Shia-Sunni tensions are growing in the U.S.

[ECH1969]

When Fatima Pashaei, a Shiite Muslim of Iranian descent, and Atif Qarni, a Sunni Muslim whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan, married six years ago, it was a joyous event. "Our parents were just happy we were marrying Muslims. Everything else is sort of secondary," said Pashaei, 24, still married to Qarni and living in Manassas, Va., with their 3-year-old son.

Divisions have widened worldwide since the golden dome of the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, was blown up Feb. 22. Two descendants of Islam's Prophet Muhammad are buried there, making it one of Shiite (also called Shia) Islam's holiest shrines.

"For a lot of people, this is one of the most tragic events in the history of the Shia," said Mohamed Sabur, co-director of the year-old Qunoot Foundation, a Shiite advocacy group in Washington. "Things were bad under Saddam, but you never would have seen him do this."

Although the Muslim-on-Muslim killing has yet to reach the United States, many Shiites say they believe that the hatred already has, even before the recent violence in Iraq. When Shiites marched in New York on Feb. 5, they were met by protesters claiming to be from a group based in Brooklyn calling itself the Islamic Thinkers Society, which denounced the ritual and passed out fliers condemning Shiites as heretics.

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