(n.) Those following a particular leader or authority, or attached to a certain opinion; a company or set having a common belief or allegiance distinct from others; in religion, the believers in a particular creed, or upholders of a particular practice; especially, in modern times, a party dissenting from an established church; a denomination; in philosophy, the disciples of a particular master; a school; in society and the state, an order, rank, class, or party.
Example Sentences:
(1) Difficult to see how he could become Iraqi PM for a third term with rival sects and blocs strongly against him.
(2) Waco, Texas, will forever be known for the siege that began in February 1993 when agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided a compound owned by the Branch Davidian religious sect to investigate allegations of weapons hoarding.
(3) Iraq's beleaguered prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, no longer has the authority to unite the country's disparate sects.
(4) The retreat of government forces had left tens of thousands exposed to the savagery of Isis, especially those from the country's minorities, including Christians and members of the Yazidi sect.
(5) Members of the Ahmadiyya community, an Islamic sect, have faced persecution in other areas of Britain from some other Muslims who do not recognise them as fellow Muslims but Ahmedi said they had not had the same experience in Crawley – proof that it was a tolerant community.
(6) What always struck me even then as slightly odd was that, regardless of the political complexion of a sect, the behavioural patterns of its leaders were not so different.
(7) At least 100 Boko Haram militants killed by Cameroon army Read more Ibrahim Musa, a spokesman for the Shia Islamic Movement in Nigeria, said soldiers on Monday carried away about 200 bodies from around the home of the sect’s leader Ibraheem Zakzaky, who was himself badly wounded and whose whereabouts have not been disclosed by the authorities.
(8) In 1993, at the Branch Davidian religious compound outside Waco, Texas, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms didn’t wait for the sect leader, David Koresh, to leave before attempting to arrest him and got into a gun battle that claimed 10 victims and led to a disastrous 51-day siege culminating in dozens more deaths.
(9) In conclusion it is suggested that medicalization may be conductive to sect development, and that secularization and medicalization are compatible models of social change.
(10) Saudis and their Sunni Arab allies view Houthi fighters – who belong to the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam – as Iranian proxies and have accused Tehran of militarily backing them, a charge Iran vehemently denies.
(11) Coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia have been conducting a bombing campaign to try to force out rebels from the Houthi sect, who overran the country in March, and restore the previous government.
(12) Ms Williams's name will already be familiar to many gay rights campaigners courtesy of a memorable speech on same-sex relationships, in which she applauded Jamaica's criminalisation of what her sect considers a curable aberration, a diagnosis she did not hesitate to apply to Tom Daly.
(13) "In the Shia sect, for instance, the age of custody for boys is two; for girls it is seven," Jabbour says.
(14) In any period, however, there seem to have been marked individual and cultural differences in outlook; some of these differences are still evident today in the survival of belief in demonic possession in pentecostal sects.
(15) This is a party on its way to becoming a multinational libertarian sect, whose preoccupations are no longer those either of much of its electorate or of the business community – wrestling with how genuinely to innovate, invest and motivate workforces in a world of increasingly amoral, ownerless companies so beloved and promoted by the sect.
(16) Personally, I would rather live under a family than a sect."
(17) It was discovered in Hutterites, a reproductively isolated religious sect, and is also present in Australian aborigines and a sample of Chicago residents.
(18) Syria's uprising began with largely peaceful protests and has evolved into a civil war with sectarian overtones, pitting largely Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad's government, which is dominated by Alawites, a sect of Shia Islam.
(19) This is illustrated by the Schneerson family dynasty, which has led the Lubavich sect of ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews since its inception in the 18th century.
(20) While the beheading of hostages from the US, Britain and Japan drew condemnation from most religious sects within Islam , the gruesome images of the airman’s murder served as a unifying battlecry for Muslims across the world.