They are followers, like most Pakistanis, of the heterodox Barelvi school of Sunni Islam.

ECONOMIST: Pakistan

Yet beneath the formal structures of ecclesiastical authority, the expression of religious feeling was increasingly laicised and its doctrinal base became progressively more heterodox.

ECONOMIST: Medieval history

Since most of today's conventional wisdom was once considered heterodox and unreliable, veggie libel laws threaten to stifle any serious debate about food safety.

ECONOMIST: Food-disparagement laws

President Assad's Alawite sect is a heterodox offshoot of Shia Islam.

BBC: Map showing Akashat in Iraq and al-Waleed border crossing

It also took on a growing number of blasphemy cases filed against Ahmadis, a heterodox Muslim sect, and Christians: a single accusation could result in execution.

NEWYORKER: Days of Rage

He plays down its Middle Eastern origins and he stresses its diverse sources (Shia and Sufi as well as Sunni) as well as its heterodox innovations.

ECONOMIST: Jihadists

Al-Bayda is reportedly a predominantly Sunni Muslim village located in an area inhabited largely by members of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, a heterodox offshoot of Shia Islam.

BBC: Syria conflict: 'Dozens executed' in village

This is because Alawites, a heterodox offshoot of Shia Islam, are disproportionately represented in the civil service, the armed forces (especially the senior ranks) and thuggish militias sponsored by the regime.

ECONOMIST: Syria��s religious minorities

To help, Iran was training a militia "made up of Syrians, generally Shia and some Alawite", Gen Dempsey said, a reference to the Shia heterodox sect to which President Assad belongs.

BBC: US says Iran training Syrian militia

As much as hardliners in Tehran or Damascus enjoy seeing America bruised, the blinkered Sunni extremism that Iraq's jihadists increasingly display sits uncomfortably with both Iran's mullahs and Syria's Alawites, a heterodox minority to which the ruling Assad clan belongs.

ECONOMIST: Iraq