When a man raised his hand to ask what was the difference
between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, fourth-year communication studies
student Faryal Humkar was taken aback.
She was surprised because the event she was hosting was not an
information session about Islam for non-Muslims. Rather, it was the
first meeting of Salaam Youth Group, which Humkar helped found with
the goal of bringing all types of Muslims together.
“There are people in the (Muslim) community who
don’t even know the differences between Sunni and Shiite.
There’s a need to know the differences,” she said.
Today marks the third anniversary of the start of the war in
Iraq, a conflict that has escalated divisions among traditionally
strained Sunni-Shiite relations in the country, resulting in acts
of violence between the sects.
The primary difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims is that
the Shiites believe that the Prophet Mohammad appointed his
successor, through his direct bloodline, while the Sunnis believe
that the prophet did not.
Shiite Muslims now follow a direct line of Imams, or religious
leaders, whereas Sunnis have followed elected leaders.
Sunnis make up the majority of Muslims today.
Though Humkar grew up in a Shiite family, her parents allowed
her to explore other sects of Islam and visit Sunni mosques.
She started the youth group at the Resalat Mosque in the San
Fernando Valley with her sister and a friend in order to fill a
void in the Muslim community in the U.S. by building a dialogue
among Muslim youth, Humkar said.
The group brings in speakers each Friday night from both Sunni
and Shiite backgrounds as well as from various races and
nationalities to provide a wide array of perspectives on Islam.
“There wasn’t a place where all Muslims felt like
they could learn,” Humkar said of her experiences growing up
in the Muslim community in Los Angeles.
“There’s a division only because there’s a
lack of understanding. It’s not something that should be
causing divisions amongst Muslims,” she added.
Recent incidents in Iraq, such as the bombing of the Shiite
al-Askari shrine in Samarra and the subsequent retaliations, have
exacerbated these divisions in the country.
Iyad Allawi, the former interim prime minister of Iraq, recently
remarked that the current sectarian violence in Iraq was nothing
short of a civil war.
The United States has vehemently denied remarks that Iraq is in
the middle of a civil war.
Mohammad Tajsar, a second-year English and Arabic student, was
born to Iraqi parents in Iran and spent the first 11 years of his
life there before immigrating to the United States.
Tajsar said he feels that the current state of the Sunni-Shiite
conflict is more a result of the United States’ occupation of
Iraq than historical tensions.
“It’s not something that’s natural, the whole
Sunni-Shiite conflict. The ultimate cause is the nature of the
occupation,” he said.
Tajsar added that his family had originally been fairly
optimistic about the war and the removal of Saddam Hussein from
power, but the long duration of the occupation and various widely
publicized acts of terrorism have resulted in new conflicts.
“These (conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shiites) are
the kinds of relationships that dominate as a result of the
situation. When conditions get worse, you get … stigmas, where
everyone is at each others’ throats,” he said.
But he said these kind of strained relationships are not echoed
in the American Muslim community.
Khadeeja Abdullah, a fourth-year physiological sciences student,
also said she felt that the situation between Sunni and Shiite
Muslims in the U.S. was not a major issue.
When people ask here if she’s Sunni or Shiite, she prefers
to respond that she’s Muslim.
In fact, she shares her Westwood apartment with Muslims of both
sects, and she knows some families that are mixed Sunni-Shiite.
“For the kids that I know in a family with a Sunni parent
and a Shiite parent, it gives them that opportunity to figure
things out. It allows the children in that family to do a little
research on their own,” Abdullah said.
For Humkar, getting children to do research and learn about the
various sects of Islam at a young age was one of her major
goals.
“They don’t really venture out until they get to the
university level and we felt it was important to start (Salaam
Youth Group) so that people could branch out while they’re
young”, she said.
Humkar said she is optimistic about the future of the group and
the dialogues it is encouraging within the Muslim community.
“There’s all sorts of things that all Muslims agree
on, and through these things we can all come together,” she
said.