Islam
85% of Kuwait's population is Muslim, of which 75%-80% is Sunni and 20%-25% is Shi'a. Some other minor Muslim sects do exist in Kuwait's society, but in very small or rare numbers. The Grand Mosque of Kuwait serves the needs of many of the Sunni Muslims and activities are also conducted for Muslim expatriates by foreign born scholars at the Grand Mosque, such as those of Imam Mohammed Daniel who conducts lectures in English
The majority of Kuwaiti nationals are Sunnis Muslims; the minority are Shi'a. Shia are a diverse group. Some are Arab, many the descendants of immigrants from Ash Sharqiyah (Eastern Province) in Saudi Arabia or from Bahrain.Families who moved from the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf to Iran, stayed awhile, and then returned. Others are of Iranian origin, who often speak Persian as well as Arabic at home and sometimes maintain business or family ties with Iranians across the Persian Gulf. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, this Shia community experienced a renewed sense of sectarian identification. The identification resulted from sympathy with their revolutionary coreligionists in Iran and from increasing government and social discrimination. During the 1980s, the tension between Sunnis and Shia, which had erupted occasionally in the past, became somewhat sharper.
Read more about this topic: Religion In Kuwait
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“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)
“Sooner or later we must absorb Islam if our own culture is not to die of anemia.”
—Basil Bunting (1900–1985)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)