Islam-Related Movements

In the Islamic world, as in all religious traditions, there are a number of related groups that have a distant or ambiguous relationship to the various mainstream communities. Four such streams of Islam-related movements can be identified: a diverse assortment of old Middle Eastern sects, some modern religious movements with their own prophetic traditions, various expressions of global Sufism, and African American groups that have established a heterodox Islamic identity. Although the diversity of “mainstream” Islam is considerable—with Sunnis and Shī'a and Sufi groups presenting a wide spectrum of practices and beliefs—they are all united in recognizing Muhammad as God's last prophet to humankind and in accepting a significant number of beliefs and practices as Islamic. What they have in common is greater than what divides them, and leaving aside a relatively small number of extremists who believe that Muslims belonging to other sects are unbelievers, the adherents of the various mainstream sects are willing—no matter how reluctantly—to see the followers of other sects as fellow Muslims. This is not a courtesy that many of them extend to the Islam-related groups, however. Rejection by mainstream Muslims may not be an adequate basis for definition, but it is an important indicator of these groups’ separateness. More crucial, perhaps, are significant deviations from mainstream Muslim belief and practice (particularly nonobservance of Islamic holy law, the Shari'a), and in some instances, the recognition of prophetic figures after Muhammad. This said, it should be noted that most of these groups profess that they are Muslims—the Baha'is being the main exceptions in proclaiming themselves to be the followers of an independent world religion respectful of, but separate from, Islam.

The first stream of movements is a variety of premodern Middle Eastern sects. All have been subject to sometimes severe persecution in the past and have often been secretive about their beliefs and practices. Their origins are often obscure. One of the most ancient is that of the Yazidis (stigmatized as devil worshippers by many orthodox Muslims). The movement seems to be a complex synthesis of local pre-Islamic Kurdish beliefs and elements of Sufism—including devotion to the Sufi saint Shaykh Adi ibn Mosáfer (ca. 1075–1162). The membership is predominantly Kurdish, and there are now perhaps 200,000 to 300,000 followers worldwide, including a significant number among Kurdish migrants to Germany. Again, the Nusayris (Alawites) are widely believed to have begun as a pre-Islamic religion, which later adopted elements of Islam while retaining older gnostic and incarnationist beliefs. They are a major and powerful presence in modern Syria (with perhaps 1 million adherents). Also in the Levant, the Druze religion, originating in the 11th century, seemingly combined elements of Isma'ili Shī'ism with earlier gnostic beliefs. They now have about a million adherents across the Levant and in the Levantine diaspora in the West. Further east, several movements developed in the troubled period of the 14th and 15th centuries, combining elements of Sufism, Shī'ism and non-Islamic beliefs, including extremist veneration of the Imam Ali, incarnationism, gnosticism, and the transmigration of souls. These include the Alevis and Bektashis of Turkey, the Kurdish Ahl-e Haqq (“People of Truth”), and the Hurufi movement originated by Fazlallah Astarabadi (d. 1394). Whereas a distinct Hurufi community no longer exists, the Alevis remain a major presence in Turkey and the Turkish diaspora (numbering approximately 10 to 15 million) and have absorbed many elements of Bektashi thought. The Bektashis remain a significant presence in Albania, and the Ahl-e Haqq (a million or so) reside in the Kurdish areas of Iran and Iraq.

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