Shi'ism in America

Shi'ism in America PDF Author: Liyakat Nathani Takim
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814782973
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Provides an overview of America's Shi'i community, tracing its history, describing its composition in the twenty-first century, and explaining how they have created an identity for themselves in the American context.

Shi'ism in America

Shi'ism in America PDF Author: Liyakat Nathani Takim
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814782973
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Provides an overview of America's Shi'i community, tracing its history, describing its composition in the twenty-first century, and explaining how they have created an identity for themselves in the American context.

Transnational Shia Politics

Transnational Shia Politics PDF Author: Laurence Louër
Publisher: Hurst Publishers
ISBN: 1849042144
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
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.

Without Forgetting the Imam

Without Forgetting the Imam PDF Author: Linda S. Walbridge
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814326756
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Without Forgetting the Imam is an ethnographic study of the religious life of the Lebanese Shi'ites of Dearborn, Michigan, the largest Muslim community outside of the Middle East. Based on four years of fieldwork, this book explores how the Lebanese who have emigrated, most in the past three decades, to the United States, have adapted to their new surroundings. Anthropologist Linda Walbridge delves into the ways in which politics and religion have converged as the Lebanese Shi'i community has remade its identity and accommodated itself to a new environment. She captures a broad picture of religious life within the realm of community living and within the mosques which have proliferated in Dearborn. Walbridge explains how Shi'ites, affected in one way or another by Islamic revivalism, have brought different notions of how their religion should be expressed and carried out in America. These differences are reflected in mosque rituals, social functions, sermons, and educational activities. She also explores how contemporary Middle Eastern politics and the religious leadership in Iran and Iraq influence the functioning of the mosques.

Shi'ism and Social Protest

Shi'ism and Social Protest PDF Author: Juan Ricardo Cole
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300035537
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
This timely and important book presents the first overview of Shi'i political activism in the countries where it has been most significant-from Iran and Lebanon to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The contributors present up-to-date information on the factors involved in Shi'ism's recent movement away from quietism and toward an active involvement in politics. They also discuss how Shi'i political activism will affect the struggle in and for Lebanon; the Iran-Iraq war; Soviet attitudes toward Afghanistan and Iran; and U.S. policies toward the Middle East.

Shia Islam and Politics

Shia Islam and Politics PDF Author: Jon Armajani
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793621365
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book argues that ever since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, which established a Shia Islamic government in Iran, that country’s religious and political leaders have used Shia Islam as a crucial way of expanding Iran’s objectives in the Middle East and beyond. Since 1979, Iran’s religious and political leaders have been concerned about Iran’s security in the face of the hostility and expansionism of the United States and other western countries, and the threats from powerful neighboring Sunni leaders and countries. While Iran’s government has attempted to align itself with Shia Muslims in various countries, such as Iraq and Lebanon, against American and Sunni expansionism, the Iranian government has attempted to religiously nourish and politically mobilize those Shias as a matter of principle, not only because of the Iranian government’s desires to protect Iran from external threats. The book analyzes Shia Islam and politics in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon which have among the largest proportional Shia populations in the Middle East and are vibrant centers of Shia intellectual life. The book's clear and jargon-free approach make it especially accessible for students and general readers who would like an introduction to the book's topics.

Roman Catholics and Shi'i Muslims

Roman Catholics and Shi'i Muslims PDF Author: James A. Bill
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807874922
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
i" --> This timely work explores two influential religious traditions that might seem to have little in common: Twelver Shi'i Islam and Roman Catholicism. With the worldwide rise of religious fundamentalism, it is imperative that religious movements such as Christianity and Islam begin working harder to understand one another's history and beliefs. Myths and misunderstandings continue to prevail, and observers tend to focus on the differences between the two faith systems. Without denying these differences, the authors of this book reveal a number of interesting linkages between Roman Catholicism and Twelver Shi'ism. They compare the histories of the two faiths, consider parallels between important figures in each, and highlight the doctrinal, structural, and sociopolitical similarities they share. Balanced in tone and carefully researched, the book helps explain the essence of both traditions while enriching our understanding of each. There are an estimated 140 million Twelver Shi'is in the world today. The highest percentages live in Persian Gulf countries, including Iran and Iraq, and in Azerbaijan, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. Sizable numbers also inhabit Pakistan, India, and Turkey. The largest Christian denomination, Roman Catholicism is present across the globe, though its population of more than one billion people is concentrated in North and South America and in Europe.

Shi'ism Revisited

Shi'ism Revisited PDF Author: Liyakat Takim
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197606571
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
"Contemporary Muslims face the challenge of how can a legal system that was formulated in the classical period of Islam respond to the multitudinous challenges that present-day Muslims encounter? Is there a need for reformation in Islam? If so, where should it begin and in which direction should it proceed? Addressing this gap in Western scholarship, and contributing to the ongoing debate in Islamic scholarship, Shi'ism Revisited: Ijtihad and Reformation in Contemporary Times will: (i) explore how modernity has impinged on the classical formulation of Islamic law, and (ii) analyse how Shi'i jurists have responded to the intersection of shari'a (Islamic law) and modernity. The study is original and ground-breaking in that it seeks to tackle issues such as how Islamic law is being revised by Shi'i scholars on cases such as human rights, gender equality, the rights of non-Muslim minorities, and reconfiguring the rational and moral basis of Islamic law. Such questions have required scholars to apply ijtihad (independent reasoning) in providing solutions to the pressing questions in the religious and social fields. By examining the principles and application of Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh) and reformation in Shi'ism, as well as the current discourse on juristic hermeneutics and the basis of a new ijtihad, this research will address topics that have attracted much public attention. Since such issues have been largely neglected by Western scholarship, this book will provide a unique analysis of ijtihad and reformation in the Shi'i world"--

Sunnis and Shi'a

Sunnis and Shi'a PDF Author: Laurence Louër
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691234507
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
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 Louër 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, Louër 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. Louër 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.

The Shiites

The Shiites PDF Author: David Pinault
Publisher: British Academic Press
ISBN: 9781850436096
Category : Hyderabad (India)
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Shiite Islam is one of the world's major religions with millions of followers throughout the Middle East and South Asia. However it is often mistakenly seen by the West as a political movement. This book describes what Shiism actually means to those who practise it and outlines Shiite history.

Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World

Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World PDF Author: Daniel Brumberg
Publisher: US Institute of Peace Press
ISBN: 1601270208
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World highlights the challenges that escalating identity conflicts within Muslim-majority states pose for both the Muslim world and for the West, an issue that has received scant attention in policy and academic circles.