THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUNNI AND SHITE MUSLIMS:

The religion of Islam was established by Mohammed in the seventh century A.D. In 622 he set up the first Islamic state, a theocracy in Medina, Saudi Arabia. There are two branches of the religion he started. The Sunni branch believes the first four caliphs -Mohammed's successors - rightfully took his place as the leaders of Islam. They recognize the heirs of the four caliphs as legitimate rulers. These heirs held power continuously in the Arab world until the break-up of the Ottoman Empire following the end of the First World War. Shiites, in contrast, believe only the heirs of the fourth caliph, Ali, are the legitimate successors of Mohammed. In 931 the Twelfth Imam disappeared. This was an impacting event in the history of Shiite Muslims who are concentrated in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, and who believe they suffered the loss of divinely guided political leadership at the time of the Imam's disappearance. Not until the ascendancy of Iran’s, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1978 did they believe they had once again begun to live under the authority of a legitimate religious figure. Another distinction between Sunnis and Shiites has to do with the Mahdi, “the rightly-guided one” whose role is to bring a just global caliphate into being. The major difference is that for Shiites he has already been here, and will return from hiding. For Sunnis he has yet to emerge into history. Al-Qaeda, until May 2011 ruled by Osama bin Laden is a Sunni Muslim terrorist organization. The Lebanon-based terrorist group, Hezbollah, is Shiite-backed group. Iran’s Hassan Rouhani is Shiite. The two factions are bitterly opposed to each other, but both are avowed enemies to Israel and the West.

So... the enemy of my enemy is my friend.