The Muslim world, Sunni-Shia divide, yesterday and today

As you learned last week the religion of Islam has 5 main "pillars" of belief. 1Faith the there is one god and that Mohammad was a prophet. 2. prayer 5 times a day. 3. alms or charity to the poor. 4. Fasting during the month of Ramadan and 5. pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to see the Kaaba, all Muslims agree on the importance of those 5 pillars of faith.
There are some big disagreements in Islam though, eventually, Mohammad died and leadership of the Muslim world was the responsibility of the Caliphs. Most Muslims agreed with the election of the first Caliph to lead the Muslims, Uthman after the death of Mohammad. Those who believed that the leader of the religion should be elected as by tribal custom were called Sunni. Other Muslims didn't think that Uthman should led the Muslims and instead backed Mohammad's cousin Ali to led them, those Muslims are called Shia. Ever since this initial disagreement about who should led after Mohammad's death Sunni and Shia Muslims have disagreed. Through the Islamic dynasties of the Ummayads, the Abbasid and the Fatimid, Sunnis and Muslims have fought one another.
Why does this matter today you may ask. In the Middle East in Iraq, the populations is divided between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Most Iraqis are Shia Arabs, but there are also a some Sunni Arabs and Kurds, also Muslim. Since the toppling of Saddam Husein's government by the US army, much of the fighting in Iraq has been going on between Shia and Sunni Iraqi Muslims. Each side has committed terrorist acts against each other in effect continuing to fight over the same questions over leadership in the Islamic world. Today many young people are going to Iraq to support the Iraqi government and are getting caught in the cross fire between Sunni and Shia groups. You may have friends or family there are serving in Iraq yourself. So you see that history isn't just something that happened along time ago, we live with history everyday, whether we want to or not, these issues affect our lives as Americans.