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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

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The notion that there is one Islam (with a capital I) — based upon the Qur'an, Sunna, Hadith, etc. — assumes that every Muslim believes in the same things and performs the same ceremonies and practices in a prescribed way.

However, across the Muslim world there is not one homogenous Islam; indeed, in Islam itself, there is no orthodoxy. Thus, the practices and beliefs of an Indonesian Muslim may differ quite dramatically from a Muslim in Morocco. These different sets of practices and beliefs, though falling under the larger title of Islam, would be better classified as different islams.

This distinction is important to remember when talking about Muslim societies in order to remember the heterogeneity of these cultures even if they all identify under Islam.