The front page of this website is what makes me sad about such misconceptions. All of the "sunni" and "shia" teachings vs. the "Islamic" ones have actually been contrived by man; they are NOT what the Sunni and Shia teachings actually are. There are so many misconceptions and misinterpretations of Qur'anic verses on this site that I must question from where these translations came. Are they from actual Islamic scholars who have spent their entire lives studying and devoted to Islam, like Yusuf Islam? The Qur'an is God's WORD! This is not a matter to be taken lightly. Who are we, commoners, to really think we can truly understand the full depth of even one line in the Qur'an? Really, The Classical Arabic language (Quranic Arabic) CANNOT be mastered by any one person; it is absolutely unthinkable. That is partly why scholars study all their lives - to remove as many misconceptions and misinterpretations as possible within a lifetime (even though that will only be the tip of the iceberg). Also, the Qur'an is FULL of allegories and stories which are derived from mere WORDS. Again, I must question these translations which completely overlook them. Honestly, the only major difference between Sunni's and Shia's is the belief in who the Khalif was (debate over Hazrat Ali). Otherwise, all the "Islamic" teachings and the "Sunni" and "Shia" teachings are absolutely the same. PEOPLE cannot be representative of a religion or its beliefs. I think the person who wrote the front page was sadly unaware of this fact CULTURE and ISLAM are DIFFERENT. We can only learn from the Qur'an, Hadiths, and the Prophet's teachings. However, the average person or even an extremely talented intellectual genius will make mistakes, as previously mentioned. This is why we rely on Islamic scholars for interpretations like Hamza Yusuf, Dr. Zakir Naik, or Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoobi who have devoted their lives to studying Islam. We cannot interpret such things ourselves without making obvious mistakes, simply because of the fact that we are more ignorant (in the sense of not knowing-no bad connotation) than these scholars. Ignorance is the absence of knowledge, so it cannot be the basis of our understanding of the Islamic teachings. Based on this, EVERY person is ignorant, as it is impossible to learn all there is to know about even a particular subject.

I did not contact the webmaster as I really don't have enough time to respond. This will be my first and last post on this site, so, unfortunately, I won't see the replies.