The Shia and the Sunni

both graphics from the BBC

Once again, tensions between the two main Muslim sects, the Shia and the Sunni, have risen, this time over Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shia cleric. For those who may have forgotten the basics involved here, a brief review. The division apparently began after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, with the Sunni group ~ by far the majority of all Muslims ~ following a friend of the Prophet's, Abu Bakr, and seeing themselves as the traditionalist branch, and the Shia, as the followers of Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, and his descendants, practicing a more evolving exegesis of Islamic texts. Of the Middle Eastern countries, Iran has the largest Shia majority: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-25434060 and http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/05/economist-explains-19
   A book excerpt that is both educational and enlightening may go some way toward explaining the current situation in some Middle Eastern countries: http://somanyinterestingthings.blogspot.com/2014/10/lines-in-sand.html
   The book reviewed here deals with the Iranian revolution: http://somanyinterestingthings.blogspot.com/2012/11/answering-to-higher-authority.html