fight in an empty room. Add in the oil, drugs and stupid local politics and it's a mess. We should build a big wall around them and leave them to it.
 
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