Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

38384 t1_iyebcw4 wrote

Reply to comment by McBurty in Iranian Sunni Clerics Release Video Urging End To Deadly Crackdown On Protesters by DegnarOskold

Interestingly back in '79 when Khomeini founded the Islamic Republic, he let it be known that Muslims on both sides should unite and work together, against Israel. I wouldn't clarify him as being "anti Sunni". Funny enough, since then it has actually turned into Sunni vs Shia because of Saudi Arabia, and they're now siding with Israel.

19

docmcstuffins89 t1_iyevvj9 wrote

Saudi Arabia is about as hard core as it gets. They’ve largely pushed away the wahhabis under MBS. But they’re not even Sunnis to me. They hate anyone who isn’t like them.

Shias, Sunnis, whatever. As a Muslim, I’ve never come across a more hateful and dark group of Muslims than wahhabis.

22

TiredSometimes t1_iyezavt wrote

This is a fact. Whenever anyone in the West thinks of "Sharia law" of beheadings and lashes for the smallest of grievances, they think of the Wahhabi mindset, it's as backward as it comes. Wahhabism can't even be considered a school under Sunni, it has effectively become another sect of Islam at this point, that's how divergent it is.

19

Its_Just_A_Typo t1_iyf8pus wrote

They're like the Islamic version of the westboro baptists and other southern evangelicals on steroids. Same brand of religious bigotry, just a different book waving in your face.

12

Hipster_Bear t1_iyfcn1m wrote

And here I was thinking of Southern Baptists. It's worth looking up what separated them from other Baptist traditions. (Hint: it was slavery.)

9

Its_Just_A_Typo t1_iyfcwir wrote

Yeah, the southern evangelicals are the worst of that subgroup; mostly baptist as is that westboro bunch, but there are others they band together with in tribal solidarity and hate.

3

Zippit_ t1_iyf6zol wrote

I really have to read up on all this. I am a sunni muslim, but because of circumstances took a step away from anything religious for my own sanity. Do you know a place I can start to read about all of this?

1

InvertedSleeper t1_iyfd55b wrote

About what in particular? The different schools of thought? Or wahhabism?

Check out 'the Siege of Mecca' by Yaroslav Trofimov

I also stepped back from Islam for a while and returned basically as a convert of sorts. It's fascinating to see how the Saudis have built this narrative of Wahhabism being ""the official Islam"" --- to the point that even non-Muslims will now tell Muslims that they're not real Muslims because they're presenting an argument that goes against what the Wahhabis have been pushing for decades.

For a while, they were one of the only Islamic countries that had enough money to translate books, and they did so selectively. Things are slowly beginning to change now, but the chokehold they had on the Muslim world was insane.

Especially considering that they were doing this as allies of the Americans and the British, who supported them through overt and covert campaigns to secure their oil. After establishing themselves, they begun exporting their ridiculous ideology around the world, while the (relatively) ""secular"" (for lack of a better term) governments in the region were being destabilized and eventually destroyed.

(Not that these governments were the beacon of morality, but it's just an interesting coincidence that this was happening at the same time)

Simultaneously the Saudis would push missionaries to these destroyed countries, build big massive mosques, and exploit the situation as a whole. Many extremists were recruited in this manner.

Another fascinating point is coming to the realization that there is in fact no such thing as an official, monolithic Islam. There are the core fundamental principles laid out in the Quran --- everything else is a matter of statistics and probability. (And amongst the countless different schools of thought, movements, and sects, the infallibility and sanctity of the Sunni hadith books have been disputed, just as an example for how deep the disputes have been, even though today this would be unthinkable to many Muslims, unfortunately.)

The classical Muslims actually viewed Islam's multitudes of interpretation as a source of Mercy from Allah, and accepted that two contradictory statements could both be true depending on the methodology one used to arrive at those conclusions.

It paints a completely different picture from what the Wahhabis have been shoving down our throats, and even many Sunni scholars have disregarded them as heretical fanatics.

(See here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_international_conference_on_Sunni_Islam_in_Grozny)

16