Blog
During years Brent has become the Shia mile of London and it has kept this title until now. This post is trying to give the reader a brief history on how this has happened by reviewing briefly the history of Shia community in Brent. Brent as the northern extension of Edgware Road became a location […]
The category of Persian and Urdu speaking Shia community in Germany is made up of three separate yet cooperative groups. Afghan Shia community in Germany: they participate in other Shia communities in Germany, especially in linguistically related Persian-speaking communities. There are also distinct Afghan communities, such as the one which was visited during Ramadan 2015, […]
There are many Iraqi and some Lebanese who form the Arabic Shia communities in Germany and they are especially active on religiously important days, such as during Muharram. These activities include hiring large assembly halls, mostly in industrial suburban areas of German cities, in order to provide services for their Shia community and for other […]
The Turkish Shia communities in Germany differentiate themselves according to their roots in east Anatolian Twelver Shiism (“Caferi”; mostly refugees from Russian Azerbaijan, who came to the district of Iğdır after 1918) or as converts from Turkish Sunnism after the “Islamic Revolution” in Iran. Conversion from Sunni Islam to Shiism is in fact quite an […]
The ethnographic setting of the Shias in Germany is still characterized by the results of several waves of migration since the 1960s: Iranians, Turkish labor migrants, and Lebanese, Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani refugees maintain their ethnic identity partly by means of religion and ritual activity. However, there are some German converts, as well as Turkish […]
Up to now there are three Muslim communities in Austria: (a) Islamic Faith Community (Islamische Glaubengemeinschaft in Österreich (IGGiÖ) which comprises of Sunnis and Iranian Shias), (b) Alevi Faith Community (Alewitische Glaubengemeinschaft in Österreich), (c) Shia Denomination Community (Schitische Bekenntnisgemeinschaft, which comprises of Iraq Shias). Nowadays the ‘Islamic Faith Community in Austria’ (Islamische Glaubengemeinschaft in […]
The Iraqi Shia scholar Muhammad al-Husayn Kasif al-Ghita (1877- 1953) is considered to be one of the pioneers of Shia-Sunni ecumenism in modern sense. He called for Islamic ecumenism during his speech at the World Islamic Congress on December 1931. Pertaining to the notion of taqrib (Sunni-Shia reconciliation), al-Gita said the following: “It should be […]
The Shia Muslim population in Pakistan is estimated to be between five and 20 per cent which is not considerable given that over 95 per cent of Pakistan’s population are Muslims . The majority of Pakistan’s Shia population adhere to the Twelver (ithna’ashari) school of thought; other items of the Shia sects’ list present in […]
Not having a large population of Shias, Algeria cannot be seen in the Shia countries’ list. The Shia community in Algeria is very small. Ben-Khalifa (2018) claims that Anouar Malek (who is an Algerian journalist) stated that Shia Muslims in Algeria are around 7000 individuals which is less than 0.02% of the whole population. However, […]
The Hazara people are commonly defined as an ethno-linguistic group from central Afghanistan that is Persian-speaking and adherent of the Shia Islam or Ismaili sect of Islam which makes them a major part of the Shia Community in Afghanistan. Population estimates range from 2.5 to 5 million, representing 9 to 18 percent of the population […]