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Sunni Conflict Essay

1543 Words7 Pages

Hassan Ajami

We usually think that today the dominant conflicts in the Middle East are between the Sunnis and the Shiites. But this is not an accurate account of what is going on. This is so because the Sunnis are divided into different schools of thought, exactly as the Shiites are. In fact, there are at least three secrets of the current Muslim wars, which this article aims to clarify.

Facts about Islam

There are distinct sects in Islam, such as Sunnism and Shiism. Yet most of the Muslims are Sunnis. Sunnism itself is divided into five different traditional schools: Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Zahiri. Whether a …show more content…

Rather, they are between the distinct theological and political Islamic movements previously mentioned. This is why some Sunnis are fighting other Sunnis, such as the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia who engaged in combating the Sunnis of ISIS. And this is also why some Shii groups allied themselves with some Sunnis in an effort to defeat ISIS, which is composed of Sunni …show more content…

And this is basically why there are many Islams rather than one specific Islam. The Quran contains totally different and seemingly conflicting beliefs and principles. This shows that it is indeterminate what the Quran is really saying, and hence it is indeterminate what Islam is. This fact has been implied in one of the sayings of Imam Ali, who is highly respected by all of the Muslims. He said that "the Quran possesses many faces". This means that the Quran can be accurately and easily interpreted in radically different ways. This indicates that, in fact, it is indeterminate what the Quran is actually stating, and thus it is uncertain what Islam is. The uncertainty of Islam is not a failure on our behalf to understand Islam, but rather it is an intrinsic and objective property of Islam

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