Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

is the state religion in Bahrain

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

where nearly all citizens are Muslims, However, due to an influx of immigrants and guest workers from non-Muslim countries, such as India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, the overall percentage of Muslims in the country has declined since the late 20th century. According to the CIA's World Factbook

The World Factbook

The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official paper copy version is available from the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office...

, the country's 2001 census indicate that 81.2% of Bahrain's population was Muslim (Shi'a and Sunni). Although no precise figures are available, Shia Muslims make up approximately two-thirds of total Muslims population.

Prior to Islam, the inhabitants of Qatar

Qatar

Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

 and Bahrain practiced Arabian paganism, worshipping gods like Awal

Awal

Awal is the ancient name of Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf. The name Awal had remained in use, probably for eight centuries. Awal was derived from the name of a god that used to be worshiped by the inhabitants of the islands before the advent of Islam. Awal resembled the head of an...

. Islam swept the entire Arabian region in the 7th century. The Prophet Muhammad sent his first envoy Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami

Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami

Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami was an envoy sent by the Muslim prophet Muhammad in the 7th century AD, to spread the message of Islam to the region that is now Bahrain and Qatar....

 to Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi

Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi

Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi was the ruler of Bahrain and Qatar during the age of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In the 7th century AD, when Muhammad and his companions started preaching Islam throughout the world, the message of Islam was sent by Muhammad to Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi.Prior to Islam,...

, the ruler of the historical region of Bahrain

Bahrain (historical region)

Bahrain is a historical region in eastern Arabia that was known as the Province of Bahrain until the 16th Century. It stretched from the south of Basra along the Persian Gulf coast and included the regions of Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, Qatar, and the Awal Islands, now known as Bahrain. The name...

, which extended the coast from Kuwait

Kuwait

The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

 to the south of Qatar including Al-Hasa

Al-Hasa

Al-Ahsa is the largest governorate in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, named after Al-Ahsa oasis. The name Al-Ahsa is also given to the biggest city in the region, Hofuf. In classic Arabic, Ahsa means the sound of water underground. It has one of the largest oases in the world with Date Palms of...

, Qatif

Qatif

Qatif or Al-Qatif is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the west...

, and the Bahrain Islands, in the year 628 AD, inviting him to Islam. Munzir announced his conversion to Islam and all the Arab inhabitants of Bahrain and Qatar including some Persians

Persian people

The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...

 living in Qatar also became Muslim, heralding the beginning of the Islamic era in Bahrain. They turned Bahrain into the strongest state in the Persian Gulf and possibly, wider Middle East. They raided Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

 and in 930 sacked Mecca and Medina, desecrating the Zamzam Well

Zamzam Well

The Well of Zamzam is a well located within the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, east of the Kaaba, the holiest place in Islam...

 with the bodies of Hajj

Hajj

The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...

 pilgrim and taking the Black Stone

Black Stone

The Black Stone is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient stone building towards which Muslims pray, in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic, which according to Muslim tradition dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.The...

 with them back to Bahrain where it remained for twenty years. The Qarmatians

Qarmatians

The Qarmatians were a Shi'a Ismaili group centered in eastern Arabia, where they attempted to established a utopian republic in 899 CE. They are most famed for their revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate...

 were eventually defeated by their Ismaili

Ismaili

' is a branch of Shia Islam. It is the second largest branch of Shia Islam, after the Twelvers...

 counterparts, the Abbasids in 976 and afterwards their power waned.

The defeat of the Qarmatian state saw the gradual wane of their revolutionary brand of Ismaili Islam. Instead, under a process encouraged by Sunni rulers over the next four hundred years, Twelver Shia Islam became entrenched. According to historian Juan Cole

Juan Cole

John Ricardo I. "Juan" Cole is an American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. As a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, he has appeared in print and on...

, Sunnis favoured the quietist Twelver branch of Shi'ism over the Qarmatians and promoted its development in Bahrain. In the 13th Century, there arose what was termed the 'Bahrain School', which integrated themes of philosophy and mysticism into orthodox Twelver practise. The school produced theologians such as Sheikh Kamal al-Din Ibn Sa’adah al Bahrani (d. 1242), Sheikh Jamal al-Din ‘Ali ibn Sulayman al-Bahrani (d. 1271), and perhaps most famously Sheikh Maitham Al Bahrani

Maitham Al Bahrani

Sheikh Maytham bin Ali Al Bahrani was a leading 13th Century Twelver Shi'a Islamic theologian who lived in Bahrain. Al Bahrani wrote on Twelver doctrine, affirmed free will, the infallibility of prophets and imams, the appointed imamate of `Ali, and the occultation of the Twelfth Imam...

 (d. 1280).

Islam in Bahrain today

The Al Khalifa

Al Khalifa

The Al Khalifa family is the ruling family of Bahrain. The Al Khalifa profess Sunni Islam and belong to the Anizah tribe that migrated from Najd to Kuwait in the early 18th century. They are also from the Utub tribe...

 ruling family and its supporting tribes adhere to the Maliki

Maliki

The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...

 school of Islamic jurisprudence, while the Huwala

Huwala

The Huwala meaning "Those that have changed or moved". Originally the "Huwala" word is Arabic, but since Persian does not contain the pharyngeal fricative "ح" present in Arabic, it pronounced it Huwala...

 Sunnis follow the Shafi'i

Shafi'i

The Shafi'i madhhab is one of the schools of fiqh, or religious law, within the Sunni branch of Islam. The Shafi'i school of fiqh is named after Imām ash-Shafi'i.-Principles:...

 school. There is also a large population of the South Asian Sunni Muslim residents who follow the Hanafi

Hanafi

The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...

 school and also some following the Shia Jafari school.

The country observes the Muslim feasts of Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr, the Prophet Muhammad's birthday (Mawlid

Mawlid

Mawlid or sometimes ميلاد , mīlād is a term used to refer to the observance of the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which occurs in Rabi' al-awwal,...

), and the Islamic New Year as national holidays.

Political liberalisation under King Hamad has seen Islamist parties contest Bahrain's elections

Elections in Bahrain

The National Assembly is bicameral with the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, having 40 members elected in single-seat constituencies for a four year term. The upper house, the Shura Council, has 40 members appointed by the King of Bahrain, with the stated aim of giving a voice to minority...

 and become a dominant force in parliament

Council of Representatives of Bahrain

The Council of Representatives , sometimes translated as the "Chamber of Deputies", is the name given to the lower house of the Bahraini National Assembly, the main legislative body of Bahrain....

. Sunni Islamist parties, the salafist Asalah and the Muslim Brotherhood

Muslim Brotherhood

The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

 affiliated Al-Menbar Islamic Society

Al-Menbar Islamic Society

Al Menbar National Islamic Society is the political wing of the Al Eslah Society in Bahrain, associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. A Sunni Islamist party, it is well organised through a network of mosques and seek to promote a conservative social agenda while not directly challenging the...

 are two of the largest parties in parliament, while the Shia Islamist Al Wefaq

Al Wefaq

Al Wefaq National Islamic Society , also known as the Islamic National Accord Association, is a Bahraini political society, and the largest party in the Bahrain, both in terms of its membership and its results at the polls...

 was expected to become the dominating party after 2006's general election having boycotted the 2002 poll. In the 2006 election

Bahraini parliamentary election, 2006

Bahrain held parliamentary elections on 25 November 2006 for the 40-seat lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, as well as municipal elections. There was a 72% turnout in the first round of polling...

 Wefaq received the backing of the Islamic Scholars Council which helped it seventeen of the eighteen seats it contested. In the 2010 election

Bahraini parliamentary election, 2010

A parliamentary election was held in Bahrain with the first-round on 23 October, and the second round on 30 October 2010. Al-Wefaq won a plurality...

, they increased their representation by one seat, winning all the constituencies they contested, to take 18 of the 40 available parliamentary seats.

External links

• Conspiring Against the Shia of Bahrain, Bahrain Center for Human Rights, October 2006
• Discrimination in Bahrain: The Unwritten Law, Bahrain Center for Human Rights, September 2003
• Video: Political Naturalization in Bahrain (2002)
• At least Bahrain is trying to address Sunni-Shiite divisions, Daily Star
  Daily Star (Lebanon)
  The Daily Star is a pan-Middle East English language newspaper edited in Beirut. It was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mrowa, the publisher of the Arabic daily Al-Hayat to serve the growing number of expatriates brought by the oil industry...
  
  editorial, 12 May 2006 (from Bahraini.tv website)