c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When Fatima Pashaei, a Shiite Muslim of Iranian descent, and Atif Qarni, a Sunni Muslim whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan, married six years ago, it was a joyous event.

Instead of lamenting theological differences that have roiled Shiite-Sunni relations for centuries in other countries, their family and friends celebrated.

“Our parents were just happy we were marrying Muslims. Everything else is sort of secondary,” said Pashaei, 24, still married to Qarni and living in Manassas, Va., with their 3-year-old son.

Sensitive to U.S. pluralistic traditions and forced to work together as fellow Islamic minorities, American Shiite and Sunni Muslims have avoided the violent strife that has plagued Iraq and other parts of the Muslim world. But with Iraq on the brink of sectarian civil war, Muslims growing in numbers in the U.S. and Sunni extremist groups like the Wahhabis sowing discord, American Muslims see increasing Shiite-Sunni tensions here.

Divisions have widened worldwide since the golden dome of the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, was blown up Feb. 22. Two descendants of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad are buried there, making it one of Shiite (also called Shia) Islam’s holiest shrines.

“For a lot of people, this is one of the most tragic events in the history of the Shia,” said Mohamed Sabur, co-director of the year-old Qunoot Foundation, a Shiite advocacy group in Washington. “Things were bad under Saddam, but you never would have seen him do this.”

Retaliations ensued, killing hundreds of Iraqis while threatening the future of a fragile government propped up by U.S. forces.

Historically, the Shiite-Sunni rift is traced to the question of who should have succeeded the Prophet Muhammad, who died in 632, as leader of the Muslim community.

Sunnis regard Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, as the final of four “rightly guided caliphs.” Shiites believe Ali was the rightful first caliph, or “first imam,” and that leadership of the community should go only to direct descendants of Muhammad. The next 10 imams, Shiites believe, were all killed by rivals while the 12th imam and last of the prophet’s line, Al-Askari, went into hiding in 873. The 10th and 11th imams are buried at the Al-Askariya mosque while the 12th imam is believed to have vanished in the Iraq mosque until he returns to restore justice on Earth.

Shiite reverence for these martyred imams is the main theological difference with Sunnis. Ultra-orthodox Sunnis contend this reverence is tantamount to worship, detracts from the central Islamic principle of the oneness of God and may even constitute blasphemy. Lesser Shiite-Sunni differences include the manner in which one prays and the structure of religious hierarchy.

Although these differences have at times resulted in violence, extremist Sunni animosity toward Shiites, who make up an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of the global Muslim population of about 1.4 billion, has intensified in recent years. In 1994, a suicide bomber attacked the sacred burial place of Reza _ a great-grandson of Muhammad _ in Mahshad, Iran, killing 26 people. Sectarian violence has also claimed thousands of lives in Pakistan and Iraq.

While the Muslim-on-Muslim killing has yet to reach the United States, many Shiites believe the hatred already has, even before the recent violence in Iraq.

For the past several years, Shiites have marched through New York City’s Manhattan during the Muslim month of Muharram to commemorate the killing of Ali’s younger son, Hussein, the third imam, in Karbala, Iraq, in 680. The historic event is regarded as the definitive split between Shiites and Sunnis.

When Shiites marched in New York this year, on Feb. 5, they were met by protesters claiming to be from a Brooklyn-based group calling itself the Islamic Thinkers Society, which denounced the ritual and passed out fliers condemning Shiites as heretics.

On one American Shiite Web site where the incident was discussed, inflammatory language was exchanged.

“The gulf is widening,” said Sabur. “That’s why we started Qunoot. I didn’t find a need for this type of organization 10 years ago.”

Abbas Kazimi, a graduate student at Harvard and a devout Shiite of Pakistani descent, has seen the divide affect friendships.

A few years ago, while living in Houston, Kazimi said a Sunni friend advised him to leave congregational Friday prayers at a local mosque when the friend noticed Kazimi prayed in the traditional Shiite manner, with his hands by his sides rather than folded on his stomach as Sunnis do. Shiites also place a stone, leaf or other natural substance on the ground which they touch their heads to during prostration.

The animosity has created a climate of intimidation in which many Shiites are now uncomfortable praying in Sunni mosques, even in the U.S., said Kazimi, 23.

“There’s a constant paranoia in your mind that people are constantly looking whether your hands are down, and that you have a small rock or leaf in front of you,” he said. “There’s something that you always feel because you know that there is a school of thought that exists that hates you, and you want to know, are they around you.”

For some, even admitting to being a Shiite to other Muslims has become a point of anxiety.

“When I meet a person for the first time, I’m always thinking, when am I going to tell them I’m Shia,” said Nousheen Yousuf, a graduate student at Boston University. “I want to tell them (but) at the same time, it’s been my experience that as soon as people find out I’m Shia, everything I say they question.”

Adding to these frustrations is the sense that few Sunni leaders have condemned attacks against Shiites, both abroad and in the United States. Shiites say the condemnations that have been voiced are superficial and lack conviction.

Although Shiite history has translated into an ethos of bearing suffering with patience, the patience of many Shiites in the United States and abroad is running out.

“These (Iraq) attacks change the dynamics of how Shias participate in politics,” Sabur said. “Shias are becoming more assertive of their rights within the Muslim community. Everybody says, `Where are the moderate Muslims protesting terror?’ But we need that condemnation internally, too.”

Following the Feb. 22 destruction of the Shiite shrine in Iraq, some Sunni imams in the U.S. have not only condemned the attacks but also volunteered to establish fundraisers to rebuild the Samarra shrine. American Shiites have welcomed these overtures, expressing hope that such attacks ultimately will unite rather than divide the two communities.

“There’s a consensus that this is not a Shia-Sunni issue, but an evil-against-humanity issue,” said Seyede Katayon Kasmai, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Information Center, a Shiite group in Burtonsville, Md. She said she hopes this will motivate Muslims to act against Wahhabis, a Saudi sub-sect that has persecuted Shiites.

Pashaei and Qarni, the young Shiite-Sunni couple, say the sectarian strife has done nothing to dampen their love. They plan to teach their son, Zane, as well as future children, the basics of Islam and let them choose the religious path they want to take.

“We’ll leave it up to them to ask the questions instead of forcing different ideologies down their throats,” Pashaei said. “To me, it’s just a historical difference of opinion that they’ve made into a religious issue. Those are man-made issues.”

MO/PH END RNS

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