Islam’s internal practice varies by region, branch, and historical era

Evidence

Islam looks different in each of these regions and countries, largely because as it spread, people imbued it with their own local customs and traditions. The Sufi Islam practiced in northern India is quite different from the Shi’a Islam practiced in Lebanon, which is in turn different from the Sunni Islam practiced in Pakistan. Even within a single branch of Islam there are customs and practices that vary by region and across time. Thus, the Islam of seventh-century Arabia is different from the Wahhabism that exists today in Saudi Arabia. Religious texts may be more or less fixed, but all of the world’s religions, including Islam, have changed and adapted based on historical transformations. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 160 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Even a cursory look at the practice of Islam around the world shows this myth to be patently false. One and a half billion people around the world are Muslims—85 percent are Sunni and 15 percent are Shi’a. Within these two main denominations, there are many more branches. Muslim-majority countries and regions span the globe, from Indonesia to Bangladesh to several central Asian countries, the Middle East, and North Africa. In most of these countries Islam is the dominant religion, hence the term “Muslim-majority countries.” But these countries are also home to Christians, Jews, and people of other faiths, as well as atheists. India, a predominantly Hindu country, is home to more than a hundred million Muslims. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 159 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Mahdism as an ideology in nineteenth-century Sudan was not the same thing as Mahdism there today. Similarly, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood during the late 1940s to the mid-1950s was a considerably more powerful ideological movement than today’s Brotherhood; and both of those are different in organization and objectives from what is called the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, which Hafez al-Assad in 1982 tried brutally to eradicate in Hama: his soldiers massacred several thousand reported members of the Brotherhood. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 193 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islam has varied regionally and adapted to historical transformations. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 160; Global Muslim practice is internally diverse across sects and regions. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 159; Islam adapted to survive across widely varying political and economic systems (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Islam has varied regionally and adapted to historical transformations. #corroborates (0.97) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 160
• Global Muslim practice is internally diverse across sects and regions. #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 159
• Islamic movements change fundamentally across time and place despite shared names #expands (0.90) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 193
• Islam adapted to survive across widely varying political and economic systems #expands (0.85)
• Islam’s early expansion produced multiple distinct subcivilizations across three continents #expands (0.80) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 124
• Islam’s historical adaptability across polities refutes inherent-essence claims #expands (0.75)