Islam in Kuwait
By : Drs. Agus Subandi, MBA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam is the main religion of the citizens ofKuwait. Sunni Islam is dominant in Kuwait, with 60% of the total population. The Shiashave a representation of about 40%, and is therefore a large minority. Christiansrepresent 10%, but these are mainly expatriate workers.[1]
Likewise, the population of Kuwait is ethnically mixed, due to large expatriate communities. There are two groups of natives in Kuwait. Arabs whose ancestors belonged to the larger settlements and living off the land, and who have the highest rank in the society. The other native group are the people whose ancestors lived in smaller communities, and who had their income from fishing. This last group has never received full citizenship, even if they are the true natives of Kuwait — more than the first group which are Arab immigrants from the early 18th century.[1]
There are many minority groups, Arabs from other countries, Indians, Pakistanis, Iranians, and before 1991 400,000 Palestinians. ethnic Kuwaitis represented 25% of the total population, but their relative number has risen after 1991. Kuwaiti governments is now concerned with keeping the number of foreigners below 50%, motivated by security concerns.[1]
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Islam in Syria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam in Syria comprises 87% of the total population.[1] Sunnis make up 74%[1] of the total, mostly of Arab, Kurdish and Turkish ethnicities. Shia's make up the remaining 13%[1]: Alawites, Ismailis, and Twelvers. Alawites are the pre-dominant Shia group, followed by Twelvers and Ismailis. Sunnis are mainly of the Shafi'i madhhab with pockets of Hanafi and Hanbali. Several large Sufi orders are active in the country, including the Naqshbandi tariqa, and Qadiriyya. Although not traditionally considered as Muslims, the Druze make up 3% of the total population.[1]
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In March 1963 a military coup installed a secular, Baath socialist regime dominated by minority sects. In 1970, an Alawi ruler, Hafez al-Assad, seized the presidency (he was succeeded by his son,Bashar al-Asad, in 2000). The most intractable challenge to Baathist rule has come from Sunni Islamic groups, most notably, the Muslim Brotherhood. The first Islamic uprising was in 1964 inHama; other such sectarian disturbances followed in 1967, 1973 and from 1976-85.
Iraqi refugees -- estimated at nearly 2 million, or close to 10% of the Syrian population, in 2007 -- comprise all Iraqi religions, including Sunnis and Twelver Shia, as well as a disproportionate number of Christians. The most notable effect on Syria's religious balance has been the increased size of the resident Twelver Shia community in Syria, which was previously minimal.
Main article: Sunni Islam
The largest religious group in Syria is the Sunni Hanafi Muslims, of whom about 60 percent are native Syrian Arabs, with the remainder being Kurds, Turkomans, Circassians, and Palestinians. Sunni Islam sets the religious tone for Syria and provides the country's basic values.
Sunnis follow nearly all occupations, belong to all social groups and nearly every political party, and live in all parts of the country. There are only two provinces in which they are not a majority: As Suwayda, where Druzes predominate, and Al Ladhiqiyah, where Alawis are a majority. In Al Hasakah, Sunnis form a majority, but most of them are Kurds rather than Arabs.
In theory, a Sunni approaches his God directly because the religion provides him no intercession of saints, no holy orders, no organized clerical hierarchy, and no true liturgy. In practice, however, there are duly appointed religious figures, some of whom exert considerable social and political power. Among them are men of importance in their community who lead prayers and give sermons at Friday services. Although in the larger mosques the imams are generally well-educated men who are informed about political and social affairs, an imam need not have any formal training. Among beduin, for example, any literate member of the tribe may read prayers from the Quran. Committees of socially prominent worshipers usually run the major mosques and administer mosque-owned land and gifts.
The Muslim year has two canonical festivals--the Id al Adha, or "sacrificial" festival on the tenth of Dhul al Hijjah, the twelfth Muslim month; and the Id al Fitr, or "festival of breaking the fast," which celebrates the end of the fast of Ramadan on the first of Shawwal, the tenth month. Both festivals last 3 or 4 days, during which people wear their best clothes, visit and congratulate each other, and give gifts. People visit cemeteries, often remaining for some hours, even throughout the night. The festival of the Id al Fitr is celebrated more joyfully than the Id al Adha because it marks the end of the hardships of Ramadan. Lesser celebrations take place on the Prophet's birthday, which falls on the twelfth of Rabia al Awwal, the third month, and on the first of Muharram, the beginning of the Muslim new year.
Islamic law provides direction in all aspects of life. There are four major schools of Islamic law--the Hanafi, the Hanbali, the Shafii, and the Maliki --each named after its founder and all held to be officially valid. Any Muslim may belong to any one of them, although one school usually dominates a given geographical area. The schools agree on the four recognized sources of law-- the Quran, the Sunna, the consensus of the faithful (ijma), and analogy (qiyas)--but differ in the degree of emphasis they give to each source. Represented in Syria are the Shafii school and the more liberal Hanafi school, which places greater emphasis on analogical deduction and bases decisions more on precedents set in previous cases than on literal interpretation of the Quran or Sunna.
Conservative, Sunni leaders look to the ancient days of Islam for secular guidance. Only since the first quarter of the twentieth century have Syrian Sunnis become acutely aware of the need for modern education. Therefore, secularization is spreading among Sunnis, especially the younger ones in urban areas and in the military services. After the first coup d'état in 1949, the waqfs were taken out of private religious hands and put under government control. Civil codes have greatly modified the authority of Islamic laws, and the educational role of Muslim religious leaders is declining with the gradual disappearance of kuttabs, the traditional mosque-affiliated schools.
Despite civil codes introduced in the past years, Syria maintains a dual system of sharia and civil courts (see The Judiciary , ch. 4). Hanafilaw applies in sharia courts, and non-Muslim communities have their own religious courts using their own religious law.
Main article: Twelver Shia
The Ithna Asharia Shia play only a minor role in Syrian politics. In religious affairs, they look to Shia centers in Iraq, especially Karbala and An Najaf, and to Iran. However, Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Syria's alliance with Iran in its war with Iraq, have elevated the prestige of Syria's Shia minority. As hundreds of Iranian tourists began to visit Damascus each week, the Shia shrine of the tomb of Sitt az Zaynab, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, located in Al Ghutah outside Damascus, became a major pilgrimage destination, replacing those areas no longer accessible in Iraq. However, the government of Syria has viewed with caution the resurgence of Shia Islamic fervor in Syria and has taken steps to dampen it.
Main article: Alawites
Alawism is an offshoot of the Twelver Shia Islam and constitute the second largest Islamic sect in Syria and are mainly located in northern Syria.
Main article: Ismaili
The Ismailis are an offshoot of Shia Islam, the split having occurred over the recognition of the Seventh Imam. The Shia Ithna Asharia, those who accept the first Twelve Imams, believe that Jafar, the Sixth Imam, passed over his eldest son, Ismail, in favor of Ismail's brother Musa al Kazim. Ismailis, however, believe that Jafar appointed Ismail to be the Seventh Imam--hence Ismailis are often called Seveners. Little is known of the early history of the sect, but it was firmly established by the end of the ninth century. From 969 to 1171, an Ismaili dynasty, the Fatimids, ruled as caliphs in Egypt.
Ismailis are divided into two major groups, the Mustafians (Mustali) and the Misaris (Nizari) . The Ismailis of Syria, numbering about 200,000, are predominantly Nizaris; this group gained prominence during the Crusades when a mystical society of Misaris, called Assassins, harassed both the Crusaders and Saladin (Salah ad Din al Ayyubi). The Misari Ismaili community has continued in Syria to the present day and recognizes the Aga Khan as its head. The Mirzahs are the leading family in the community. [Shahgaldian, op. cit.].
Originally clustered in Al Ladhiqiyah Province, most of the Syrian Ismailis have resettled south of Salamiyah on land granted to the Ismaili community by Abdul Hamid II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1909. A few thousand Ismailis live in the mountains west of Hamah, and about 5,000 are in Al Ladhiqiyah. The western mountain group is poor and suffers from land hunger and overpopulation--resulting in a drift toward the wealthier eastern areas as well as seasonal migration to the Salamiyah area, where many of them find employment at harvest-time. The wealthier Ismailis of Salamiyah have fertile and well-watered land and are regarded as clannish, proud, and tough.
Ismailis accept many Shia doctrines, such as the esoteric nature of truth and the inspiration of the Imams. Although holding their Imams to be of divine origin, as the Shia do, Ismailis have a dual Imamate. They believe the succession of visible Imams has continued to the present. There are, however, two imams, the visible and the hidden, the speaker and the silent. The identity of the hidden imam is not known to the community but it is believed he will return to lead the faithful. Ismailis generally follow the religious practice of the Shia Twelvers in prayers, fasts, and Quranic prescriptions, but in their conservatism they resemble Sunnis on some points. For example, they do not observe the tenth of Muharram in the impassioned way of the Shia.
Main article: Druze
In 1987 the Druze community constituted 3 percent of the population and ranked as the third largest Islamic religious minority in Syria.The Druze constitute the overwhelming majority in the Jabal al Arab (Jabal ad-Duruz), a rugged and mountainous region in southwestern Syria.
References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.1. ^ a b c d "Syria - International Religious Freedom Report 2006". U.S. Department of State. 2006. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
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Islam in Iraq
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam in Iraq
Iraq's Muslims follow two distinct traditions, Shia and Sunni Islam. According to the CIA World Factbook, Iraq is 97% Muslim.(60-65% Shi'a, 32-37% Sunni). Iraq is home to many religious sites that is important for both Shia and Sunni Muslims. Baghdad was a hub of Islamic learningand scholarship for centuries and served as the capital of the Abassids. The city of Karbala has substantial prominence in Shia Islam as a result of the Battle of Karbala, fought on the site of the modern city on October 10, 680. Similarly, Najaf is renowned as the site of the tomb of Alī ibn Abī Tālib (also known as "Imām Alī"), whom the Shia consider to be the righteous caliph and firstimām. The city is now a great center of pilgrimage from throughout the Shi'a Islamic world and it is estimated that only Mecca and Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims. The city of Kufa was home to the famed scholar, Abu Hanifah whose school of thought is followed by a sizable number of Sunni Muslims across the globe. Likewise, Samarra is also home to the al-Askari Mosque, containing the mausoleums of the Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari, the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams, respectively, as well as the shrine of Muhammad al-Mahdi, known as the "Hidden Imam", who is the twelfth and final Imam of the Shia of the Ja'farī Madhhab. This has made it an important pilgrimage centre for Ja'farī Shia Muslims. In addition, some female relatives of the Prophet Mohammad are buried in Samarra, making the city one of the most significant sites of worship for Shia and a venerated location for Sunni Muslims.
Smaller sects of Islam exist in the country, such as the small Shaykhist community concentrated inBasra and Karbala. The Muslim population of Iraq is approximately 60-65 percent Arab Shi'a, 23 percent Arab Sunni and 17 percent Kurdish.[1] Iraqi Kurds are mostly Sunni, with about 10% being Shi'a Faili Kurds. Most Kurds are located in the northern areas of the country, with most following theShafi school of Islamic law and being members of either the Qadiri or the Naqshbandi Sufi tariqah.
Further information: Demographics of Iraq
Shi'a Islam
Main article: Shia Islam in Iraq
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