Allahu Akhbar! This means "God is Great" in Arabic... Sometimes you will hear people scream this on TV when you watch stuff about Iraq! Anyway, today we finished up our learning about Islam. Our main Essential Questions for today were:
* Why did Islam split after Muhammad's death?
* What are the 2 main sects of Islam?
We started first by listening to a story from Mr.K about a high school football coach that leads his team from always losing to winning state championships several times in a row. However, this coach gets sick with cancer and dies pretty quickly. Before he died, he wanted to name a successor coach. But he was torn about this and could not decide before he died. He wanted either his son (who was star quarterback, but was soon graduating and could be coach then) or his best friend, who was the current assistant coach. Who would you have chosen??
I like this story because it leads very well into what we're learning about the "split" in Islam. When Muhammad died, he did not leave a successor (a "caliph," as he called it). So, some people wanted his son-in-law, Ali, to be the successor, because he was family. Others wanted his closest friend, Abu-Bakr, to be successor. Those people who chose to follow Ali are today called SHI'A, while those who chose to follow Abu-Bakr are today called SUNNI.
To see where Sunni & Shi'a people live, Mr.K gave each person 2 tickets. Each ticket had a name of a country and its percentage population of Sunni and/or Shi'a. For example:
IRAN - 85% Shi'a
AFGHANISTAN - 92% Sunni
YEMEN - 30% Shi'a + 65% Sunni
So, when everybody got their tickets, they went up to the board (where a map of Asia, Africa, & Europe was drawn) and wrote in their percentages in their country using designated colors. After this, we looked back at the map and discussed the spread of Sunnis, Shi'a, and also how the Arabian Peninsula helped spread Islam because of its geographical position in the middle of the Old World. Many traders had to pass through it or next to it to get to where they were going, so the inevitably discovered Islam and spread it to where they were going.
To learn more about this, we answered 10 questions by walking around the room and looking at 18 documents that were posted around showing pictures related to Sunni & Shi'a Muslims. To find these pictures and questions, click here.
