Understanding Ismaili Muslim Theology and Practice
This is part two of a three-part series on Ismaili Muslims. Read part one here, “A Brief History of Ismaili Muslims.” Until recently, most people learned about Ismaili beliefs from polemic composed by their detractors. This was even true in Orientalist Islamic studies scholarship for several decades, resulting in the proliferation of inaccuracies and misrepresentations […]
A Brief History of Ismaili Muslims
If Islamophobia means fear and misunderstanding of Muslims, one could say Ismaili Muslims have suffered similar effects throughout their storied history, mostly at the hands of other Muslims. After an eventful thousand years of persecution, polemics and targeted propaganda by other Muslims, Ismaili Muslims and their hereditary Imams have emerged today onto the global public […]
Saudi King Calls For More Moderate Islam
The king of Saudi Arabia called for a moderation of Islam as a counter to terrorism Thursday during a historic trip to Indonesia, home of the world’s largest Muslim population. The conservative reform and purist movement of Wahhabism, often referred to as Salafism, has long been the dominant strain of Islam in Saudi Arabia. But […]
Who are the Sufis and why does ISIS see them as threatening?
On Feb. 16, 2017, a bomb ripped through a crowd assembled at the tomb of a Sufi saint, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, in southeastern Pakistan. Soon thereafter, the so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. In recent times, such attacks have targeted a variety of cherished sites and…
JAMES LYONS: Reforming Islam
Perhaps one of the most crucial peace proposals of our time was made on Jan. 1, 2015, when Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi challenged leading Sunni jurists and theologians with initiating a reformation of Islam that has not happened in more than 1,400 years. Eventually, such a reformation must include the leading Shiite clerics as well. […]