[Dean's World] Aziz P: muslims in Syria convert... to Shi'a Islam

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Aziz P:
muslims in Syria convert... to Shi'a Islam
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1178601332.shtml


   via The Arabist, the [1]Shi'ization of Syria:

     Louay, a 28-year-old teacher in Damascus wearing jeans, a wool
     sweater and a close-cropped beard, seemed the epitome of the
     capitalâs Sunni middle class. Yet within the last year, as
     Hezbollah rose to national prominence in the Lebanese government,
     he â along with his mother â began practicing Shiite Islam. He
     changed the wording of his prayers and his posture while praying,
     holding his arms at his sides instead of before him, and during
     Ramadan he followed Shiite customs on breaking the fast. In many
     Middle Eastern countries, his conversion wouldnât be possible â it
     would be considered apostasy. The Syrian regime restricts its
     peopleâs political liberties, but unlike most other ruling
     dynasties in the Arab world, it allows freedom of religion. âIn
     Saudi Arabia, they ban books on other faiths,â Louay said. âIn
     Syria, I can buy whatever book on religion I want, and no one can
     say a word.â

     Politics, it seems, is only one of the attractions of Shiism. In
     addition to Louay, I spoke with four other Syrian converts, who
     asked not to be identified for fear of harassment by Sunni
     fundamentalists. Louay and the others all spoke of religious
     transformation as much as of Hezbollah. âHalf the reason why I
     converted was because of Ijtihad,â Louay said, using the Arabic
     word for the independent interpretation of the Koran and the words
     and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. Suddenly the muftiâs enigmatic
     answer became clearer. Ijtihad is practiced more widely by Shiites
     of the Jaafari school than by Sunnis. These Shiites believe that,
     on all but the largest moral issues, Muslims should interpret their
     faith by reading holy texts and reasoning back and forth between
     them and current issues. Many Sunnis say they quietly practice
     Ijtihad in everyday life as well, but conservative Sunnis do not
     encourage individual interpretation of the Koran.

   I am fascinated by this. All too often, here in eth west we see a
   monolithic aspect to Islam wherein even the myriad internal nuances of
   the living faith are packaged as simply factes upon the same jewel
   rather than as cohesive and independent strands of the tapestry on
   their own right. The essay above gives a peek into the true complexity
   of Islam wherein conversion can be intra-Islam rather than across the
   Christian-Muslim boundary. And the motivation for this is ijtihad,
   which really is a tremendous point (one that, I might add, is cause
   for some hope even in the worst case outcomes for Iraq, but more on
   that later.)

   Issandr has [2]his own comment on the article, noting that it's
   doubtful that the Shi'a conversion wave is being actively managed by
   Iran.

References

   1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/magazine/29wwlnphenomenon.t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin
   2. http://arabist.net/archives/2007/04/30/tabler-shiitization-in-syria/