Religious Diversity in the Middle East

Carl ErnstCarolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations

UNC at Chapel Hill

What is diversity?

Ethnicity

Language

National origin

Religious identity

Gender

Economic class

Urban-ruralOmar ibn Sayyid (1772-1864), enslaved

Muslim scholar in NC

Sura 110 in his hand

What do we mean by Islam?

Religious meaning: submission to God

(Muslim: one who submits to God)

Social meaning: one who conforms to religious practices (prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, alms, statement of faith)

Political meaning: group religious identity with no reference to belief or religious practice

Ideological meaning: anti-colonial identity formulated against “the West”

ما االسالم؟

Islam, history, and culture

Islamic: relating to Islamic religious texts, Islamic law, worship, religious practices

Islamicate: non-religious cultural and social traditions associated with Muslims but which also include non-Muslim participation

Multiple pre-Islamic traditions and cultures (Egypt, Iran, India, etc.)

Who defines Islam? Nation-states

Tax-free status (IRS), visas (INS), prisons, military

Constitutions and legal codes, most of European colonial origin

State-approved academies (madrasas) like al-Azhar in Cairo, or new Uzbekistan college

Other agentsShi`i jurists like Iraqi leader Sistani

Sunni academies: Deoband in India

European and American scholars

al-Azhar

Religion by the numbers –1.6 billion Muslims

worldwide

Muslims by

region

Middle East Muslim populations

Islamic religious pluralism

Perhaps 15% are Shi`is (esp. Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, also South Asia)Including Twelvers, Isma`ilis, Bohras

Offshoots: Druze, Alawis, Baha’is

Perhaps 85% Sunni4 classical legal schools

New reformist movements (Wahhabi, Salafi; “fundamentalism”)

Sufi spiritualityLocal saints, Sufi orders (both Shi`i and Sunni)

Music, poetry, dance traditions

Secularism

`Ali and Shi`ism

• first four Caliphs (successors to Muhammad)

– Abu Bakr, 632-634

– `Umar, 634-644

– `Uthman, 644-656

– `Ali, 656-661

• Rise of the party or faction (shi`a) of `Ali; his partisans called Shi`is

10

The declaration of Ghadir Khumm

• Muhammad: “him for whom I am the master, so this Ali is his master”

• Was `Ali named as Muhammad’s successor?

11

Ali’s death, Karbala, and martyrdom

• Mu`awiya, member of the old Meccan family opposing Muhammad, establishes Umayyad dynasty, which is criticized for immorality

• `Ali’s son Husayn raises revolt, massacred in Karbala (680) by army of Yazid (son of Mu`awiya)

12

Karbala

13

Husayn

•

14

Varieties of Shi`ism

• Twelvers recognize 12 Imams succeeding Muhammad; dominant in Iraq, Iran

• Ismai`ilis broke away after 6th Imam:– Nizaris (15 million) led by Agha Khan, regarded as

49th Imam

– Bohras (1 million, India) led by Syedna, counted as 53rd absolute representative of Fatimid caliphs

• Zaydis, open to competitive selection of Imams, 35% of population in Yemen (Houthis)

Where Shi`is are found

Sunni acceptance of

Shi`is –or the lack

thereof

Controversy: Visiting

Imams’ or Sufi saints’

Shrines

Note: Egypt figure is questionably low

Offshoots of Shi`i Islam• Alawites (a.k.a. Nusayris), Syria (4 million)

– Affiliated with Twelver Shi`ism; revere `Ali, Muhammad, and Salman the Persian

• Alevis, Turkey (ca. 7 to 11 million)– Linked with Bektashi dervishes (Ottoman empire) and

Qizilbash tribes (involved in post-1500 Safavidrevolution in Persia)

• Druze, Lebanon-Syria-Palestine (1 million)– Breakaway followers of deified Fatimid Caliph al-

Hakim (11th cent.); esoteric philosophy

• Baha’is, Iran-Israel-US-etc. (7 million)– Outgrowth of 19th-cent. Persian Shi`ism, transformed

into universalist movement; persecuted in Iran

Pre-Islamic religious groups

• Zoroastrians: followers of Persian prophet Zoroaster (ca. 1200 BCE; 30,000 in Iran; 100,000 in India, called Parsis)

• Mandeans, Iraq-Iran (ca. 75,000); ancient dualistic Gnostic teachings

• Yezidis, worshipers of Peacock Angel, 1M

• Ahl-e Haqq (People of Truth): Kurdish esoteric group with Sufi and Bektashi elements; 2M?

Middle Eastern Christians

• Copts, Egypt, 10-15 million

• Armenians, 8 million

• Syria, 2M (“Assyrians”, Syriac-Aramaic speakers)

• Lebanon, 1.5M (Melkite, Catholic)

• Iraq, 400,000

• Iran, 350,000 (Armenian, Georgian)

• Turkey, 300,000

• Palestine, 50,000

Mizrahi (Arab/Oriental) Jews

• Israel: 3M

• Iran: 8,700

• Communities in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azarbaijan, Georgia (8000 to 15,000 each)

The new intolerance of ISIS:diversity under threat