Agreed. Arab also doesn't auto-imply Muslim - Syria, as an example, has a massive Christian population and the people look European, which should be expected from hundreds of years of invasion and occupation by Europeans, but they're Arabs. Most "Arab" countries today were not historically Arab, or Muslim, such as Tunisia and Morocco, as well as many others... Muhammad died and his ancestry split, the Shia only make war to defend themselves, while the Sunni became invaders and conquerors in their war against Catholics.

Muslim as a description word cannot equally describe all those who practice Islam. Christians understand religion to be a congregational thing where once a week it is strongly encouraged to sit and listen to a guy in funny robes prattle on about how sinful they all are and blood, gotta be blood talk, and tithes. Of course there are many variations of Christianity, none of which really respect the others - nod, smile, and back bite... All while assuming other religions work the same way - they don't... Certainly not Islam.

Sunni and Shia are only two sects of Islam, the ones that get the most attention, there are others such as Sufi. They have similarities, but are ultimately very different from each other, and unlike Christianity... There's no one guy that has control of a congregation - an exception is Saudi Arabia, where the Sunni sect is state recognized and there is a government ministry who feeds the imams talking points, like "get vaccinated" etc. That doesn't happen in the Shia mosques. Even the idea of going to a mosque is misunderstood by Christians because they see them as they see their churches.. Islam is very much an individual practice, and at least in the Shia community, no one questions the faith, practice, or sincerity of others -because it's none of their business.

Pre-Ottoman Empire mosques were very, very basic buildings, built to not draw attention or even be recognizable... But them dudes loved to show off their wealth and influence over their subjects, and especially to stick it in the eye of the Catholics so they built them big and flamboyant.

I could go on and on about this stuff as a former Lutheran married to a former Shia.. We've learned a lot from each other, as our respective religious educations were surprisingly similar.

Fun fact: On U.S. Govt documents my wife and other Arabs are classified as white/Caucasian... The story goes that it's because of Lebanese immigrants, Arabs that are European white.. So, yeah, a black north African Arab can also be white on paper.

Agreed. Arab also doesn't auto-imply Muslim - Syria, as an example, has a massive Christian population (to my knowledge, Assad and fam are Christians) and the people look European, which should be expected from hundreds of years of invasion and occupation by Europeans, but they're Arabs. Most "Arab" countries today were not historically Arab, or Muslim, such as Tunisia and Morocco, as well as many others... Muhammad died and his ancestry split, the Shia only make war to defend themselves, while the Sunni became invaders and conquerors in their war against Catholics.

Muslim as a description word cannot equally describe all those who practice Islam. Christians understand religion to be a congregational thing where once a week it is strongly encouraged to sit and listen to a guy in funny robes prattle on about how sinful they all are and blood, gotta be blood talk, and tithes. Of course there are many variations of Christianity, none of which really respect the others - nod, smile, and back bite... All while assuming other religions work the same way - they don't... Certainly not Islam.

Sunni and Shia are only two sects of Islam, the ones that get the most attention, there are others such as Sufi. They have similarities, but are ultimately very different from each other, and unlike Christianity... There's no one guy that has control of a congregation - an exception is Saudi Arabia, where the Sunni sect is state recognized and there is a government ministry who feeds the imams talking points, like "get vaccinated" etc. That doesn't happen in the Shia mosques. Even the idea of going to a mosque is misunderstood by Christians because they see them as they see their churches.. Islam is very much an individual practice, and at least in the Shia community, no one questions the faith, practice, or sincerity of others -because it's none of their business.

Pre-Ottoman Empire mosques were very, very basic buildings, built to not draw attention or even be recognizable... But them dudes loved to show off their wealth and influence over their subjects, and especially to stick it in the eye of the Catholics so they built them big and flamboyant.

I could go on and on about this stuff as a former Lutheran married to a former Shia.. We've learned a lot from each other, as our respective religious educations were surprisingly similar.

Fun fact: On U.S. Govt documents my wife and other Arabs are classified as white/Caucasian... The story goes that it's because of Lebanese immigrants, Arabs that are European white.. So, yeah, a black north African Arab can also be white on paper.