I can only really speak for people here in the U.S. and in specific California, Washington, Hawaii and New Mexico where I actually have lived for any length of time:
However, if you are not a Christian here is how non-Christians tend to be treated here in the U.S. since the 1950s. (I'm sort of crunching everything I have seen in the last 50 years or so in sharing this).
So, as I grew up if you weren't a Christian people might look at you kind of funny but they weren't going to kill you for being different like you would be killed in other countries for being in another religion. In California we take very seriously the right to pursue happiness because if one person doesn't get to pursue their happiness most other people won't be able to either.
However, that being said if you weren't Christian people might not hire you because of ignorance and fear especially in the 1950s and early 1960s. However, if you bought or created a business and hired all your relatives to work there everything was fine even then. In fact, if you were really good and gave everyone really good prices everyone might beat a trail to the door to your business.
But, in primarily non-Christian countries I gather this isn't true which is the main reason I haven't studied Islam that much. I primarily chose not to because of the whole idea of the fact that if you didn't believe in Islam in an area you might be killed for not believing in Islam.
It's not that Christians haven't killed or even massacred whole cities of people like during the Crusades where every man, woman and child of any religion were killed mostly because of ignorance of the Crusaders and because they wanted to rape, loot and pillage and not have any witnesses left alive to talk about it.
However, since then people take Christian Brotherhood much more seriously which is why the "one for all and all for one" addage is actually lived out in emergencies whether they be weather, accidental or during war.
We have found in the U.S. if we all work together we all survive better. However, it is possible that there just isn't enough trust or non-religious education prevalent enough in most other countries for people to become educated in a useful way to understand that "United we stand and divided we fall".
In the U.S all of us understand this one thing. We are only strong when we stand together on one issue or another. Otherwise we are going every which way. But, when our country or state or region is threatened we all band together as one and get things done. That's just a part of Christian Brotherhood combined with a good form of government and how it actually works here.
So, I'm thinking that ignorance is what causes Shias to kill Sunnis and Sunnis to kill Shias. And what to me is really sad is that countries like Russia and Iran are actually creating this war for their own ends while wishing millions of people to die in whatever way possible.
So, first we have overpopulation caused by no use of birth control in most Muslim nations, and now we have genocide of Sunnis by Shias and now Shias by Sunnis. And the way this is presently going millions could be dead within 5 to 10 years or more the way this thing gets worse and worse every day. And the whole world is going to suffer through higher and higher oil prices while Russia and Iran smile from all the deaths.
World
In caliphate declaration, Sunni extremists reach for mantle of Islam's prophet
CAIRO – By declaring the
establishment of an Islamic caliphate, the extremist group that controls
large swaths of Syria and Iraq, is claiming to be the successor of the
political and religious community established by the Prophet Muhammad.
The caliphate is a powerful ideal — the concept of a nation of Muslims worldwide ruled by Shariah law under a caliph who holds both spiritual and secular authority. There have been multiple caliphates over Islam's 1,400-year history, with the greatest Muslim empires ruling from Morocco to Central Asia.
The caliphate as an institution lost its authority centuries ago, becoming just a tool of secular rulers to give themselves religious backing. It was formally abolished in 1920 by Turkey's secular founder Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. And while many Muslims long for the unified community of the prophet's era, only a radical fringe are likely to see the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as its heir.
Here is a look at the history of the caliphate.
THE RIGHTLY GUIDED CALIPHS: The term caliphate comes from the Arabic word meaning succession, and the caliph is the title of those who assume the mantle of Muhammad as Muslims' spiritual and political leader. The first four leaders of the community who followed Muhammad in the 7th century are considered the purest expression of the caliphate — Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman and Ali.
Chosen by "shura" — or consultation among Muslims — they led the community in its dramatic expansion from the Arabian Peninsula to rule over North Africa and the Middle East.
But the succession also carried the seeds of dispute. Shiites believe Ali should have directly succeeded Muhammad and leadership should have stayed in his line of the family. The wars that resulted — eventually leading to Ali's death in 661 — solidified the Sunni-Shiite split that is now being violently played out in parts of the Mideast.
UMAYYADS AND ABBASIDS: After Ali's death, the caliphate moved to the Umayyad dynasty ruling from Damascus, who turned the caliph into a hereditary position. The dynasty ruled for nearly 100 years until they were defeated by the Abbasids, who claimed descent from an uncle of Muhammad.
The Abbasid caliphs, ruling from Baghdad, presided over Islam's golden age, patronizing scientists, Islamic scholars, philosophers and poets — some of whom celebrated drinking, romance and other courtly pursuits in verses that would be brutally punished by today's ultraconservative Islamic State. But as the dynasty declined, often the caliph was reduced to a religious figurehead as other warring clans grabbed secular power.
Finally, the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid dynasty. They are said to have killed the caliph at the time, al-Mustasim, by rolling him up in a carpet and trampling him with their horses.
It was a shattering blow to the already dwindling claim of a universal caliphate leading all Muslims. His heirs fled to Cairo, and while they kept the title of caliph, they were reduced to pawns of Egypt's Mamluk rulers.
OTTOMANS: As the Ottoman Empire became the pre-eminent Islamic power in the 15th and 16th centuries, its sultans claimed leadership of the entire Muslim world, eventually taking on the title of caliph, which was enshrined in the constitution in 1876. However, many Sunni scholars disputed their claim, arguing that the caliph must come from Muhammad's Arab tribe.
The Ottoman Empire was dismembered after World War I. Ataturk abolished the caliphate in 1924, removing the last caliph Abdulmecid II.
MODERN DREAMS: Nearly all Sunni political Islamist movements dream of the eventual resurrection of the caliphate, most by political means, though jihadi groups call for establishing it by violence. It has been the ultimate ambition of al-Qaida, but while its late leader Osama bin Laden could once claim leadership of the international jihadi movement, he never went so far as to declare himself caliph.
The Islamic State is hoping to rally extremists to its side. But even the militant camp is divided. Al-Qaida ejected the Islamic State from its network. Islamic militants in Syria have been battling the Islamic State since January, accusing it of hijacking the uprising against President Bashar Assad for its own transnational purposes.
The caliphate is a powerful ideal — the concept of a nation of Muslims worldwide ruled by Shariah law under a caliph who holds both spiritual and secular authority. There have been multiple caliphates over Islam's 1,400-year history, with the greatest Muslim empires ruling from Morocco to Central Asia.
The caliphate as an institution lost its authority centuries ago, becoming just a tool of secular rulers to give themselves religious backing. It was formally abolished in 1920 by Turkey's secular founder Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. And while many Muslims long for the unified community of the prophet's era, only a radical fringe are likely to see the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as its heir.
Here is a look at the history of the caliphate.
THE RIGHTLY GUIDED CALIPHS: The term caliphate comes from the Arabic word meaning succession, and the caliph is the title of those who assume the mantle of Muhammad as Muslims' spiritual and political leader. The first four leaders of the community who followed Muhammad in the 7th century are considered the purest expression of the caliphate — Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman and Ali.
Chosen by "shura" — or consultation among Muslims — they led the community in its dramatic expansion from the Arabian Peninsula to rule over North Africa and the Middle East.
But the succession also carried the seeds of dispute. Shiites believe Ali should have directly succeeded Muhammad and leadership should have stayed in his line of the family. The wars that resulted — eventually leading to Ali's death in 661 — solidified the Sunni-Shiite split that is now being violently played out in parts of the Mideast.
UMAYYADS AND ABBASIDS: After Ali's death, the caliphate moved to the Umayyad dynasty ruling from Damascus, who turned the caliph into a hereditary position. The dynasty ruled for nearly 100 years until they were defeated by the Abbasids, who claimed descent from an uncle of Muhammad.
The Abbasid caliphs, ruling from Baghdad, presided over Islam's golden age, patronizing scientists, Islamic scholars, philosophers and poets — some of whom celebrated drinking, romance and other courtly pursuits in verses that would be brutally punished by today's ultraconservative Islamic State. But as the dynasty declined, often the caliph was reduced to a religious figurehead as other warring clans grabbed secular power.
Finally, the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid dynasty. They are said to have killed the caliph at the time, al-Mustasim, by rolling him up in a carpet and trampling him with their horses.
It was a shattering blow to the already dwindling claim of a universal caliphate leading all Muslims. His heirs fled to Cairo, and while they kept the title of caliph, they were reduced to pawns of Egypt's Mamluk rulers.
OTTOMANS: As the Ottoman Empire became the pre-eminent Islamic power in the 15th and 16th centuries, its sultans claimed leadership of the entire Muslim world, eventually taking on the title of caliph, which was enshrined in the constitution in 1876. However, many Sunni scholars disputed their claim, arguing that the caliph must come from Muhammad's Arab tribe.
The Ottoman Empire was dismembered after World War I. Ataturk abolished the caliphate in 1924, removing the last caliph Abdulmecid II.
MODERN DREAMS: Nearly all Sunni political Islamist movements dream of the eventual resurrection of the caliphate, most by political means, though jihadi groups call for establishing it by violence. It has been the ultimate ambition of al-Qaida, but while its late leader Osama bin Laden could once claim leadership of the international jihadi movement, he never went so far as to declare himself caliph.
The Islamic State is hoping to rally extremists to its side. But even the militant camp is divided. Al-Qaida ejected the Islamic State from its network. Islamic militants in Syria have been battling the Islamic State since January, accusing it of hijacking the uprising against President Bashar Assad for its own transnational purposes.
