'the Ethiopians'), also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (Arabic: جمعية المشاريع الخيرية الإسلامية, Jamʿīyah al-Mashārīʿ al-Khayrīyah al-ʾIslāmīyah, AICP)[1] is a Sufi religious movement and, in Lebanon, political party, which was founded in the mid-1980s.

[4][7] The AICP was founded in the 1930s by Ahmad al-Ajuz[8] and arrived in Lebanon in the 1950s, where "they blended Sunni and Shia theology with Sufi spiritualism into a doctrinal eclecticism that preached nonviolence and political quietism.

[3] Al-Ahbash was founded in the suburb of Bourj Abu Haidar, in West Beirut, as a small philanthropic and spiritualist movement among the Sunni lower classes.

[13][14][15] Their growth was also aided by the forcible seizure and control of many prominent mosques in West Beirut in the early 1980s, despite the protests of Dar al-Fatwa (the official body for Lebanon's Sunni Muslims).

[1] Several public figures became Ahbash members when it emerged in France beginning in 1991, such as rapper Kery James or Abd Samad Moussaoui.

[16] On 31 August 1995, members of a Salafi jihadi group called "Osbat al-Ansar" killed the leader of Al-Ahbash, Sheikh Nizar Halabi,[17][3][18] who was reportedly being groomed by the Syrians to become Lebanon's Grand Mufti.

[21] In Canada and the United States, al-Ahbash followers pray using a southeastern qibla,[22] in contrast to most Muslims in the region, who face the northeast in their mosques.

[3][8][9][30][31] Although not explicitly stated, Sufism plays also an important role in al-Ahbash's doctrine as demonstrated by the practice of several Sufi traditions such as the ziyarat (pilgrimage), mystical dancing sessions, use of musical bands in religious ceremonies,[32] and the support of three tariqas.

"[1][28][29] This is a highly controversial point of view within Islam which is not fully compatible with the consensus of Sunnis, and Wahhabis accuse Ahbash of doubt regarding the origin of the Qur'an.

According to Wahhabi texts, this means that he literally sat on his throne; however, according to Shaykh Habashi, copying the Mu'tazila school of thought, it meant that he took control of the world.

[38][40] According to Tariq Ramadan, Al-Ahbash "adherents carry on a permanent double discourse: to Western questioners, they claim to support the emancipation of women and laicism to oppose the "fundamentalists" (all the issues they know are sensitive and useful for getting them recognized).

[46] Some of these fatwas have drawn significant controversy, including rulings that permit transactions involving interest with non-Muslims, the permissibility of intermingling between genders, and allowing prayer in a state of impurity under certain circumstances.

[8][9] The AICP runs a network of Islamic schools in affiliation with Al-Azhar according to Kabha and Erlich[45] although a range of scholars from the latter institution, including previous Presidents and Ali Gomaa, the former Grand Mufti of Egypt, have described the Al-Ahbash movement as deviant and unorthodox in their edicts or Fatwas (an official statement or order from an Islamic religious leader),[50][51][52] and members of the movement were arrested "attempting to spread their beliefs on the campuses of Al-Azhar University" under the Egyptian penal code.

[52] In 2011, the Australian National Imams Council accused the Muslim Community Radio Incorporated as being associated with Al-Ahbash, which they described as a fringe cult organisation and violent, and made public announcement for government officials not to renew its broadcasting license.

[54] In 2006, the Imam of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney, Taj El-Din Hilaly, threatened to back out of the Howard government's, Muslim Community Reference Group because of the inclusion of Dr. Mustapha Kara-Ali, who was affiliated with Al-Ahbash.

The fighting was started due to the brotherhood believing that Jordan's Ministry of Religious Endowments were giving precedence to Al-Ahbash members being allowed to teach in mosques from which they themselves were banned.