Thomas Pierret

This book affords a new perspective on Syria as it stands at the crossroads of political, social and religious fragmentation.

The Sunni Ulama from Coup to Revolution

Religion and State in Syria

Stéphane A. Dudoignon

Farian Sabahi

Joas Wagemakers

Sabrina Mervin

Mariam Abou Zahab

Bayram Balci

Roel Meijer

Rainer Brunner

Jean-François Legrain

Joseph Alagha

Reidar Visser

Altay Goyushov

Brecht De Smet

Before the immense changes of the 2011 'Arab Spring', it was Sunni-Shia sectarian rivalry that preoccupied most political analyses of the Middle East. This book presents wide-ranging and up-to-date research that sheds light on the political, sociological and ideological processes that are affecting the dynamics within the Shia and Sunni worlds.

Doctrine, Transnationalism, Intellectuals and the Media

The Dynamics of Sunni-Shia Relationships

While Syria has been dominated since the 1960s by a determinedly secular regime, the 2011 uprising has raised many questions about the role of Islam in the country's politics. This book demonstrates that with the eradication of the Muslim Brothers after the failed insurrection of 1982, Sunni men of religion became the only voice of the Islamic trend in the country. Through educational programs, charitable foundations and their deft handling of tribal and merchant networks, they took advantage of popular disaffection with secular ideologies to increase their influence over society. In recent years, with the Islamic resurgence, the Alawi-dominated Ba'thist regime was compelled to bring the clergy into the political fold. This relationship was exposed in 2011 by the division of the Sunni clergy between regime supporters, bystanders and opponents. This book affords a new perspective on Syrian society as it stands at the crossroads of political and social fragmentation.

Thomas Pierret

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