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[quote=jsteele]I have been repeating like a broken record -- and in some cases mocked for it -- that there is not a single "Islam" and no Islamic authority to determine what is Islam. I have also discussed this in the Political Forum (and, sadly, even the Website Feedback forum) in relation to IS and Wahhabi Islam. Here is an article that discusses this point much more effectively than I have been able:

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/which-islam

"Islam is not a sect or a schism and it is also not a religion with a well-defined hierarchy and priesthood. There is no religious capacity performed by the so-called clerics and Muftis in the Muslim world which can’t be performed by lay people. The Qur’an does not speak about a clerical establishment: that came much later and purely for political purposes in order to justify decisions and rule by caliphs (whose connections to Islam and its teachings varied widely from one person to another). Islam may not be as categorically judgmental as the Catholic faith or some Protestant sects."

"What Mohammed Ibn `Abdul-Wahab insisted upon – and what is followers today insist upon – is that men with the sword judge on behalf of God here on earth, and on all matters, small and big. This is where the Saudi Kingdom and ISIS fit. They are outside the boundaries of mainstream Islam in that they refuse to even concede that they speak as representatives of a sect. Wahhabis (of all stripes) protest to even the name of Wahhabis: we are only Muslims, they assert; i.e. they alone are Muslim and everyone else is a kafir who should be fought as ancient pagans at the time of Mohammad."

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