Influence of Shia Ideas on Modern Sunnis

[El Tahawy]

Salaam

There is something that I have noticed, that not too many people have addressed. It is the problem of Sunnis, particularly those who are younger and live in Western Countries, being influenced by the ideas of Shias. For example, I have encountered a Sunni individual who expressed the opinion that the problems with Islam started after the Prophet (PBUH) passed away and the Sahaba started quarreling. This individual then went on to criticize the Sahaba (May God be pleased with them). I didn't realize at the time, but it is clear that this person was influenced by the ideas of Shias and without a real understanding of history and reliance on accurate Hadiths, the uninformed Sunni then accepts these ideas. Even if the person does not convert to Shiism, they become influenced by it.

Furthermore, many Sunni institutions/Masajid/leaders promote the idea of unity between Sunni and Shia and are afraid to be labelled as Sectarian. So many of these Sunni youth don't find responses to Shia accusations from their Masjid.

 Many are also plainly ignorant of the beliefs of the Shia. I see this as a problem especially when we have many Modernist or Liberal Muslims who don't look to authentic sources and come up with their own theories on Islam. They find the Shia narrative attractive and promote it, or at least give it credence as an alternative to traditional Islam.

[MuslimK]

Walaikum Salam,

It is usually the non-Muslim media that promotes the false narrative of the Shia sect that Sunni and Shiism division started immediately after Prophet (saw) died.

[Rationalist]

Salaam

There is something that I have noticed, that not too many people have addressed. It is the problem of Sunnis, particularly those who are younger and live in Western Countries, being influenced by the ideas of Shias. For example, I have encountered a Sunni individual who expressed the opinion that the problems with Islam started after the Prophet (PBUH) passed away and the Sahaba started quarreling. This individual then went on to criticize the Sahaba (May God be pleased with them). I didn't realize at the time, but it is clear that this person was influenced by the ideas of Shias and without a real understanding of history and reliance on accurate Hadiths, the uninformed Sunni then accepts these ideas. Even if the person does not convert to Shiism, they become influenced by it.

The Mutazilla did not believe the Sahaba had a special status. So they were open to not accept the sahaba views to be binding, and were critical of them. Later 12er Shia scholars like Shaykh Mufid began to study under them and a result started quoting Sunni historical sources more than their own sources. Then in addition the 12er Shia started adding their own takfiri thoughts to interpret many different historical events.

Furthermore, many Sunni institutions/Masajid/leaders promote the idea of unity between Sunni and Shia and are afraid to be labelled as Sectarian. So many of these Sunni youth don't find responses to Shia accusations from their Masjid.

Yes the idea of unity has no say from the Sunni side. The 12er Shia are openly to send lana  to the sahaba without mentioning names, and accuse them of hypocrisy. Yet when you criticize their scholars of the past without takfir you are banned from the unity membership. In fact, I have seen Sunnis unfriend me from facebook when I criticized the 12er Shia. Yet they would remain friends with the 12er Shia who referred to sahaba as hypocrites. Why? The reason is simple. The 12er SHia live in their neighborhoods and cities and the Sufi type of Sunnis, and as a result the Sunnis are too afraid of being cut off from the neighborhood  and city benefits.
 

Many are also plainly ignorant of the beliefs of the Shia. I see this as a problem especially when we have many Modernist or Liberal Muslims who don't look to authentic sources and come up with their own theories on Islam. They find the Shia narrative attractive and promote it, or at least give it credence as an alternative to traditional Islam.

Many of the Sufia plagiarized the concept of 12 Imam from the 12er Shia. As a result this left many Sufi oriented Sufi to be confused.

[Shia not Rafidi]

Shia madhab is totally dependent on Hazrat Ali ra and Imam Jafar sadiq ra.. the weakness of sunnis is, they get rejoiced upon the dhikr of Ali ra, his knowledge, His bravery, his battle tactics and so on.. and this is where shia dawah takes a start..Sunnis pay heed to fiqh problems rather than islamic history while shia are mainly taught about history, and when those sunnis confront a shi'i, they get rattled because they've never heard or read such a thing

[Adil]

Shia madhab is totally dependent on Hazrat Ali ra and Imam Jafar sadiq ra.. the weakness of sunnis is, they get rejoiced upon the dhikr of Ali ra, his knowledge, His bravery, his battle tactics and so on.. and this is where shia dawah takes a start..Sunnis pay heed to fiqh problems rather than islamic history while shia are mainly taught about history, and when those sunnis confront a shi'i, they get rattled because they've never heard or read such a thing

Well I wouldn't say influence. But I think what you said at the end has some truth to it. Most sunnis couldn't care less about shiaism, this includes religious sunnis, like literally they do not care. They just get on with with their lives because quite frankly shiaism is just nothing in comparison to Islam.

But shiaism at it's core is obsessed with sunnis and so the average shia is more chatty about sunnis too. I mean look on shiachat, they have a whole sunni-shia dialogue section. Then you go on like ummah forum and they have no such thing for shiaism specifically cos we just view it as another wrong belief system amongst many other wrong belief systems and instead they just have a comparative religion section. You're correct when you said sometime's a shia will bring forward an argument (normally a misconception of some sort) on unsuspecting sunnis which the sunni won't be able to counter straight away and that can make them rattled. But they're normally easily refutable if the sunni spends some time looking into it.

[El Tahawy]

Another point that worries me is the phenomenon of reverts becoming Shias. I have met many of them in the U.S. and I think that Shiism markets itself as focusing on social justice. I hope these new reverts can be educated on the reality of what they are entering. 

[Adil]

Another point that worries me is the phenomenon of reverts becoming Shias. I have met many of them in the U.S. and I think that Shiism markets itself as focusing on social justice. I hope these new reverts can be educated on the reality of what they are entering.

Sounds like what the nation of Islam did. Probably won't help them in the long term though.