Shepherds of Islam

Technically an offshoot of the broader Ashirra sect, the Shepherds of Islam are a group of Muslim Kindred dedicated to the preservation of their religion in the sacred place of its origination, the Holy Land. Although all Muslims are expected to feel likewise, Shepherds are separate and distinct from other Ashirra in that they consider themselves neither Sunni nor Shi’ite, but a third type of Muslim altogether. Whereas Sunni Muslims recognize the authority invested in each historically accepted caliph (starting with Abu Bakr) and the Shi’ites believe that Ali (being a blood relative) should have been the fi rst caliph, the Shepherds claim that the stewardship of Islam should have fallen to them alone. They believe that Allah himself, in His wisdom and compassion, chose them to be the deathless caretakers of the words of the last and greatest Prophet (peace be upon him). Islam, always a vibrant and living religion, would live on — could only live on — in those who had personally witnessed the Word and would always be around to relate it to others.

To the Shepherds of Islam, all the arguments that have arisen since, from the growing morass of interpretations of the Hadith to the discrepancies among so many bickering caliphs, could be answered simply by asking those who were there. To this end, the Shepherds strive to collect and maintain a comprehensive list of all those Kindred who endured through that special time in history. Shepherds call these Kindred “Witnesses” and strive to keep such individuals undead at all costs, even risking their own unlives to ensure that God’s plan for them is carried out. Whenever a new Witness is found, he is typically invited to join, thus becoming one of the “inner circle” of Shepherds. A great many mortal believers are employed in this endeavor, forming a fairly extensive network worldwide. Indeed, the faction’s great strength, if it can be said to have one, is its unwavering support among the mortal Muslims with whom it shares its duties.

On the face of things, the Shepherds are most actively engaged in battling the forces of polytheism in the Holy Land. Recently, countries such as Egypt have seen an explosion in nonmonotheistic thought and practice, a fact which greatly concerns the Shepherds. They know the evils of Set’s ministrations and they see similar evil in all those who would open their minds to the acceptance of false idols. Sadly, most Shepherds don’t realize that in their continuing efforts to bring monotheism to bear in the Middle East, they are probably doing more harm than good. Currently, their biggest concern comes not from the rise of Set but from the return of the other Egyptian polytheists. Shepherds have discovered new and emerging cults devoted to the worship of such longgone deities as Ra, Osiris, Isis, Thoth and Horus, and they have dedicated themselves to quelling these archaic uprisings before they grow strong enough to pose a threat to Islam.

History
The originator of the Shepherds movement, if it can be said to have been only one, was a hawkish Brujah (called mushakis in Arabic) named Khalid ibn Sahl, a contemporary of Suleiman ibn Abdullah, the Lasombra mullah of the Ashirra. In life, Ibn Sahl had been a warrior from the Arabian fringe who, in the nights following his rough Embrace, heeded the call of the fi rst vampiric imam. The Lasombra’s words had been intriguing enough, but when Ibn Sahl fi nally came face to face with the Prophet himself, it was a meeting that would forever alter the course of his accursed existence.

Ibn Sahl fought bravely and nobly alongside the Prophet’s armies in the early nights of Islam. He brought peace when peace was needed and returned with information critical to the cause under the direst of circumstances. The Brujah even took part in the pilgrimage to Mecca, along with the mullah himself and Tarique, the Nosferatu founder of the Hajj. What started as a personal rivalry with the Lasombra, however, grew into a full-fl edged dispute on June 8, 632, the night Muhammad died. Ibn Sahl believed that it was folly to place the successorship of Islam in the hands of a mortal. Mortals always died, and soon enough would come a time when a caliph who had never heard the word with his own ears would be the supreme religious authority for all Islam. Thus, he quietly took it upon himself to be the unliving steward of Islam for eternity.

These nights, the Shepherds are led (for all intents and purposes) by none other than Mahmoud ibn Khalid, Walid Ibn Sahl — the seventh-generation childe of Khalid ibn Sahl. Although his operations take him all over the Holy Land, Ibn Khalid’s base of operations remains in Arabia, where he is free to conduct sect affairs while simultaneously returning periodically to the desert wastes of Najd, where he routinely meditates upon the magnifi cence of his sire and of the cause that has given his damnable existence both hope and meaning for the last thousand years. Ibn Khalid bears the weight of his sire’s name with both modesty and grace, and has slowly but surely proven to his peers (as well as to himself) that he is truly his sire’s childe in every respect — a reputation in which he takes no small amount of pride.

Reference

 * Vampire The Masquerade - State of Grace, p. 102, 103