The difference between Muslim Groups, Sunni or Shia, Terrorist groups,The Syrian war

The Difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims:

The study of The Middle East Region can be a complicated one especially if you are not from there.  To clear things up there are 2 major types of Muslims, Sunni and Shia (Shiite) .  The Sunni's are the majority, comprising 80% to 90% and they are also the one's responsible for ISIS and Al Qaeda but the news will confuse this subject because Saudi Arabia is considered an ally, but it just so happens they are the major Sunni country where its original origin began.  The kingdom, which sometimes is called the "home of Islam", is the location of the cities of Mecca and Medina, where Muhammad, the messenger of the Islamic faith, lived and died.

Osama bin Ladin as you can see from Wikipedia and other sources was a Sunni and financed from Saudi Arabia according to Wikileaks.  See 3rd paragraph under Early life and education --- [source].

ISIS according to Wikipedia: "the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham, or simply Islamic State (IS), is a Wahhabi/Salafi jihadist extremist militant terrorist group and self-proclaimed Islamic state and caliphate, which is led by and mainly composed of Sunni Arabs from Iraq and Syria."

Shia Islam is the second-largest denomination of Islam: in 2009, Shia Muslims constituted 10-13% of the world's Muslim population, and between 68% and 80% of Shias lived in four countries: Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and India. [source]

Shiite comes from the word shia, which means "the party (of Ali)."  The Sunnis murdered Ali who was appointed to be the successor to Mohammad by the Shia's.

The division began after the death of the Prophet Mohammed some 1,400 years ago, as a disagreement about who should succeed him. The Sunnis felt that Abu Bakr, a close friend of the prophet's, ought to be the next Muslim leader. But the Shiites claimed that Mohammed had anointed his son-in-law, Ali, as his rightful successor. [source]

Yavuz Sultan Selim who delivered a devastating blow to the Shia Safavids and Ismail I in the Battle of Chaldiran, a battle of historical significance.

Americans are totally ignorant about the conflicts in the Middle East and most don't even know the differences between the rival Muslim denominations.  Americans tend to make decisions based on propaganda they hear on news networks like FoxNews or MSNBC. These networks have a bias and an agenda.  Americans typically don't read up on the details of events or do any constructive research other than short headline news that tends to draw on the emotions of some violent event which the news then tells you what to think based on emotional responses from the stuff you see without knowing the full details of the conflict or past history of.

Many Americans quickly supported the invasion of Iraq because they believed the news and had thought Iraq had "attacked us in 911" or "had weapons of mass destruction" but they did not do or have either yet Americans supported the attack based on those grounds.  A full invasion and occupation was supported, which cost many American lives, many times more Iraqis died, and there was severe financial losses do to the cost of war.  There was full destabilization of the Middle East especially in Muslim regions which were better off without American military intervention.   The majority of the terrorist on 911 were from Saudi Arabia.  According to a Huffinton post article, an estimated 1/2 million have been killed in the Iraq war since 2003 but you will hardly hear these statistics being reported by pro-war media.  Most killed were from Iraq which includes a high civilian death toll.

As it stands many American's are also dumbfounded about the origins of political friendship between the Saudis that have to do with oil rather than a true friendship and the shady agreement made during the Nixon administration to have oil traded in US dollars.  See Petrodollar 1973 agreement.