[Closed] Who 'runs' Islam?

Catholic extremists (do they even exist?)

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Its a bloke called Mohammed. Hang on a minute and I'll just draw you some cartoons of what he looks like......

Couldn't help thinking, if this was say Catholic extremists (do they even exist?), I am sure that the Pope would make a point of distancing Catholicism from the activity.

But isn't Mohamed a bit on the err 'dead' side?

Who runs the business day-to-day and makes the rules on what is acceptable in the name of Islam and what isn't? Or at least choses to interpret Mohamed's writings?

I know Catholics haven't had the best reputation throughout history, but I can't remember the last instance in modern times that they burnt teachers alive in front of their class or murdered innocent children.

Anyway, not meant to be a debate over the rights and wrongs, and maybe not a great comparison, but I am just genuinely interested who is 'in charge' and why wouldn't they condemn such barbaric behaviour in their name?

Not sure of Catholic but the US seems to have quite a few Christian extremists.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/12/11/pastor-who-told-gay-christian-he-should-commit-suicide-tells-news-reporter-that-he-should-also-commit-suicide/

Nigel Farage.

Michael Jackson I think

Its a bloke called Mohammed. Hang on a minute and I'll just draw you some cartoons of what he looks like......

applauds...

Actually - that's quite a good question.
Maybe it's made up of "cells".

solarider - remember that the Pope only speaks for one variant of Christianity. Islam is similarly divided so there is no one overall leader.

I think its something to do with the size of your beard. The bigger your beard the closer you are to Allah. This could potentially get confusing if you throw Father Christmas and some pirates into the mix

(As far as I understand it) there are two main factions in Islam; the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni_Islam ]Sunnis[/url] and the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_Islam ]Shias[/url]. They kind of interpret the religion slightly differently and probably argue (ok, fight violently) with each other way more than they ever do with other religions.

Rachel

ZZ Toppists?

Lance Armstrong?

I think the Wahabis are the real big hitters.

Paul Tergat

solarider - remember that the Pope only speaks for one variant of Christianity. Islam is similarly divided so there is no one overall leader.

And which Pope are we talking of? There's another one, and he has the Ark of the Covenant stashed away in a shed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_of_the_Coptic_Orthodox_Church_of_Alexandria

A proper Holy looking Pope!

I think the Grand Imam is the closest you'll find to a Muslim Pope, but like Christianity, the Islamic Faith is fractured so you also have the Grand Ayatollah who is the head of the Shia's.

And yes, there have been murdering bastards who used the Christian Faith as an excuse to kill and maim people - including children, they were who we were all afraid of before 9/11. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us - the people of Boston weren't a free and easy with the cash as the Saudi Royal Family.

The powers that be created those monsters too.

edit: ha

Good call on the Wahabis. Just Wiki'd them. But who is in charge of the Wahabis?

Since this is the bike forum (on my phone at least) I'll go with:
BrantBrantBrant *clicks heels*

What's arabic for lizards?

But who is in charge of the Wahabis?

The bigger your beard the closer you are to Allah.

So Hipsters run Islam then!

binners - Member

I think its something to do with the size of your beard. The bigger your beard the closer you are to Allah.

You do realize that this is actually correct?

You do realize that this is actually correct?

It can't be! I've never got anything right in my life. Does this now prove the theory about giving a monkey a keyboard, and eventually.......?

Nobody runs "it" because Islam isn't a single, unified religion unlike say Catholicism.

Just like nobody runs Buddhism as there are different sects and interpretations of ancient texts.

The bastardos who fly planes into buildings and shoot schoolkids are generally of the Salafist / Wahhabist sect of Islam, which was and is the version of Islam practised by Arab desert marauders (e.g. Saudis, Emiratis), who also happen to be our oil-selling allies. Remember, the September 11th hijackers were primarily Saudis. Bin Laden was a Saudi.

To tar "Islam" with the same brush is silly because there is no single unified Islamic church.

The Islamic world has been and still is at war with itself (Sunni vs Shia). We in the West have only been drawn into it due to our govermnents playing one side against each other for access to oil and other resources in that region.

Its not a conspiracy, just simply economics. The Western world needs oil to lubricate the wheels of commerce and vast quantities of accessible oil are in Muslim lands. However, when we deal with a region that has been at war for over a thousand years then unfortunately we will suffer the consequences.

I thought it was Salafism that was 'the thing', in relation to a lot of the unrest in the middle-east, but Wikipedia says that it's basically the same as Wahabism, whatever that's worth. I have a colleague who's an expert on this stuff. She's fascinating to listen to but it's seriously mind-boggling stuff how complicated it all is.

Edit: or what Devash said apparently.

Might be of interest to those who follow these things. Its crazy to see how a minor disagreement over people who died over a thousand years ago can cause so much strife;

A fourth sect known as Hipstah is really taking off in the UK. Adherents sport a much neater looking beard and appear more docile than other sects. No evidence yet of any Hipstah extremism but some still believe they should all be shot on sight.

Sufis, Ismailis, Wahhabis, Sunnis, Shias, Deobandis... they've as many sects as we Xtians have. The Deobandis have a gaff on Holcombe Hill, if anybody's interested. Moderate Sunni friends of mine are absolutely aghast the Britain allows Deobandis to set up shop here because they really are seriously hard line, apparently.

On the Xtian side there is Opus Dei, who run Spain. They're all over Africa as well.

With the whole beardy thing, I've had my suspicions for a while....

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there are two main factions in Islam; the Sunnis and the Shias

Headed up by these two?

[img] [/img]

Is this even a serious question? It's one of the world's major religions, are people seriously this ignorant* of the world around them? You could worse than spend an instructive half hour on Wikipedia, and broaden your horizons a bit

shitting death, no wonder the likes UKIP get such an easy ride.

* Don't get me wrong, I don't mean it in the pejorative sense.

I had a Mitsubishi Pejora a few years back it was t' i but not the ve model

This infograhic explains it fairly well: [url= http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/islamic-sects/ ]http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/islamic-sects/[/url]

That infographic is amazing

i never knew Folk music was so popular

The Borg.

[quote
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_of_the_Coptic_Orthodox_Church_of_Alexandria

A proper Holy looking Pope!
I am sure they elect their pope by having a monkey draw a name from a hat so that is gods will

I read the link..not quite as exciting

After the death of Shenouda III the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church voted, and the names of the three candidates who received most votes were put in a glass chalice for a name to be picked to be the new Patriarch of Alexandria. The name is picked by 'Divine Choice', by a blindfolded boy believed to be guided by the hand of God.

Is this even a serious question? It's one of the world's major religions,

And accounts for a massive 4% of people in the UK. Are you seriously shocked that people don't have in depth knowledge of something that's barely more significant than statistical variance?

You could worse than spend an instructive half hour on Wikipedia, and broaden your horizons a bit

Or, y'know, ask a question and start a discussion with the hope of learning something.

The question is a serious one not least because in many sections of Islam people believe an Imam (ie religious leader) should be the overall head of a country, no election no democracy. As posted above there isn't one head of Islam any more than there is one head of Christianity, references to the Pope just refer to Catholics which is just one branch of Christianity. Henry VIII's whole gig was to make himself head of his own branch of Christianity. Islam is just the same.

A comment on Saudi in relation to the above, you cannot judge the leadership (ie Royalty) of Saudi in terms of the general population. Large parts of the Suadi population are very poor and the religious zealots there have latched onto widespread discomfort amongst the population about the behaviour of the Royal Family who they see as far too close to the West

On the Xtian side there is Opus Dei, who run Spain.

They'd like to, but they overstepped themselves with their recent attempt at limiting access to abortion and have been taken down a peg or two.

Not the answer you probably want, but I always look back to socio-psychology when it comes to religion. The 'leaders' come and go but the song remains the same, a hymn, a rally to war, a call to prayer, an instruction to be faithful...etc

The thing that 'runs' dogmatic/organised religion (including Islam) is the fragile ego and the resultant drive for group identity. This then becomes a way to exert power over the in-group (and the 'out-groups')

[url= http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-darkness/201206/the-psychology-religion-force-good-or-evil ]The psychology of religion[/url]

^^^ I find this interesting (including the suggestion that militant atheists have more in common with dogmatic religion than many perceive)

Cougar, you're right of course. I apologize 😳

which is why you're a mod, and I'm not.