The attack against Sufis
The famous Sufi dance.
One story from Somalia
"From men of peace, the Sufi clerics suddenly became men of war.
Their shrines were being destroyed. Their imams were being murdered. Their tolerant beliefs were under withering attack.
So the moderate Sufi scholars recently did what so many other men have chosen to do in anarchic Somalia: they picked up guns and entered the killing business, in this case to fight back against the Shabab, one of the most fearsome extremist Muslim groups in Africa." (NY Times)
and the other from Pakistan
"The blast in March was the most high-profile in a recent spate of attacks against Pakistan's homespun, tolerant brand of Islam by hard-liners trying to replace it with the more austere version espoused by the Taliban, al-Qaida and other Sunni extremist groups.
"This hurts deep in my heart," said Ihasan ul-Haq, as he looked through a rainstorm onto the ruins of the once ornate, whitewashed tomb on the outskirts of Peshawar, a main northwestern town coming under the influence of the extremists. "And to think they do this in the name of Islam."" (MSNBC)
Sufi is one major strand of Islam outside the more commonly known and much larger Sunni and Shiite. They are mainly located in Turkey, the steppes of Central Asia and Indonesia.
Sufi dance in front of the tomb of Rumi, a great classical Sufi poet
posted by Dody G. at 10:35 PM
3 Comments:
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6:18 PM
Happy to see a sufi post here- terrible that these circumstance are forcing even mystics to take arms.
A friend of mine who studies middle eastern history suggested that in the early expansionist period of Islam, the sufis were utilised heavily to psych up the troops into religious fervour- so maybe there is precedence for this turn to violence- but it seems to be so deeply against sufi writing popular in the west.
I might not agree that sufism is a strand or a sect, rather I think it is seen clear as an orientation that exists within both Shia and Sunni groups. I think of them as having a mystical orientation rather than a legalist (concerned with "right" behaviour) or scholastic orientation (concerned with "right" knowledge) - mystic in this sence meaning "right" internal or intimate connection with the divine. the world could use some more of that in spades..
peace
6:26 PM
I derive the distinction from how the label themselves (from the people that I met and know)
They always identify them as Sufi. Maybe it is used as a short cut as "I am a Sunni - Sufi dude", but I haven't see anyone tried that hard to detail their practice.
10:07 AM
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