The main dominations in Islam is the Sunni and the Shia denomination.

The Sunni and Shia split just a few generations after the death of the Holy Prophet (saw), cos of disputes over succession….this division was more political than religious.

The main beliefs of Islam, i.e. believe in One God and accept that Prophet Muhammad is the last Messenger of God, is shared by both Sunni and Shia’s….

The differences are small but can be blown out of proportion by some people.

I’m not sure how Shia’s can be compared to Catholics? Both Sunni and Shia believe that Jesus is the Prophet of Allah, wasn’t crucified on the Cross, will return, and is not the son of God etc

I suppose the only similarity between Shia and Catholics that I can think of is the shia's view of leadership, a Shia leader is known as a 'Ayatollah' which is sorta like a Bishop to them...

Shia aren't anything like Catholics. I'm not sure where she would have heard that...

I don't really know if the concept of a "bishop" is comparable to anything in the fold of Islam, or other religions for that matter...

Ekklesiastos technically means both "Church" and "Bishop" simultaneously, in the greek texts, as far as I know it was a completely new word.

Still a little overwhelmed by this chain of command... and there is no presbytery which is odd seeing as they existed since apostolic times.

I've heard the Catholic/Shia comparisions before and while I'm not an expert on either, there are some similarities that can be made:

Our brothers and sisters who call themselves Shia believe that authority in government should have been passed down through the family of the Prophet Muhammad 1st to his son-in-law Ali, then his grandsons Hassan and Hussain and beyond. The mainstream Muslim community however, followed the Prophet's closest companions and then the Ummayad dynasty and then the Abbasid dynasty. Throughout this time, there was always a small group of Muslims who would follow the direct descendents of the Prophet (saw).

When the family died out, about 10 generations later, the Shia appointed a leader from amongst themselves and gave him [b]absolutele authority[/b], claiming that he could communicate with God, and giving him [b]Pope-like infallibilty[/b]. the most recently famous example of this is Supreme Ayatollah Kohmeini of Iran who issued the fatwa saying Salman Rushdie should be killed for blasphemy.

Another comparision that could be drawn is that Sunni Islam is more like Puritan Christianity, in that we try to simlify Islam away from any [b]innovations[/b] that have been made over the past 1000 or so years.

In both Catholicism and Shia religions there is a greater use of what [i]could[/i] be called idoltory, in terms of statues and bread and wine in Catholicism, and the greater use of pictures and paintings that the Shia use.

The greatest similarity that can be made is the fact that many people have died, both Shia and Sunni, Catholic and Protestant because people like focusing on their differences with the other side, instead of their similarities...

And Allah knows best!

how do catholics practise idolotory?

They use images to direct their thoughts in prayer. For example when they are praying specifically to commemorate the passion of Christ they will do something called "the Stations of the Cross" that involves an elaborate series of prayers and genuflections before images depicting the tortures Jesus went through. It keeps them on track with prayers, so that their minds don't wander off into irrelevant things.

Some consider this idolatry.

v intresting.

i still dnt see the similarity btw shia's and catholics.

apart from the bishop/ayotolla reverence