Religious Sects of the Middle East
Iraq is a Shi'ite majority country, while most of the countries around it are majority Sunni. But what does that really mean?
Islam is the second-largest religion in the world today, with an estimated 1.4 billion adherents, known as Muslims.
There are a number of Islamic religious denominations. The major schools of thought are Sunni and Shi'a (Shi'ite). According to most sources, present estimates indicate that approximately 85% of the world's Muslims are Sunni and approximately 15% are Shi'ite.
Only 18% of Muslims live in the Arab world; 20% are found in Sub-Saharan Africa; and about 30% in the South Asian region of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
The above information was taken from the wikipedia entry on Islam. The map below shows that with the exception of Iran, Iraq borders countries with Sunni majorities.
