Muslims, Sunni | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Sunni Islam is practiced by the majority (90 percent) of Muslims, with large communities in western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Caucasus, Central Asia, China, and Southeast Asia. The word "Sunni" derives from the Arabic word "Sunnah," which generally means "customary practices" and refers to the oral traditions (hadiths) of what the Prophet Muhammad said or did. Sunni Muslims regard these traditions and the Qur'an as forming the basis of their religious knowledge. The Sunnis are distinguished from the Shiʿites, the partisans of Muhammad's son-in-law, ʿAli.

The experience of Sunni Muslims in Asia during the modern period has largely depended on how these groups have responded to the twin forces of European colonial and Asian territorial expansion and the emergence of modernity. Each of these forces has influenced the organizational structure of Sunni communities, reshaped the theological goals of Sunni Islam, and influenced the role that Sunni Islam plays in modern national identities and political movements. The position of Sunni Muslim women in Asia varies according to several regional and political factors.

In western Asia, Sunni Muslims are predominantly Arab and live in Iraq, Israel, and the borders of former British Mandate Palestine (1923–1948), Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the states of the Persian Gulf region. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, some Arabs called for a revival of Sunni Islamic thought as a response to the penetration of European culture and its increasing political influence in the region. They advocated returning to the fundamental sources of their faith, the Qur'an and the early traditions, and abolishing popular religious practices, such as the ritual visitation to saints' tombs. This reform movement would inspire other Sunni communities throughout Asia, particularly those that came under European colonial rule.

After World War I, Britain and France occupied the region and founded many of the modern Arab nations, although these nations did not achieve independence until after World War II. Although many of these nations stress an Arab cultural identity, Islam continues to serve as a powerful idiom for nationalist rhetoric and as an alternative to state ideology, as the increasing influence of Islamic groups in contemporary politics attests. Whereas some nations, such as Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, have adopted secular penal and civilian legal codes to work alongside Islamic law, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait continue to impose strict versions of Islam in law and government.

Sunni Muslims form the majority of the population in Pakistan and Bangladesh and comprise a large minority in India. After the breakup of the Islamic Mughal empire and the imposition of British rule in India in the nineteenth century, Sunni theologians and intellectuals in India adopted the reform ideals emerging from the Arab lands, believing that religious revivalism could help their communities confront British colonialism.

Eventually, the British encouraged the Sunni Muslim community of India to identify itself as a group distinct from the larger Hindu population, which led to calls for the creation of a separate Muslim state. Pakistan emerged as a state in 1947 for the Muslims of India, and although it has remained heavily Islamic in national character, it is not officially a Muslim nation. The eastern part of Pakistan, Bangladesh, was established as a separate nation in 1972 and remains a secular nation more focused on national than Islamic identity. In India, communal hostilities continue to mar relations between Sunnis, Shiʿites, and Hindus.

Sunni Muslims in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and China live within the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as in Afghanistan and China. By the late nineteenth century, most Muslims in these regions had come under either Russian or Chinese rule. Because these areas are contiguous to the imperial homeland of Russia and China, a unique problem emerged; some Muslims became a minority population who had to defend against assimilation into the culture of the ruling powers.

The czarist Russian empire coopted local religious leaders like the ulama (scholars of Islam) to govern these areas, even though most Muslims favored the spiritual leadership of Sufis (Muslim mystics). Performing ritual pilgrimages and attending Sufi celebrations became expressions of Sunni Muslim opposition to Russian, and later Soviet, rule. In the post-Soviet era, Sunni Islamic groups compete for power with large non-Sunni populations, such as Russians, Shiʿites, Armenian Christians, and various Turkic groups.

Two groups represent the divergent experiences of Sunni Muslims in China. The Hui in Han Province speak Chinese but observe most Islamic practices, whereas nonassimilated Inner Asian people, such as the Kazakhs and the Uighurs, speak Turkic languages and maintain a distinctive non-Chinese identity.

In Malaya and Indonesia, Sunni Muslim populations faced the same difficulties that colonialism posed to Muslims in other parts of Asia. By the mid-nineteenth century, Holland and Britain had established their imperial rule in Southeast Asia. Islamic revivalism quickly emerged as a powerful ideological force against European colonialism, and by the 1920s the port towns of Java, Malaya, and Sumatra acted as centers of Islamic activism and reservoirs of Islamic modernist thought emanating from other parts of the Muslim world.

Indonesia achieved independence in 1945. Although not officially proclaimed an Islamic nation, it is nonetheless the world's most populous Islamic nation. The Ministry of Religion regulates Islamic education and courts. Malaya became independent in 1957; it maintains strong central control over the administration of religious affairs, a system introduced during British rule.

The position of Sunni Muslim women in modern Asian societies depends on such factors as the nations in which they reside, their socioeconomic positions, and the degree of formal education that they hold. Whereas women in Yemen and Afghanistan have difficulty pursuing activities outside the household, women in Jordan, Syria, and Pakistan remain active in the public sphere and have fought for political and legal changes, although the rise of militant and conservative Islamic groups hinders these advancements. Many women traditionally professed their faith by attending religious festivals, visiting the tombs of saints, and praying at shrines, although the imposition of modern state control over religious life has curtailed these practices.

Sunni Muslims have been forced to reformulate their beliefs to meet the challenges posed by the expansion of European and Asian nations. Religious revivalism evolved as a response to these challenges of the modern age, but the greatest legacy of this history may have been the control that hierarchical religious authorities (that is, ulama) and state forces acquired over religious affairs.

Ahmed, Laila. (1992) Women and Gender in Islam. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Lapidus, Ira. (1991) A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Madan, T., ed. (1976) Muslim Communities of South Asia. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.

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