As part of a larger inter-disciplinary research project entitled Sectarianism in the Wake of the Arab Revolts (SWAR), the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University, Denmark, convened a one-day workshop last month on “Shi’a and Sunni-Islamism(s) in a sectarianized Middle East.” The workshop took its point of departure in the observation that the debates around “Islamism” have traditionally focused on Sunni Islamist movements with little attention paid to the differences and similarities between Sunni Islamists and Sh’ia Islamists. The workshop therefore sought to address some important questions such as whether or not we should distinguish between Sunni and Shia Islamism or is there enough of a family resemblance for them to be subsumed under one analytical category? What are the differences within Sunni Islamism and Shi’a Islamism? And how do Islamist movements fit into the rise of sectarian identity as a category of political relevance in the contemporary Middle East.