Islam

Druze in Syria

The Druze are an ethnoreligious group concentrated in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel with around one million adherents worldwide. The Druze follow a millenarian offshoot of Isma’ili Shi'ism. Followers emphasize Abrahamic monotheism but consider the religion as separate from Islam.

The Druze are named for Muhammad al-Darazi, an Isma’ili missionary from Persia who lived in Fatimid Cairo, and was propagated by Hamza ibn Ali. The Druze believe in the imamate of al-Hakim ibn Amr Allah (d. 1021), the sixth caliph of Egypt's Isma’ili Fatimid Dynasty. Though the Fatimids (909-1171)...

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Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, The

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, a schoolteacher and Islamist intellectual who believed that Islam could, and should, adapt to modern contexts. The Brotherhood has been the most important and strongest political opposition force in Egypt, and the largest Islamic organization in the world. The Egyptian government has maintained restrictions on the Muslim Brotherhood since the mid-century, and, despite a brief period following the 2011 ...

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Fethullah Gülen

Fethullah Gülen (b. 1938) is a prominent Turkish Islamic scholar and founder of the international Gülen Movement, which evolved from the Nur Movement in the 1960s. Gülen stresses education as the vehicle for transforming the contemporary world. Where Said Nursi emphasized personal transformation as a means to effect social change, Gülen looks both to personal transformation and social and political activism, and fully embraces Turkish nationalism—the defining characteristic of which is Islam, not nationality—...

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Hassan al-Banna

Hassan al-Banna (1906-1949) was a schoolteacher, intellectual, and the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood would become the most influential Islamist organization in the Muslim world, and the largest government opposition force in Egypt. He was deeply inspired by Rashid Rida, a student of Muslim reformist and anti-colonialist Muhammad ‘Abduh, who argued...

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Imam Musa al-Sadr

Imam Musa al-Sadr (1928-1978) was an Iranian-Lebanese Shi’a religious leader. As head of the Supreme Islamic Shi’ite Council in 1973, he issued a highly influential fatwa recognizing Syria’s Alawis as Shi’a Muslims.

Islam in Brazil

Islam is practiced by over 200,000 Brazilians—making it the largest Muslim community in Latin America—most of whom are Arab in origin, with smaller but growing numbers of Brazilian converts. The Brazilian Muslim community includes both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims.

Islam arrived in Brazil with West African slaves, including Hausa, Malinkes, and Yoruba. Muslim slaves were largely victim to the political circumstances in what is present-day...

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Islam in Egypt

Islam is practiced by 90% of Egyptians. Most Egyptian Muslims are Sunni and follow the Maliki school of jurisprudence, though all legal schools are represented. Shi’a Muslims make up a small minority. There are a wide variety of traditions followed and perspectives represented among Egyptian Muslims, from a historically strong adherence to Sufism that continues to this day, to ...

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Islam in France

Islam is the largest religious minority faith in France at approximately 9% of the population. Most Muslims in France today are immigrants or descend from immigrants from Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, and smaller populations from Turkey and West Africa. There is also a growing convert population of about 100,000 people, predominantly young women, and which includes several French athletes and musicians who have drawn attention to the phenomenon.

France became a “Great Muslim Power” during the colonial era as a result of its colonization of various regions with large...

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Islam in Myanmar

Myanmar has had a Muslim presence since as early as the ninth century. Muslim sailors intermarried with local Burmese woman and settled permanently in port cities along the Burmese Coast, especially in the Arakan/Rakhine region. Arab and Persian sources mention Myanmar in the 9th and 10th centuries in the context of trade; historically, Myanmar has been at the center of a vast trade network spanning China, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and North Africa. Other Muslims in Myanmar included Indians captured in war and resettled in the interior and Muslim mercenaries in service of Burmese...

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