Violence... The story so far

The Arabic word for peace is salaam; it is included in Arabic/Muslim greetings. Islam means surrender or submission in Arabic. A Muslim is one who submits to Allah. For many the word Muslim conjurs up thoughts of suicidal bombers. Such stereotyping of all Muslims may be faithful to the authoritarian way, but is wide of the mark.

Most Muslims are ordinary, peace-loving people. Extremists show their authoritarian colors with their selective readings of religious texts and rigid adherence to narrow views. Like the other monotheisms, Islam has splintered into numerous sects (Sunni & Shi's), mystics (Sufi) and interpretations (Salafia).

• Sunni Tradition -- Jurisprudential Schools of Islamic law
• Hanafiyyah
• Barelvi / Deobandi
• Hanbaliyyah
• Malikiyyah
• Shafi'iyya
  
• Sunni Tradition -- Independent Sects
  
  • Ahmadiyyah
  • Kharijiyyah
  • Maturidiyyah
  • Mu'tazilah
    
  • Wahhabiyya
  • Sunni Tradition -- Theological Schools
    • Ash'ariyyah
      
    • Shi'a
      • Zaydiyyah -- Fivers
      • Isma'iliyyah -- Seveners
        
        • Qarmatiyyah
        • Druzes
        • Nizariyyah
        • Musta'liyyah
          
      • Imamiyyah -- Twelvers
        Babis
        • Baha'i
          
        • Nusayriyyah
  • Sufi -- Mystics, not a sect. 'The three regions principally associated with Sufism are Mesopotamia (Iran and Iraq), Central Asia and North Africa." ..."origins of Islamic mysticism can be traced back to the 8th century." ..."Sufism represents a dimension of Islamic religious life that has frequently been viewed by Muslim theologians and lawyers with suspicion. The ecstatic state of the mystic can sometimes produce extreme behaviour or statements that on occasion appear to border on the blasphemous."
    
  • Salafia -- "Salafia is also not a sect but an interpretation of Islam, defined by the fact that it does not follow rigidly any of the four schools of Islamic law, Hanbali, Malakim, Shafi and Hanafi, but instead chooses what it regards as the best aspects from each school.... Salafia has been linked to the September 11 hijackers, Richard Reid, the British 'shoe bomber' and terror suspects arrested in Europe...."
    

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Muhammed's Biogaphy
Shia Islam
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Understanding Islam

Some writers claim that Islam is a warrior religion. Others claim not. The Qur'an makes much of war and fealty to God while not mentioning love. It provides and proscribes behavior, not creed. It has great drawing power in that for the seventh century, Islam was a rather complete system for governance as well as belief. Unlike Christianity, Islam has never moved out of the "Inquisition" stage. (Women and apostates especially, are abused and worse. See Inquisitors and Witch Hunters for the same disease in the "Christian world.") Governance systems relying solely on prophets of the past will eventually succumb to more flexible systems based on experience that grow with, accommodate, or include developments in science, technology, society, and governance. At least this is the history.