A Typology of Trends of Thought

The various tendencies we analyze here are evident throughout the world, in the West as well as in Muslim-majority countries. They exist, admittedly with circumstantial divergences, across the Sunni as well as the Shii tradition and they are more or less representative and entrenched depending on the continent, region, or country studied. The typology I propose is based on principles that are precise without being detailed and that do not aim to bring out the specificities of particular groups in particular locations. With this in mind, it will be useful to outline the method used to distinguish the trends.

Trends of Analysis

It is important to remember that, for these trends of thought as a whole, the points of reference are the same and that the essential principles that form the basis of the Muslim religion are, with rare exceptions, unanimously recognized. So, in this sense, as we have said, Islam is one and presents a body of opinion whose essential axes are identifiable and accepted by the various trends or schools of thought, in spite of their great diversity. To explain this diversity it is not enough simply to use the plural, as has been done in some recent studies: faced with the apparent impossibility of putting forward a legal, political, or ideological analysis, the matter is simplified by speaking of diverse “Islams.” The use of the plural, which is intended principally for clarification, is more problematic than truly practical: by signaling diversity, it blurs the reading of explicit points of convergence and, more important, says nothing about the exact and often precise areas of divergence of opinion. A phrase applied with the sole purpose of pointing out that there are divisions neither justifies nor explains their causes and expressions and indeed misleads the observer about the very nature of the various positions. This approach is therefore anything but scientific.

It is essential here to lay down a clear principle on the basis of which a study of the various tendencies may really make sense. If it is accepted unanimously that the scriptural points of reference for Islam are the Qur’an and the Sunna (these two fundamental sources are not disputed by any of the schools of thought), it seems legitimate to investigate the way in which the various trends actually make reference to these Texts. This approach, as we shall see, gives a clearer result because it investigates the attitudes that lie behind religious, social, and political expressions and actions. It does not cast doubt upon the fundamental adherence of one group or another to Islam but seeks to uncover their respective approaches to reading the sources: the status of the Text, the scope allowed for interpretation, the admissibility of a contextualized reading, the role of reason, and the strength of the literalist position are some of the factors that explain the various and differentiated approaches. Clearly, Islam is one, but its textual references allow plural readings (even if, in order to be recognized, they must respect certain normative criteria, as we have shown).

We cannot study here all the trends of thought one by one. They are many and are called by different names from one country to another, so that the same title may represent diametrically opposed tendencies depending on the continent in which the group is found. Each country would therefore require a different treatment, which would present a very complicated and daunting prospect. We shall therefore limit ourselves here to sketching the distinctive characteristics of specific broad tendencies represented across the world by groups that may have different names but that nevertheless, to a large extent, have adopted an identical reading of theTexts, along with the doctrinal and often social attitudes that follow as a consequence.