Iraq is a Muslim-majority country with a Shia majority (approximately 60–65%) and a significant Sunni minority (roughly 35–40%). While Sunnis held political power for decades, the population is predominantly Shia, particularly in the south and east, while Sunnis are concentrated in the north, west, and center.
Saddam Hussein was a Sunni Muslim, born into a Sunni Arab family from the al-Bu Nasir tribe, and his regime dominated Iraq, a country with a Shia Muslim majority. While his rule was secular under the Ba'ath Party, he used Sunni Arab identity and a form of Arab-Islamic nationalism for political legitimacy, even as he suppressed Shia opposition.
Observers estimate that 80 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim, 19 percent Shia Muslim, and other religious groups comprise less than 1 percent of the population.
Hamas (or the Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist military and sociopolitical movement, and a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
BBC News Iraq crisis The Sunni Shia divide explained
Is Pakistan Sunni or Shia?
As much as 85–90% of Pakistanis follows Sunni Islam. Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is represented by the Barelvi and Deobandi traditions. About 97% of Pakistanis are Muslims. The majority are Sunni (85–90%) while Shias make up around 10-15%.
Sunni and Shi'i are the two largest branches of Islam, with the overwhelming majority of Iranians practicing Shi'i Islam. About 90 percent of Iranians practice Shi'ism, the official religion of Iran. [i] By contrast, most Arab states in the Middle East are predominantly Sunni.
The country has an area of 35,637 square miles and a population of 6.3 million, around 95 percent of whom are Sunni Muslim. Estimates of the number of Page 2 JORDAN 2 Christian citizens vary from 1.5 to 3 percent of the population. Shia Muslims, Bahai, and Druze constitute an estimated 2 percent of the population.
While the exact numbers are subject to debate, the Shia comprise around 10% of the world's Muslims, and Sunnis 90%. Sunnis are a majority in most Muslim communities around the world.
Britain has an estimated Muslim population of about 3.8 million (acccording to the 2021 census). Of these, some 5% are Shia, the rest are Sunni. The historical split occurred 1400 years ago, following the death of Muhammad in Medina, in modern day Saudi Arabia.
"Al Salam" literally means "The Peace"; the number "313" is the number men who accompanied the Islamic Prophet Muhammad during the Battle of Badr and is said by Shias to be the number of people that will accompany the 12th Shia Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, when he returns to the world during the end of times.
During the reign of the first Safavid shah (king), Ismail I (r. 1501–1524), the military, political, and religious goals of the Safavids became unified. In 1501, he proclaimed himself the King of Kings and the creator of a new Shia state, thus creating a strong ideological foundation.
The constitution designates Islam as the official religion, with over 90% of the Emirati population are Sunni Islam, mainly following the Maliki school. The vast majority of the remainder 5–10% are Shia Muslims, who are concentrated in the Emirates of Dubai and Sharjah.
Though the two main sects within Islam, Sunni and Shia, agree on most of the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam, a bitter split between the two goes back some 14 centuries. The divide originated with a dispute over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Islamic faith he introduced.
Sunnis comprise around 75 percent of Syrians, with the remaining 25 percent made up of minorities like the Alawites, Christians, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and the Druze.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (an acronym from the Arabic: حركة المقاومة الإسلامية, romanized: Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah), is a Sunni Islamist Palestinian nationalist political organisation with a military wing known as the al-Qassam Brigades.
Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political and militant group based in Lebanon, is driven by an ideology that combines religious, political, and social elements. Founded in the early 1980s, Hezbollah's ideology is deeply rooted in Shia Islam and influenced by the Iranian Revolution.
The majority of Muslims in Egypt are Sunni, with many affiliated with various Sufi orders. The Ahmadiyya community is estimated at around 50,000 individuals. Estimates of Egypt's Shia population, including Twelvers and Ismailis, range from 800,000 to as many as two to three million individuals.
Sect identity is more common among other religious groups in India. For example, the predominant sect among Indian Muslims is Sunni Islam (55%), while 6% of Indian Muslims identify as Shia.
