The Islamic world has many religious movements. Each group has its own views on the correctness of faith. Because of this, Muslims with different understandings of the essence of their religion come into conflict. Sometimes they gain great strength and end in bloodshed.
There are even more internal disagreements among different representatives of the Muslim world than with people of another religion. To understand the differences of views in Islam, it is necessary to study who Salafis, Sunnis, Wahhabis, Shiites and Alawites are. Their characteristic features of understanding faith become the cause of fratricidal wars that resonate in the world community.
Conflict History
To understand who Salafis, Shiites, Sunnis, Alawites, Wahhabis and other representatives of Muslim ideology are, one should delve into the beginning of their conflict.
In 632 AD e. the Prophet Muhammad died. His followers began to decide who would be the successor to their leader. Initially, the Salafists, Alawites and other areas did not yet exist. First came the Sunnis and Shiites. The former considered the successor to the prophet a person elected in the caliphate. And there were most of these people. In much smaller numbers in those days were representatives of a different view. Shiites began to choose the successor of Muhammad among his relatives. For them, the cousin of a prophet named Ali became their imam. In those days, adherents of these views were called Shiit Ali.
The conflict escalated in 680, when the son of Imam Ali, whose name was Hussein, was killed by the Sunnis. This led to the fact that even today such disagreements affect society, the system of legislation, families, etc. The ruling elites harass representatives of opposing views. Therefore, the Islamic world is still troubled.
Modern divisions
Being the second largest religion in the world, Islam over time has generated many sects, trends and views on the essence of religion. Salafis and Sunnis, the difference between which will be discussed later, arose at different times. Sunnis were originally a fundamental direction, and Salafis appeared much later. The latter are today considered a more extremist trend. Many religious scholars argue that Salafis and Wahhabis can only be called Muslims with a stretch of their minds. The emergence of such religious communities comes precisely from sectarian Islam.
In the realities of the modern political situation, it is the extremist organizations of Muslims that cause bloody conflicts in the East. They have significant financial resources and can carry out revolutions, establishing their dominance in Islamic lands.
The difference between the Sunnis and Salafis is quite large, but this is at first glance. With a deeper study of their principles, a completely different picture emerges. To understand it, one should consider the characteristic features of each of the areas.
Sunnis and their beliefs
The largest (about 90% of all Muslims) in Islam is the Sunni group. They follow the path of the Prophet and acknowledge his great mission.
The second after the Koran, the fundamental book for this direction of religion is the Sunna. Initially, its content was transmitted orally, and then it was framed in the form of a hadith. Adherents of this direction are very sensitive to these two sources of their faith. If the Qur'an and the Sunnah do not have an answer to any question, people are allowed to make decisions according to their reasoning.
Sunnis differ from Shiites, Salafists and other currents in their approach to the interpretation of hadiths. In some countries, following prescriptions based on the life example of a prophet reached a literal understanding of the essence of righteousness. It happened that even the length of the beard of men, details of clothing had to exactly correspond to the instructions of the Sunna. This is their main difference.
Sunnis, Shiites, Salafists and other directions look at the connection with Allah differently. Most Muslims are inclined to believe that they do not need a mediator to perceive the word of God, therefore, power is transferred by elective means.
Shiites and their ideology
Unlike the Sunnis, Shiites believe that divine power is passed on to the heirs of the Prophet. Therefore, they recognize the possibility of interpreting its requirements. This can only be done by people who have a special right to it.
The number of Shiites in the world is inferior to the Sunni direction. Salafis in Islam are fundamentally opposite in their views on the interpretation of the sources of faith comparable to Shiites. The latter recognized the right of the heirs of the Prophet, who are the leaders of their group, to mediate between Allah and the people. They are called imams.
Salafists and Sunnis believe that Shiites allowed themselves unlawful innovations in understanding the Sunnah. Therefore, their views are so opposite. There are a huge number of sects and currents that have taken the Shiite understanding of religion as a basis. These include the Alawites, Ismailis, Zeidites, Druzes, Sheikhs and many others.
This Muslim direction is distinguished by drama. On the day of Ashura, Shiites in different countries hold mourning events. This is a difficult, emotional procession during which participants beat themselves to the blood with chains and swords.
Representatives of both the Sunni and Shiite trends have in their composition many groups that can even be attributed to a separate religion. It is difficult to penetrate into all the nuances even with a close study of the views of each Muslim movement.
Alawites
Salafis and Alawites are considered newer religious movements. On the one hand, they have many principles similar to orthodox directions. Many theologians attribute the Alavites to followers of Shiite teachings. However, due to their special principles, they can be distinguished as a separate religion. The similarity of the Alawites with the Shiite Muslim trend is manifested in the liberty of views on the instructions of the Koran and Sunna.
This religious group has a distinctive feature called takiyya. It lies in the ability of the Alawite to perform rituals of other beliefs, while maintaining their views in the soul. This is a closed group, in which there are many directions and ideas.
Sunnis, Shiites, Salafists, Alawites are opposed to each other. This is manifested to a greater or lesser extent. The Alawites, called polytheists, according to representatives of radical movements, do more harm to the Muslim community than the "infidels."
This is truly a separate faith within religion. Alawites unite elements of Islam and Christianity in their system. They believe in Ali, Muhammad and Salman al-Farsi, while celebrating Easter, Christmas, venerating Isa (Jesus) and the apostles. At worship, the Alawites can read the gospel. Sunnis can get along peacefully with the Alawites. Conflicts start aggressive communities, for example, Wahhabis.
Salafis
Sunnis have spawned many trends within their religious group, to which a variety of Muslims belong. Salafis are one such organization.
They formed their main views in the 9-14th centuries. Their main principle of ideology is considered to follow the lifestyle of the ancestors who led a righteous existence.
In the whole world, including Russia, there are about 50 million Salafists. They do not accept any innovations regarding the interpretation of faith. This direction is also called fundamental. Salafists believe in one God, criticize other Muslim movements that allow themselves to interpret the Koran and the Sunnah. In their opinion, if some places in these shrines are incomprehensible to man, they should be accepted in the form in which the text is presented.
In our country, Muslims of this direction number about 20 million people. Of course, Salafists in Russia also live in small communities. The greatest rejection in them is not caused by Christians, but by “infidel” Shiites and currents derived from them.
Wahhabis
One of the new radical trends in the Islamic religion are Wahhabis. At first glance, they look like Salafis. Wahhabis deny innovations in the faith, fighting for the concept of monotheism. They do not accept everything that was not in the original Islam. However, a distinctive feature of the Wahhabis is their aggressive attitude and their understanding of the basic foundations of the Muslim faith.
Such a trend arose in the 18th century. This advocacy movement originates from the preacher Najad Muhammad Abdel Wahhab. He wanted to “cleanse” Islam from innovations. Under this slogan, he organized an uprising, as a result of which the neighboring lands of the Al-Katif oasis were captured.
In the 19th century, the Wahhabi movement was defeated by the Ottoman Empire. After 150 years, Al Saud Abdelaziiz was able to revive the ideology. He defeated his opponents in Central Arabia. In 1932, he created the state of Saudi Arabia. When developing oil fields, the American currency flowed into the Wahhabi clan.
In the 70s of the last century, during the war in Afghanistan, Salafi schools were created. They wore a radical type of Wahhabi ideology. The fighters trained by these centers were called Mujahideen. This movement is often associated with terrorism.
The difference between Wahhabism and Salafism from Sunni principles
To understand who Salafis and Wahhabis are, their basic ideological principles should be considered. Researchers argue that these two religious communities are identical in meaning. However, one should distinguish the Salafi from the Takfiri.
Today the reality is that the Salafis do not accept new interpretations of ancient religious principles. By acquiring a radical thrust of development, they lose their fundamental concepts. You can even call them Muslims at a stretch. They are connected with Islam only by the recognition of the Koran as the main source of the word of Allah. The rest of the Wahhabis are completely different from the Sunni Salafis. It all depends on who is meant by a common name. True Salafis are representatives of a large group of Sunni Muslims. They should not be confused with radical sects. Salafists and Wahhabis, whose difference is cardinal, have different views on religion.
Now these two essentially opposite groups are mistakenly synonymous. Salahites Wahhabis arbitrarily adopted the fundamental principles of their faith completely alien to Islam features. They reject the full amount of knowledge (nkl) transmitted by Muslims since ancient times. Salafists and Sunnis, the difference of which exists only in some views on religion, are the opposite of the Wahhabis. From the latter, they differ in their views on jurisprudence.
In fact, the Wahhabis have replaced all the ancient Islamic principles with new ones, creating their own sharihad (territory subject to religion). They do not respect monuments, ancient graves, and they consider the Prophet simply a mediator between Allah and people, without experiencing the inherent reverence of all Muslims. According to Islamic principles, jihad cannot be declared arbitrarily.
Wahhabism allows you to lead an unrighteous life, but after accepting a “righteous death” (blasting yourself to destroy the “infidels”), a person is guaranteed a place in heaven. Islam considers suicide a terrible sin that cannot be forgiven.
The essence of radical views
Salafists are mistakenly correlated with Wahhabis. Although their ideology is still consistent with the Sunnis. But in the realities of the modern world, under the Salafis it is customary to mean Wahhabis-takfirits. If we take such groupings in a mutilated value, we can distinguish a number of differences.
Salafis, abandoning their true essence, sharing radical views, consider all other people as apostates, deserving of punishment. Sunni Salafis, on the contrary, are even called Christians and Jews as “people of the Scriptures” who profess early beliefs. They can coexist peacefully with representatives of other views.
To understand who Salafis are in Islam, one should pay attention to one truth that distinguishes real fundamentalists from self-proclaimed sects (which, in fact, are Wahhabis).
Sunni Salafis do not accept new interpretations of ancient sources of the will of Allah. And new radical groups reject them, replacing true ideology with principles that are advantageous to themselves. It is simply a means of controlling people for their own selfish purposes to achieve even greater power.
This is not Islam at all. After all, all its main principles, values and relics were marked, trampled and recognized as false. Instead, concepts and patterns of behavior that were advantageous to the ruling elite were artificially embedded in people's minds. This is a destructive force, recognizing as a good deed the killing of women, children and the elderly.
Overcoming Enmity
Having delved into the question of who the Salafis are, one can come to the conclusion that the use of the ideology of religious movements for the mercenary purposes of the ruling elite is fueling wars and bloody conflicts. At this time, there is a change of power. However, people's faith should not become the cause of fratricidal hostility.
As the experience of many East states shows, representatives of both orthodox trends in Islam can peacefully coexist. This is possible with the appropriate position of the authorities in relation to the religious ideology of each community. Anyone should be able to profess the faith that he considers correct, without claiming that dissenters are enemies.
An example of peaceful coexistence of adherents of different faiths in the Muslim community is the family of Syrian President Bashad Assad. He professes the Alavite trend, and his wife is a Sunni. He celebrates both the Muslim Sunni Eid al-Adh and the Christian Easter.
Going deeper into Muslim religious ideology, you can understand in general terms who Salafis are. Although it is customary to identify them with Wahhabis, the true essence of this faith is far from similar views on Islam. A brutal replacement of the basic principles of the religion of the East by the beneficial ruling elite principles leads to an exacerbation of conflicts between representatives of various religious communities and bloodshed.