Word: sunnis
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...lights never went out, and the rumored orgy failed to materialize. Still, from the point of view Turkey's Sunni Muslim authorities, a hundred other heresies were committed on a recent evening at the Alevi Muslim prayer service in Istanbul's working-class Okmeydani neighborhood. Most noticeable were the girls without headscarves, flirting with boys in the open entrance hall. Then there was the laxity: With no call to prayer ringing from loudspeakers, worshipers straggled in late, while one of the religious leaders joked about having to compete with TV sitcoms. When the service did start, it was far from...
...their style of worship appears out of sync with that preferred by Turkey's conservative Sunni ruling party, consider the Alevis' politics: They are Muslims, but their doctrine is unflinchingly progressive, favoring abortion, gay rights, equal opportunity for women, and pacifism. They praise everyone from Buddhists to Baptists, and admit to liberal borrowing from many faiths. They don't believe in heaven or hell, don't perform the Hajj pilgrimage, and don't face Mecca when they pray. God, they like to say, resides in people, not in mountains or stones...
...series of bombings rocked predominantly Sunni areas of Baghdad over the weekend, threatening to draw al-Qaeda back into the capital's spotlight, just as Iraqi and American military commanders announced limited progress made on another fiery front line. For the last month, the attention of the Iraqi and American militaries shifted in large part from Sunni insurgents to the Shi'ite Mahdi Army. With daily car bombings and IEDs still lower in Sunni areas of the capital than they were a year ago, officials are hesitant to declare a return of al-Qaeda just yet. But with all eyes...
...some observers fear Sunni insurgents allied with al-Qaeda may seek to capitalize on the situation by wreaking havoc in other neighborhoods where U.S. and Iraqi forces are paying less attention. Last month, American troops found a letter in a farmhouse northwest of Baghdad, purportedly signed by an al-Qaeda operative, which called on insurgents to sow disunity among the nation's Sunni fighters who have begun working with the Americans...
This weekend's bombings may be the latest evidence of that effort. In the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Amhariya in north Baghdad, where Sunni Awakening groups allied with the U.S. have fought and largely quelled the presence of al-Qaeda over the past year, a suicide bomber blast tore through a meeting of the Awakening leadership Saturday night, injuring Abu al-Abed, the local head of the movement, residents said...