A study of the Shafi’i Sunni intellectual currents of religion in the west of the country

Western Iran has had different groups and currents of thought and politics in its historical experience. The meaning of the western region of Iran in this treatise is the provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan. The majority of the people in these areas are Kurdish and Turkic-speaking, and due to their proximity to Turkey, Syria and Iraq and their ethnic ties with the border residents of neighboring countries, they have a combination of local and regional intellectual tendencies. Most Muslims in western Iran are Sunni Shafi’is. The purpose of this dissertation is to study the intellectual currents of the Sunni Shafi’is and religions in the west of the country, their relationship with religion, the influence of ethnicity on these currents and the role of social culture in creating these currents.

The present dissertation has achieved the following results by using descriptive-analytical method and relying on the historical sources of libraries and documents in this field, interviews and evaluating the opinions and ideas of Sunni Shafi’is and the religion of the west of the country. The Shafi’i Sunnis of this region are a combination of Sufi and ethnic currents that are also influenced by foreign political and social currents due to their connection to the border areas of Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Sufi sects such as the Naqshbandiyya sect and the Qaderiyya sect have a strong presence in the region and, due to their high influence, lead and manage many of the religious ideas of the people.

Proximity to neighboring countries has fueled extremist Islamist ideology as well as Salafism in the region in a way, some Sunni Shafi’is in the west of the country have turned to extremist groups such as ISIS.

In addition to the traditional institutional forms and local and regional networks, various branches of Sufism and mysticism, schools and other currents such as the Salafis, the Qur’anic school, the Jamaat Da’wah and Islah are also active in the western region of the country. As a result, we can speak of a kind of religious-ideological pluralism in the west of the country. This multiplicity has given rise to a variety of theoretical and practical conflicts and challenges.

Internal components, including ethnicity and religion, cultural poverty and education, urban poverty and marginalization, media propaganda, political and economic underdevelopment are effective in intensifying and expanding the activities of these currents within the country.