Imamat on one side and khilafat on one side. The relegious clerics (imams) on one side and the leading powerful politicians (khilafa's) on the other. The Prophets family (imams) on one side and the prophets friends on the other side (khilafa's). Everything else, 99%, is the same when comparing sunni and shia. Both respect the Prophet and his family (imams) since the Prophet emphasized that they are the living quran (practicality of the quran can only be derived from the prophet and them, his family). The Prophet told his followers not to deviate by only choosing to follow either his family (ahlul bayt A.S.) or the Quran. And now you see this happening, deviators like wahabbis (strictly quran followers, even rejecting bukhari, the very authentic sunni hadith which both shia and sunni refer to) and then there are Ismailis and Nasiris (rejecting the quran and putting all emphasis on the ahlul bayt).
But, PLEASE dont say shia are true muslims, as God is the only one with the credential to make that decision. Also because there are many that are shia by name only (and the trend is growing especially in Iran), and there are some sunni's that are so pious that the shias cant even reach their level (meaning those sunni's are above the whole imamat/khilafat thing and their character is that of a balance, they love the ahlul bayt (esp Imam Ali and Imam Hussain and await for the last Imam, Imam Mehdi A.S.) and also are very disciplined in their duties (prayers, hajj, zakat) but also, most importantly, have true faith in god with their affairs in life, but most of these types of sunni's dont even call themselves sunni, they say they are only muslim - which im trying to encourage shia ppl to do as well, but i think there are reasons that we need to let other ppl know we are shia, basically so ppl till the end of time, know that there are TWO sects in Islam, and either could be the right path and also remind those muslims that have forgotten about the Ahlul Bayt to rekindle their love for them as the Prophet loved them very much. So you see that the shia label is only to advertise our message to others, but each shia or sunni, as an individual, thinks of himself/herself as muslim only.
I hope that helped Aman bhai. Let me know.
