Primer on Islam

October 24, 2012 10:34 AM

Looking for a good primer on Islam, emphasis on the distinctions and history between Sunni and Shia branches

That's pretty much it. Not looking for an explanation in the comments, but rather links to respected/quality articles (or whatever) on this subject. Ideally these would not be book-length or terribly in-depth. Something that you might find on http://longform.org/ for example.

I've seen this http://ask.metafilter.com/67881/Insert-Witty-Title-Here and was seeing if there is anything more recent, maybe with reference to the Arab Spring

posted by Patbon to religion & philosophy (3 answers total)

The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance are my go-to for any "basic information about religion/religious issues" site. They tend to be impartial and yet exhaustive. Their section on Islam is here.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:42 AM on October 24, 2012

Here is a nice In Our Time podcast on the Sunni Shia split.
posted by shothotbot at 12:31 PM on October 24, 2012

BeliefNet is a good online resource but this is one of those topics that usually need a full-length book to explain well.
posted by fiercekitten at 9:25 PM on October 24, 2012