Sects

Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies put sectarianism under the scalpel; Ebrahim Moosa suggests the Sunnis, the majority Muslim sect, need to rethink their history; Imranali Panjwani explains what it means to be Shia; Faisal Devji explores ‘the idea of Ismailism’; Francesco Cavatorta thinks that not all Salafis represent a threat to Islam; Mohamed Nawab bin Mohamed Osman joins the Caliphate movement of Hizb-e-Tahrir; Zacharias Pieri goes on a retreat with the evangelical Tablighi Jamaat; Jamie Gilham spends some quality time with British converts; Faizur Rahman struggles with the logic of Deobandi fatwas; Hassan Mahamdallie has a rare audience with ‘His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul-Masih V’, the supreme head of the Ahmadiyya; Yasmin Saikia refuses to be pigeon-holed into a sect while visiting Iraq; Johan Sieber argues that heretical sects can usher enlightenment; Medina Tenour Whiteman deconstructs her Shia husband; Robin Yassin-Kassab traces the origins of the Alawis of Syria; Suhel Ahmed watches the horror a sect can

unleash on its members; and Peter Mandaville asks, why can’t we all just get along simply as ‘Vanilla Muslims’.