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All questions should be open to all opinion in spite of their doctrine/sect. What's going on now, is that if the "OP" asks for a specific "doctrine" viewpoint, all comments and answers opposing the desired doctrine/sect are removed.

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    if you want people to accept your suggestion you should at least try to provide some argument supporting it because right now all you are saying is that it should be allowed but not telling anybody how if the op asks for a specific doctrine viewpoint then comments and answers opposing it are useful to anybody. Oct 8, 2014 at 19:51
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    @ali.abdulaleem My question is clear and straightforward.
    – Omar
    Oct 8, 2014 at 20:00
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    So, my viewpoint is that: if you allow all sects to answer the questions, as a result, the readers can collate the viewpoints of different sects and choose the best one. Oct 9, 2014 at 8:51
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    @السید____علی open questions to all sects and let the questioner decide which answer answers his concerns best.
    – Omar
    Oct 9, 2014 at 9:05

2 Answers 2

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I think there are merits to your suggestion but the problem seems to be that we have not yet found a proper way of handling the innate pluralism of Islam.

We should note that the argument that a user expects only one answer holds only true when the questioner specifies his/her preferred school. And let's not forget that even within both Sunnism and Shiism there are different schools, difference in fatwas by scholars, etc. So the only way the answer can be really narrowed down to a single answer is specifying the school, the Juridical tradition (Ja'fari, Shafei, Hanbali, Salafi, not to mention modernist, etc) and the scholar according to which the questioner wants answer. But as our experience suggests, the average layman often doesn't care to specify these details and mostly maybe because of the fact that he is not even aware that answers can greatly vary depending on these factors.

So it is a difficult challenge to handle. On one had we have a very pluralistic religion called Islam, on the other there seems to be few Muslims who care, know or recognize the diversity of Islamic sects, jurisprudence schools and fatwas.

So a good policy could be either of these two:

  • prompt users to clearly specify their preferred sect, school and scholar;
  • allow answers from all mainstream perspectives.

The former will allow us to filter out the potentially unwanted answers; however the latter has a greater merit I believe other than just satisfying the questioner's immediate need: allowing the questioner and others to know about different views that exist on same questions about Islam. This will broaden their understanding of Islam and encourage critical and comparative study that helps to guide Muslims towards the best and most accurate interpretations/narratives of Islamic doctrine, law and history.

Let's not forget that even if one day we have true scholars on this site, we will still face the same challenge with diversity of views held by different Islamic traditions and scholars; and it seems unlikely that we will ever get the kind of user base that are interested in focused and research-showing questions that we want to see on this site, because a large number of questions will almost always come from the average Muslim layman who is usually not aware of the diversity and differences outside his/her limited community and its single dominant narrative.

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    IMHO, favorite school, favorite sect does not sound very right. Probably, "preferred" is a more appropriate word?
    – ozbek
    Oct 14, 2014 at 6:59
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    @shoerat, That's a good suggestion. I remember I was actually looking for a better word when writing that! Edited! Thanks
    – infatuated
    Oct 14, 2014 at 7:31
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That's how the site is supposed to work: If a user explicitly is asking for one particular thing, answers are supposed to give him that particular thing.

So if a user seeks, for example and for whatever reason, a Shi'ite perspective on a topic, then giving him something that is not actually a Shi'ite perspective on that topic does not answer his question. This includes but is hardly limited to:

  • Providing a Sunni perspective on the topic
  • Providing a perspective based on Shi'ite evidences that is not actually held by Shi'ites
  • Providing evidence that the Shi'ite perspective is invalid

Stack Exchange is designed to allow expert answers to questions. If a user asks a question that requires an answer from a Shi'ite expert, and you are not a Shi'ite expert, don't answer the question. There is no value to anyone to try to shoehorn your own expertise into a question that doesn't want it.

In other words, users who answer questions need to give the questioner what he actually wants; the onus is not on the questioner to ask uninteresting questions just so he can attract more answers he doesn't care about.

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    I disagree. You're fulfilling questioner's request and ignoring future visitors. Q&A should accommodate all opinions to serve widest segment possible.
    – Omar
    Oct 8, 2014 at 15:19
  • @Omar Future visitors who want one particular perspective also would not want to dredge through pages of things that are not that answer in order to find something useful. That's exactly the problem with existing forums that the Stack Exchange model was explicitly designed to avoid.
    – goldPseudo Mod
    Oct 8, 2014 at 15:24
  • If this is the case, then counterquestions are encouraged?
    – Omar
    Oct 8, 2014 at 15:27
  • @Omar Of course. If you have a question that isn't answered by an existing question, then ask a new question. But counterquestions still need to be focussed and answerable questions in their own right.
    – goldPseudo Mod
    Oct 8, 2014 at 15:28
  • I would post a question questioning an existing answer.
    – Omar
    Oct 8, 2014 at 15:30
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    What I find problematic is how do to judge whether a particular answer/comment belongs to sect X as requested by OP. Oct 9, 2014 at 9:00
  • @BleedingFingers In many cases, that's the sort of thing that needs domain expertise. Experts in the relevant tags, with sufficient rep, know best how to vote on and (when necessary) delete these posts.
    – goldPseudo Mod
    Oct 9, 2014 at 17:22

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