Shi'ites: A Feared Minority

With the death of the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632, the conflicts that led to the great division of Islam between Sunnis and Shi'ites began. Today the Sunnis account for more than 80% of the world's 750 million Muslims, but the Shi'ites who predominate in Iran, Iraq and Bahrain and who have unstable minorities in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Kuwait, generate fears far out of proportion to their numbers. . . . The Shi'ites believe that the leadership of Islam should have remained in the Prophet's family. The Sunnis prefer to make such decisions by consensus. The Shi'ites supported Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law All, who became the fourth Caliph, or successor, before his assassination in 661. According to the Shi'ites, Ali and his descendants were Imams, divinely guided leaders and mediators between God and man. The last of twelve Imams disappeared in 940, and is believed to be in hiding, awaiting the right moment to re-emerge and establish a purified Islamic government of justice. Because of the violent deaths of Ali and his son Husain, Shi'ites, unlike Sunnis, emphasize martyrdom and atonement. Every year the Shi'ites mourn Husain's death with public re-enactments of the occurrence and displays of self-flagellation. The same passion seems to have motivated hundreds of thousands of unarmed Iranians who faced down the Shah's troops in the streets of Tehran in 1978 and 1979. Khomeini, no doubt, is counting on that fervor to propel the Iranian legions that stormed across the Iraqi border last week.

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