THE REFORMATION ROLLS ON:

AHMED: [W]e are in America. America is genuinely a pluralist society, so you have every kind of group here, every kind of opinion. So in this environment, the confrontation--the stark confrontation--between Shia and Sunni is blurred.

LAWTON: Also, for second and third generation American Muslims, the old sectarian divides from abroad become less important. Nazneen Zaidi is a Shitte who was born in Florida.

NAZNEEN ZAIDI: When my parents immigrated here in the late 70s, there was no Shia mosque here, and so their first friends were all Sunni, and so my first introduction to Islam was with their Sunni friends.

23LAWTON: Zaidi teaches at a Sunni school where she says she has been warmly accepted. She has become close friends with some of her fellow teachers, who are Sunni.

ZAIDI: As a Shia, I see myself as a Muslim first. Yes, I am Shia, I'm very proud to be Shia, but when I consider myself and someone asks me what religion I am, I don't say I'm Shia, I say I'm Muslim. And I think that's how I identify, and I've always identified as that.

LAWTON: Still, there have been some tensions between the two communities. Razvi says sometime Shiites have not been welcomed at Sunni mosques.

RAZVI: It does happen occasionally, but then it's a small segment of people that I personally feel might be ignorant because they might not have been exposed to some Shia people in the community or in their circle of friends, and they just think that whatever you're doing is wrong.

LAWTON: This past Ramadan, her Shia mosque held a special prayer service where the two communities prayed together and then broke their fast together.

20RAZVI: It's become like an extended family. There's Shia, there's Sunni, there are men, women, children. And since it's an open environment you feel more comfortable.

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