Islam in Syria comprises 87% of the total population. Sunnis make up 74% of the total, mostly of Arab, Kurdish and Turkish ethnicities. Shia's make up the remaining 13%: Alawites are the predominant Shia group, followed by Twelvers and Ismailis. Sunnis are mainly of the Shafi'i madhhab with pockets of Hanafi and Hanbali. Several large Sufi orders are active in the country, including the Naqshbandi tariqa, and Qadiriyya. Although not traditionally considered as Muslims, the Druze make up 3% of the total population.
A new religious state-run channel Noor Al-Sham started broadcasting "to convey a broad and genuine understanding of Islam and its legal rules", according to SANA. On July 31, Syrian authorities announced the launch of the religious satellite channel "Noor al-Sham" . While other actions have been attempts by the Syrian gvernment to appease its Muslim constituency, launching the satellite channel is the first time Syria has been directly promoting an Islam of the State.
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Famous quotes containing the words islam in, islam and/or syria:
“The exact objectives of Islam Inc. are obscure. Needless to say everyone involved has a different angle, and they all intend to cross each other up somewhere along the line.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“...that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”
—Bible: Hebrew, 2 Kings 5:8.
Elijah to the king of Israel who has received a letter from the king of Syria looking for someone to cure his commander of leprosy.