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Saw reports on CNA about the tremors felt in S'pore due to the earthquake 6.3 on the Richter scale in Indonesia's Sumatran coast. And i got a first witness account coz weiyingermei was in St Andrew's Village when it SHOOK. Overheard on the phone was that the lamps and benches in the canteens shook, and i asked my sis:WAS IT FUN? out of nonchalence. This is a comment so typical of a Singaporean who has never experienced anything more than a boogy shake. :) Labels: dictionary, Iraq, Islam, Shi'ite, Sunni, TIME, tremors in Singapore, wikipedia, words
Anyway, they had an early dismissal and the principal told them to walk out solemnly since CNA reporters were around and the school should uphold the image without students behaving misappropriately. Typical of a Singaporean school too. LOL. And they had to pray for the people on the Sumatran Coast, and i wish for their safety and wellbeing too..
Some words:
Chasm: it literally means a gorge or an abyss. But can be used in the context of a breach in relations,or a divergence of opinions between persons or groups.
Rancorous: from the word rancor (synonym:enmity). Meaning full of bitter resentment.
Venerate: Regard with respect, venerance.
Schism: Separation or division into factions (as in Islam's case)
Pagan: an irreligious person
Pejoratively: pejorative means belittling. Thus pejoratively means deprecatory
Bestial: Without reason or intelligence, such as in the use of bestial torture, or bestial treatment
Anyway guys, highly recommended is that you read the article in the current issue of TIME, "Why they Hate Each Other". A reasonable analysis of the relationships between the 2 Islamic factions, Sunnis and Shi'ites.
And here i have a brief summary plus additional stuff on the differences between them and their practices:
Sunnis:
1. Men with names like Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman (early Caliphs, viceroys of God who, in the Shi'ite version of events, were hostile to Propher Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Imam Ali are almost certainly Sunnis.
2. Dulaimi, Samarrai and Bakri are Sunni tribal or family names.
3. Sunnis pray with one arm folded over the other, just below the rib cage.
4. Islam requires Muslims to say their prayers five times a day and Sunnis have five separate prayer times.
5. When calling the faithful to prayer, Sunni mosques invoke God and the Prophey Muhammad.
6. Sunni mosques tend to have domes and minarets. They tend to be more austere, and portraits of any kind are regarded as a form of idolatry.
7. Sunnis likened reverence for the Prophet's bloodline and the Shi'ites' fondness for portraits of some of the Imams to the sin of idolatry.
8. Sunnis tend to favir calligraphy-quotations from the Koran in their own home. They display a white flag when they have returned from the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
9. Sunni insurgents have been known to stop cars with stickers of Ali and murder the passengers.
10.Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt are widely known as Sunni Arab countries.
11.After the murder if Ali who became the fourth Caliph, the majority who were Sunnis backed the claim of Mu'awiyah, Governor of Syria, and his son Yazid, and killed Hussein (backed by Shi'tes) in a battlefield near modern Karbala when the two sides met.
12. About 90% of Muslims worldwide are Sunnis, and imperial patronage at that time made Sunni Islam the dominant sect.
13. Sunnis have historically had a lock on political power.
14. Sunni elite treated Shi'tes as an underclass.
15. Sunni dominance was cemented after the Ottomans eventually won conrol of the Arab territories.
16. Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda which began a bombing campaign against Shi-te targets is regarded as a Sunni jihadi group.
17. Though Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army is widely regarded as a Shi'te militia, Sunni politicians during the battle of Fallujah, spoke of an alliance with the Mahdi Army.
18. Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi was largely blamed for the operation in Samarra, the holy Shi'ite shrine, and Iraqi Sunnis had to endure the bloody fallout.
19. Sunnis were incensed when Saddam was hanged at the hour of morning prayers on one of the most sacred Muslim holidays(Iraqi Sunnis celebrated the holiday one da before the Shi'ites).
20. Religious leaders of the Wahhabi sect who preached a hard-line form of Sunni Islam were often bankrolled by members of the Saudi royal family.
21. Rafiq Hariri, former Lebanon Prime Minister was a Sunni.
22. The Palestinian Fatah group is Sunni.
23. Sunni schools of law are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali.
Shi'ites:
1. Muslims with names like Abdel-Hussein, Abdel-Zahra are most likely Shi'ite.
2. Sa'aedi, Moussawi and Rubaie are Shi'ite's tribal or family names.
3. Islam requires Muslims to say their prayers five times a day and Shi'ites have the option to pray three times, doubling up on the prayer on two occasions.
4. When calling the faithful to prayer, Shi'ites invoke God, Prophet Muhammad and additionally mention Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law.
5. The sombre ceremony of Ashura is uniquely Shi'ite as it commemorates the killing of Ali's son Hussein by Sunni enemies.
6. Shiites often worship at Husseiniyas, which combine the functions of a mosque and community center and don't necessarily have domes. These places are usually festooned with traditional green and black flags and are decorated with portraits of Ali and sometimes of Hussein.
7. The Shi'ites' fondness of portraiture extends to their homes, where the image of Ali often hangs on the walls of their living room. They may unfurl colourful flags on their roof.
8. Shi'ites often have pictures and stickers of Imam Ali on their cars' rear windows and hang religious amulets from their rearview mirrors.
9. Iraqi cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr's Shi'ite militia, Mahdi Army is blamed for thousands of Sunni deaths.
10. Iran is known for being the culprit who instigated the Shi'ite tide rising across the Middle East.
11. Shi'ites see themselves as the oppresed as they are treated by Sunnis as an underclass, limited to manual labor and denied a fair share of state resources.
12. Shi'ites were Ali, the fourth Caliph's supporters and they agitated for his son Hussein for the role of Caliph. They saw Hussein as a just and humane figure who stood up to a mighty oppressor. Hussein was killed by Sunnis on a battlefield.
13. Ashura is the most spectacular of Shi'ite ceremonies, as it is the annual mourning of Hussein's death. It involves a faithful march in the streets, Shi'ites beating their chests and crying in sorrow and the extremely devout will flagellate themselves with swords and whips.
14. Shi'ites venerate the Imams, descendants of the Prophets until the 12th Imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi disappeared in the Samarra shrine. They believe that al-Mahdi is mystically hidden and will emerge on an unspecified date to usher in a reign of justice.
15. Shi'ites form the majority in modern states of Iraq, Bahrain and Azerbaijan.
16. One example of Shi'ite uprisings is Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.
17. Saddam Hussein, Iraq's former dictator, kept the Shi'ites firmly under his thumb during his rule.
18. A Shi'ite coalition swept to power in Iraq's first post-Saddam election in Jan 2005.
19. Shi'ites turned to militias like the Mahdi Army to avenge the desecration of the holy Samarra site.
20. Shi'ites are now politically dominant in Iraq.
21. The Hisballah militia in Lebanon and the government led by Hamas are Shi'ite groups.
22. Shi'ites believe in the five pillars of Islam but have different categorisation as Sunnis.
finished rambling
11:44 PM <3