Wow! Sharia is Islamic jurisprudence, and is more than just the Koran. There are other traditions incorporated in Islamic law, like the Sunnah of the Sunni Muslims, who are the great majority of Muslims. A minority of Muslims are Shia, but it so happens that a majority of the people of Iraq are Shia. I got headaches trying to figure out the differences between different Muslim traditions when I was working on my class on the Turks last year, and I decided to screw it and not put it in my class notes! Before I started to work on that class, I was only familiar with those words from the press in Iraq. For the record, most Turks are Sunni, but they do not have Sharia in Turkey as it's officially a secular state. The Wahhabists are followers of a Sunni reformer who worked with the House of Al-Saud in the eighteenth century, and continue to today. They base their entire legal code on Islamic or Arabic traditions. They have "religious police" that enforce very strict, conservative laws. They abolished changes that were made in Islam prior to the eighteenth cenury and went back to seventh-century practices and beliefs. They are Islamic "purists" and don't like to be called Wahhabists. Only their critics call them Wahhabists. Some other Islamic states are more moderate. They do not require women to veil in all Islamic states. In Kuwait, they recently increased political power for women, women are allowed to drive. Bahrain is actually pretty good as per women's rights are concerned but they did ban "The Passion", claiming that showing holy figures (Jesus is regarded as a holy figure in Islam but he's not considered God) that graphically, visually, is prohibited by Sharia. By the same token they don't have movie theatres in Saudi Arabia at all. I personally would not want to live in any of these countries! There are scads of Islamic sites, mostly Sunni, but I've hit a few Shia sites. I'm not sure this answers your question Scarletwine. I've got stuff floating around in my head getting ready to give the class on the Turks again this weekend.