This book offers a reframing of sectarianism in Syria by shifting the focus away from the oft-invoked Sunni–Shi'i or Sunni–Alawite dichotomies and toward the complex and evolving rivalries within the Sunni majority itself.
Who Owns Sunnism? explores how the Assad regime-particularly under Bashar al-Assad-sought not only to repress Sunni dissent but to win over segments of the Sunni population by co-opting religious narratives and figures. In the wake of the 2011 uprising, a new array of Sunni actors emerged, each claiming to speak in the name of the community, and each vying for ideological and political dominance in a fragmented landscape.
Drawing on over 100 interviews and extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Rahaf Aldoughli traces how intra-Sunni divisions-between Muslim Brotherhood–aligned factions, Salafi-jihadist groups like HTS and the Nusra Front, and Sufi-inclined ulama-reshaped the meaning of authority, legitimacy, and representation within the Syrian Sunni community. With the decline of the Assad regime and the ascent of Sunni-led rebel governance in parts of Syria, these tensions did not dissipate; they deepened, producing new struggles over who has the right to define Sunnism in the absence of a central state.
This book complicates simplistic narratives of sectarian conflict by revealing the ideological rivalries, theological disputes, and political calculations that now define Sunni subjectivity in Syria. It also foregrounds the voices of ordinary Sunnis-those who refuse to be boxed into binaries, who critique the violence of both state and opposition elites, and who continue to imagine new ways of belonging. As one interviewee put it: “Just as some Alawites now realize the price they paid for defending a tyrant, some Sunnis will soon realize that their allegiance to new strongmen has brought neither justice nor freedom.”
Who Owns Sunnism? is a vital contribution to understanding the instrumentalization of sect, the fragmentation of religious authority, and the contested terrain of Sunni identity in post-2011 Syria.