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A compelling history of the ancient schism that continues to divide
the Islamic world When Muhammad died in 632 without a male heir,
Sunnis contended that the choice of a successor should fall to his
closest companions, but Shi'a believed that God had inspired the
Prophet to appoint his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as leader. So
began a schism that is nearly as old as Islam itself. Laurence
Louer tells the story of this ancient rivalry, taking readers from
the last days of Muhammad to the political and doctrinal clashes of
Sunnis and Shi'a today. In a sweeping historical narrative spanning
the Islamic world, Louer shows how the Sunni-Shi'a divide was never
just a dispute over succession-at issue are questions about the
very nature of Islamic political authority. She challenges the
widespread perception of Sunnis and Shi'a as bitter enemies who are
perpetually at war with each other, demonstrating how they have
coexisted peacefully at various periods throughout the history of
Islam. Louer traces how sectarian tensions have been inflamed or
calmed depending on the political contingencies of the moment,
whether to consolidate the rule of elites, assert clerical control
over the state, or defy the powers that be. Timely and provocative,
Sunnis and Shi'a provides needed perspective on the historical
roots of today's conflicts and reveals how both branches of Islam
have influenced and emulated each other in unexpected ways. This
compelling and accessible book also examines the diverse regional
contexts of the Sunni-Shi'a divide, examining how it has shaped
societies and politics in countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon.
A compelling history of the ancient schism that continues to divide
the Islamic world When Muhammad died in 632 without a male heir,
Sunnis contended that the choice of a successor should fall to his
closest companions, but Shi'a believed that God had inspired the
Prophet to appoint his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as leader. So
began a schism that is nearly as old as Islam itself. Laurence
Louer tells the story of this ancient rivalry, taking readers from
the last days of Muhammad to the political and doctrinal clashes of
Sunnis and Shi'a today. In a sweeping historical narrative spanning
the Islamic world, Louer shows how the Sunni-Shi'a divide was never
just a dispute over succession-at issue are questions about the
very nature of Islamic political authority. She challenges the
widespread perception of Sunnis and Shi'a as bitter enemies who are
perpetually at war with each other, demonstrating how they have
coexisted peacefully at various periods throughout the history of
Islam. Louer traces how sectarian tensions have been inflamed or
calmed depending on the political contingencies of the moment,
whether to consolidate the rule of elites, assert clerical control
over the state, or defy the powers that be. Timely and provocative,
Sunnis and Shi'a provides needed perspective on the historical
roots of today's conflicts and reveals how both branches of Islam
have influenced and emulated each other in unexpected ways. This
compelling and accessible book also examines the diverse regional
contexts of the Sunni-Shi'a divide, examining how it has shaped
societies and politics in countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon.
In this timely book, completed before the current outbreak of
unrest in Bahrain that has formed part of the Arab Spring, Laurence
Louer explains, the background of the Bahraini conflict in the
context of the wider issue of Shiism as a political force in the
Arab Middle East, amongst other issues relating to the role of
Shiite Islamist movements in regional politics. Her study shows how
Bahrain's troubles are a phenomenon based on local perceptions of
injustice rather than on the foreign policy of Shiite Iran. More
generally, the book shows that, though Iran's Islamic Revolution
had an electrifying effect on Shiite movements in Lebanon, Iraq,
the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, local political imperatives have in the
end been the crucial factor in the direction they have taken. In
addition, the overwhelming influence of the Shiite clerical
institution has been diminished by the rise to prominence of lay
activists within the Shiite movements across the Middle East and
the emergence of Shiite anti-clericalism. This book contributes to
dispelling the myth of the determining power of Iran in the
politics of Iraq, Bahrain and other Arab states with significant
Shiite populations.
This book illuminates the historical origins and present situation
of militant Shia transnational networks by focusing on three key
countries in the Gulf, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, whose Shia
Islamic groups are the offspring of Iraqi movements. The reshaping
of the area's geopolitics after the Gulf War and the fall of Saddam
Hussein in April 2003 have had a profound impact on transnational
Shiite networks, pushing them to focus on national issues in the
context of new political opportunities. For example, from being
fierce opponents of the Saudi monarchy, Saudi Shiite militants have
tended to become upholders of the Al-Sa'ud dynasty.The question
remains, however, how deeply in society have these new beliefs
taken root? Can Shiites be Saudi or Bahraini patriots? Louer
concludes her book by analysing the transformation of the Shia'
movements' relation to central religious authority, the marja', who
reside either in Iraq and Iran. This is all the more problematic
when the marja' is also the head of a state, as with Ali Khamenei
of Iran, who has many followers in Bahrain and Kuwait.
South Asia is today the region inhabited by the largest number of
Muslims--roughly 500 million. In the course of the Islamisation
process begun in the eighth century, it developed a distinct
Indo-Islamic civilisation that culminated in the Mughal Empire.
While paying lip service to the power centres of Islam in the Gulf,
including Mecca and Medina, this civilisation has cultivated its
own variety of Islam, based on Sufism. Over the last fifty years,
pan-Islamic ties have intensified between these two regions.
Gathering together some of the best specialists on the subject,
this volume explores these ideological, educational and spiritual
networks, which have gained momentum due to political strategies,
migration flows and increased communications. At stake are both the
resilience of the civilisation that imbued South Asia with a
specific identity, and the relations between Sunnis and Shias in a
region where Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a cultural proxy
war, as evident in the foreign ramifications of sectarianism in
Pakistan. Islamic Connections investigates the nature and
implications of the cultural, spiritual and socio-economic
rapprochement between these two Islams.
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