... of Sunni Islam’s influence. Second, the essay describes and analyzes forms, examples, goals, and motives of terrorist attacks on the energy sector and the accompanying criminal activities conducted by the IS in selected MENA countries — mainly Egypt, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. On the ontological...

... movement that evolved from a Shiite branch of Islam that believes that the twelfth imam will liberate the world from injustice. Given the Alawi reverence for the twelfth imam, the Sunni Brothers con- sidered the Alawi to be polytheists. Relying on the medieval Sunni legal scholar Ibn...

..., Inc. 20 Mediterranean Quarterly: March 2018 ing Sunni Arab elites and the US presence in the region.3 In any case, it is generally uncertain whether there exists a bloc of Sunni powers that are sup- posed to stand against the supposed Shiite Crescent. Recently, the formation of the Islamic...

... that the twelfth-century Muslim leader Saladin imposed Sunni Islam on Al Azhar, the oldest school of Islamic learning in the Middle East, located in Cairo. The Sunnis of Al Azhar then taught “critical thinking” for the service of their religion. Moreover, Cochran sug...

... Saladin imposed Sunni Islam on Al Azhar, the oldest school of Islamic learning in the Middle East, located in Cairo. The Sunnis of Al Azhar then taught “critical thinking” for the service of their religion. Moreover, Cochran sug- Reviews  127...

... and not a Western analysis of that perspective—is a sine qua non to understanding what happened and how to begin to formulate policies and actions to deal with the new reality. The Islamic State has become the champion of disaffected Sunni Muslim youth building on those perceptions, and the West underestimates...

... In the context of the Syrian Civil War, Hezbollah’s Islamic identity was not convenient for justifying involvement in a conflict that required a fight against other Muslims. This is why Hezbollah and Nasrallah tried hard to portray the group’s military intervention in Syria as a move not against Sunni...

.... The Shiite-­Sunni and Persian Gulf–Arab rivalries are centuries old.9 In modern history, since its establishment as a modern state in 1932, Saudi Arabia has claimed the lead- ership of Sunni Islam. On the other side of the Persian Gulf, since the found- ing of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Iran has...

... not vanish into thin air with the collapse of the empire, neo-­Ottomanists hold. It is still there, being preserved in the Sunni Islamic tradition, in certain pat- terns of everyday life, and in the magnificent Ottoman artistic monuments. The task seems to be to capitalize on these links — “the stuff...

... no other Arab kings can match the religious authority of these three rulers, their strong association with Sunni Islam provides a solid underpinning for their legitimacy. Islam is constitutionally recognized as the state religion in their domains, although, to be sure, there are signifi- cant...

... the future of the union as well the future of the common European defense structure. Euro-­army: A Necessary Reality? Most analysts believe that the rise of jihadism, within the context of Sunni Islam, and the strengthening of anti-­Semitism within the context of Shiite Islam have been...

... contributed to the consolidation of the position of Alawites in Syria and the Sunni Arabs in Saddam’s Iraq. Kumaraswamy: Islam and Minorities  103 Furthermore, a number of countries have recognized sharia (Islamic reli- gious law) as a major source of jurisprudence...

... regime. Confessional violence in Iraq and Syria gave enormous credibility to AQI’s late leader Abu Musab al-­Zarqawi’s vision of a Sunni regional caliph- ate cleansed of Shiites, Christians, Yazidis, and Kurds. Exploiting these sectarian prejudices, AQI’s successor Islamic State of Iraq (ISI...

... in these societies, accordingly, has given al Qaeda a strategic opening to mobilize. The Syrian civil war, moreover, and the emergence of al Qaeda affiliates Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the war-­ravaged country is offered as further 3. James Jay Carfano, “Replace...

... popularity plays to both a domestic constituency in Iraq and a much vaster audience in the pan-Arab world and the wider Islamic realm beyond the Middle East. It is now the case that the insurgencies in Iraq are waged by Sunni Arabs whose worldview still includes the classic claim of a pan-Arab...

... tired of killings and were looking for a strong secular leader with a proven record.37 As for the Sunnis, the Iraqi Islamic Party, a partner in the interim govern- ment, saw no need to rush the elections and meet the US timelines. It sought to allow more time for the ongoing talks to produce...

..., both within and outside of the world of Islam. However, since all Muslim states are autocratic in orientation, it is not likely that free-wheeling debates would take place in any Muslim country. In addition, the religious establishments in all Sunni Muslim countries are progovernment. In other...

... independence from the Ottoman Empire, the new state recognized four official religions: Sunni Islam, Orthodox Christi- anity, Catholicism, and Bektashi Sufism (which seeks inspiration from the Shiite imams).42 When Ataturk abolished Sufi orders in Turkey in 1925, 38. Quoted in Jacob Abadi, “Israel...

... and other Sunni Arabs are likely to continue to resist the American military occupation and regime change because they perceive themselves as the losers in the formation of a new Iraqi govern- ment. They are fighting not for Saddam but for their political, and perhaps physical, survival. And the Sunnis...

... of Islamic radicalism. As de Waal wrote, “Most Chechens remained very suspicious of the incoming Middle East zealots, like Khattab, known as ‘Wahhabis’ because of their allegiance to a particularly austere form of Sunni Islam.”24 Khattab worked closely with Chechen commander Shamil Basayev. During...