Islam in Syria

Overview of the role of Islam in Syria

Several different denominations and sects of Islam are practised within Syria, whom collectively, constitute approximately 87% of the population and form a majority in most of the districts of the country. The Sunni Muslims make up the vast majority in the country, mainly of the Hanafi and Shafi'i madhhabs. The Alawites are the biggest Muslim minority sect (10% of the country's population), followed by Isma'ili and Twelver Shia Muslims. Some Sufi orders are also active in the country, including the Naqshbandiya, the Qadiriya and the Shadhiliya orders, most of whom identify as Sunnis. Christianity is the second most popular religion in the country, and Christians comprise roughly 10% of the overall population. The Umayyads made Damascus their capital, relying on the Syrian Arab tribes as their core military force, who ruled over a predominantly Aramaic speaking population. After the demise of the Umayyads, Bilad al Sham was a province of the successive Abbasid, Fatimid and Seljuk states. However, although the Muslim conquest began the process of Islamization, the early converts were mainly the Arab tribes living in Syria and the Levant before the conquest, including the Tanukh and Balqayn, while in the rural sector, there is little evidence for Islamization before the tenth century. Islamization, on the other hand, mainly begun in the big cities.

The Arabs form the largest Sunni Muslim community in the country. More recently, Dr. Pierre Beckouche also said that the Arab Sunni Muslims formed 60% of the population, including 500,000 Palestinian refugees. Some Muslim minorities in Syria have been Arabized to some degree, particularly the smaller ethnic groups (such as the Albanians, Bosnians, Cretan Muslims, Pashtuns, Persians, etc. ), but also some members of the larger minorities, such as the Kurds and Turkmen. In 1973 Professor Moshe Ma'oz said that the non Arabic speaking Sunni Muslim Kurds formed 8.3% of the population. By 1979 Dr. Nikolaos van Dam claimed that the Syrian Kurds (forming 8.5% of the population at the time) were almost exclusively Sunni Muslims. Dr Henry Munson said that Sunni Muslim Kurds formed 9% of the population in 1988, whilst Professor Alasdair Drysdale and Professor Raymond Hinnebusch said that they formed 8.5% in 1991. In 2014 Hêvî Îbrahîm, an Alevi, became the Prime Minister of the Kurdish controlled Afrin Canton. Thousands of Turkmen Alevis are living in Aleppo, though many of them fled to Turkey.

The second largest sect of Islam practiced in the country is the Shia branch; this includes Ismailis and Twelvers. Before 2011, they formed a sizeable minority. Ismailis are divided into two major groups: the Mustali and the Nizari. According to Professor Alasdair Drysdale and Professor Raymond Hinnebusch the Ismailis formed 1.5% of the country's population in 1991.

Forming the smallest of the Islamic sects in Syria at 2%, the Twelver Shia play only a minor role in Syrian politics. In religious affairs, they look to Shia centers in Iraq, especially Karbala and Najaf, and to Iran. However, Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and Syria's alliance with Iran in its war with Iraq, have elevated the prestige of Syria's Shia minority. As hundreds of Iranian tourists began to visit Damascus each week, the Shia shrine of the tomb of Sayyida Zaynab, granddaughter of Muhammad, located in Al Ghutah outside Damascus, became a major pilgrimage destination, replacing those areas no longer accessible in Iraq. Moreover, the Syrian Shia Twelvers have close links to the Shia Twelvers in Lebanon.

The Syrian Druze community constitute the third largest Islamic influenced sect in the country, they are not traditionally considered as Muslims, forming approximately 4% of the population of Syria. The main centre of the Druze population is in As Suwayda; the small towns and villages under its authority is called the Jabal al Druze (the "Mountain of the Druze"). The rest of the community mainly live in the Quneitra Governorate, the Rif Dimashq Governorate, and the Idlib Governorate. Even though the faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, most Druze do not identify as Muslims, and they do not accept the five pillars of Islam. There are many Syrian Druze that are also living abroad, particularly in Latin America, who have been living there for over the past hundred years.

There is also a Quraniya or Quranist community within Syria, whose early documentation began forming in the 19th century and followed the teachings set forth by the Indian theologian Seyyid Ahmed Khan Hindi and then spread to Syria soon afterwards via intermediary pilgrims. However, Ahl al Qur'an adherents precede these 19th century developments in the form of Mu'tazilites such as Ibrahim al Nazzam, who lived for some period in these environs. Contemporary adherents of the Quranist point of view in Syria include Muhammad Shahrur.