Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib (656–661 CE) as his successor as Imam, most notably at the event of Ghadir Khumm, but that after Muhammad's death, Ali was prevented from succeeding as leader of the Muslims as a result of the choice made by some of Muhammad's other companions at Saqifah. This view primarily contrasts with that of Sunni Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor before his death and consider Abu Bakr, who was appointed caliph by a group of Muhammad's other companions at Saqifah, to be the first Rashidun ('rightful') caliph after Muhammad (632–634 CE).
Islam is the third-largest religion in the United States (1.34%), behind Christianity (67%) and Judaism (2.4%). The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies in its 2020 US Religion census estimated that 1.34% of the population of the United States are Muslim. In 2017, twenty states, mostly in the South and Midwest, reported Islam to be the largest non-Christian religion.
ʿAlī Ḥusaynī Sīstānī is an Iranian Islamic scholar. A Grand Ayatollah and marja, Sistani is considered the leading religious leader of Twelver Shia Muslims.
In Islam, Friday prayer, or Congregational prayer is a community prayer service held once a week on Fridays. All Muslim men are expected to participate at a mosque with certain exceptions due to distance and situation. Women and children can also participate but do not fall under the same obligation that men do. The service consists of several parts including ritual washing, chants, recitation of scripture and prayer, and sermons.
Argentina is a predominantly Christian country, with Islam being a minority religion. Due to secular nature of the Argentine constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country.
Kenya has a Christian majority, with Islam being the second largest faith representing 11% of the Kenyan population, or approximately 5.2 million people as of the 2019 census. The Kenyan coast is mostly populated by Muslims. Nairobi has several mosques and a notable Muslim population. The faith was introduced by merchants visiting the Swahili coast, which led to local conversions and foreign Muslims becoming assimilated. This would later result in the emergence of several officially Muslim political entities in the region.
The history of Islam in Iraq goes back almost 1,400 years to the lifetime of Muhammad. Iraq's 98% majority Muslims follow two distinct traditions: Shia Islam (55-60%) and Sunni Islam (35-40%). Islam is the state religion of the Republic of Iraq.
Several different denominations and sects of Islam are practised within Syria, who collectively constitute approximately 87% of the population and form a majority in most of the districts of the country.
The Islamic Center of America is a mosque located in Dearborn, Michigan, in the United States. The 120,000 sq. ft. facility is the largest mosque in North America and the oldest purpose-built Shia mosque in the United States, as well as the second oldest mosque in the United States after 'Asser El Jadeed which originally opened in 1924 in Michigan City, Indiana.
Sayyid Sa‘eed Akhtar Rizvi was an Indian born, Twelver Shī‘ah scholar, who promoted Islam in East Africa. He was given authorizations by fourteen Grand Ayatullahs for riwayah, Qazawah, and Umur-e-Hasbiyah.
Islam is divided into two major sects, Sunni and Shia Islam, each with its own sub-sects. Large numbers of Shia Arab Muslims live in some Arab countries including Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, and Qatar.
After the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632, the Muslim world split into two camps, the Sunnis, who believed that the Caliphs of the Islamic community should be chosen by consensus, and a second group, the Shia who believed that the Prophet's successors should be members of his own family, beginning with Ali ibn Abi Talib, his cousin and son-in-law.
Although the majority of the Nigerian Muslim population is Sunni, there is a small Shia minority, particularly in the northern states of Kano and Sokoto. However, there are no actual statistics that reflect a Shia population in Nigeria, and a figure of even 5% of the total Nigerian Muslim population is thought to be too high “because of the routine conflation of Shi’a with Sunnis who express solidarity with the Iranian revolutionary program, such as those of Zakzaky’s Ikhwani.”
Shia form a minority within the Muslim community of the Netherlands with Twelver adherents forming a majority. Most of the Twelver or Ithnā 'Asharīs in the Netherlands are political refugees. They come from different nations, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. They come from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, in addition to a small group from Pakistan and Lebanon, while the Turkish Ithnā 'Asharīs are guest workers. The majority of them came to the Netherlands in the 1990s as political refugees. The number of Twelver Shia alone who possess Dutch nationality as of 1 January 2005 was 108,728, being Iraqis, Afghanis, and Iranians excluding the figure of other Shiite sects and also of those who do not possess Dutch nationality. These groups came mainly because of political unrest in the region, such as the Iranian revolution, and the war between Iraq and Iran.
Islam is a minority religion in all of the countries and territories of the Americas, around 1% of North America population are Muslims, and 0.1% of Latin America and Caribbean population are Muslims.
Islam in Lebanon has a long and continuous history. According to an estimate by the CIA, it is followed by 55% of the country's total population, up from about 30% of population in 1950s. Sunnis make up 31.9%, Twelver Shia make up 31.2%, next to smaller percentages of other Shia branches, such as Alawites and Ismailis. The Druze community is designated as one of the five Lebanese Muslim communities, even though most Druze do not identify as Muslims, and they do not accept the five pillars of Islam.
Shia Islam in Canada is a part of the global Shia community that continues to bond with Shias elsewhere. Shia Muslims have been a featuring segment of the Canadian Muslim society that became more conspicuous from the 1970s and onwards.
The Najaf Seminary, also known as the al-Hawza Al-Ilmiyya, is the oldest and one of the most important Shia seminaries (hawza) in the world. It is located near the Imam Ali Shrine in the city of Najaf in Iraq, and also operates a campus in Karbala, Iraq. It was established by Shaykh al-Tusi, and continued as a center of study after the establishment of modern Iraq in 1921.
Islam is the third most widely professed religion in New York City, after Christianity and Judaism. A 2018 study estimated that there are over 750,000 Muslims living in New York City, the largest population of Muslims by city in the United States. Approximately 9% of New York City residents are Muslim, constituting 22.3% of American Muslims, with 1.5 million Muslims in the greater New York metropolitan area, representing the largest metropolitan Muslim population in the Americas.—and the most ethnically diverse Muslim population of any city in the world.
