Sufism is different from other varieties of Islam purely in superficial ways. And that is because...

Islam, despite Muslims' claims to the contrary, is defined by its homicide--its mass killing is its 'blessed sacrament' so to speak. Catholics receive communion, Muslims incinerate or hack to death 'infidels' en masse under the guise of their being 'enemies of Islam' or 'tyrants.' Muslims virtually always find something 'spiritual' or inspirational about slaughtering human beings in the name of al-lah.

And, you will notice from this article just how eager the Sufis are to perform Islam's blessed sacrament in the name of al-lah on the battlefronts of Iraq.

Posted by: pythagoras at April 11, 2005 12:46 PM

I don't recall any good references on what Sufism is. I’ve seen it called an eclectic mixture of Islam and other religions – often those religions previously indigenous to conquered regions. One author called it an “umbrella” term for any such mixture. To make matters worse, there seems to be a deliberate obscuration done in the name that such a mystical practice can’t be put into words. Any suggested references on this practice?

Posted by: JasonP at April 11, 2005 1:22 PM

Tasawwuf/ Sufism

Posted by: Shukri at April 11, 2005 1:32 PM

Uh,oh....What is Mr. Stephen Schwartz, frequent contributor to FrontPage Magazine and Sufi convert, going to say about this report? He is very strong in his criticisms of Wahabbism and Saudi Arabia and offers Sufism as a pleasant alternative form of Islam. Maybe he had better do some rethinking way outside the Islamic box before his fellow Sufi travelers close ranks with their Sunni jihad brothers and turn on him.

Posted by: maryrose at April 11, 2005 8:23 PM

The very word "Sufi" conjures up for many, especially the young, images of the unworldly: the gentle mystic Rumi with his poetry, a bit more dignified and up-market from (Kahlil Gibran, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and Robert Fulghum's classic, "All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten" and other offerings on display in the Self Help/Feelgood/Timeless Spirituality section of your local bookstore, ust to the right of Wellness, and just to the left of Self-Esteem Studies.

But Sufis, as the article linked to shows, can emphasize both a "mystical" relation to God (whatever that means) and still promote the Jihad. Al-Ghazzali, the most famous theologian in Islamic history, was a Sufi who insisted that Muslims ought to participate in Jihad at least once a year. It is only the the innocent incoherence of his incoherent followers that causes them to ignore that fact, in their desire to make "mystical" Islam over into some kindof dreamy combination of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, a Hindu fakier in a trance, and St. Teresa of Avila attaining a "little death" in the arms of her Lord, or was that Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz? I forget.

For more on this matter, at Jihadwatch for March 31 on one thread you will find, among the postings, this excerpt re recent converts to "Sufi" Islam:

"...one might google the name "Leopold Weiss" who became a Muslim early in the 20th century, took the name "Muhammad Asad" and was made so much of by Muslims so desperately eager for converts slightly beyond the usual Richard Reid-Jose Padilla level of comprehension. That Asad is now a figure of fun (do check out his description of his "blonde, Nordic wife" etc., his friendship with assorted Saudis, his stint in New York as a diplomat, and all the rest of his life) might give those who have converted to Islam and are making the most of their quasi-celebratory status some pause.

Still, being Muhammad Asad brought him more psychic satisfaction than being plain old Leopold Weiss.

Possibly a deep-seated desire to stand out, to be someone special, to be an "interesting" human being, to be made more of than one would otherwise have any right to expect, to lay claim to just a bit more of the world's attention -- are what prompted a Weiss many decades ago, or a Schwartz more recently, which goes to prove the words of the old ballad: "Every white must have its black/And every sweet its sour/Thus learned the Lady Christabel/In an untimely hour."

Look high or look low or look Trendelenburg in the Merck Manual, and still you will not find a remedy for this white-black mental oscillation, this pathological condition which is famously named here, for the first time, as the "Weiss-Schwartz Syndrome."

Sufism, whirling dervishes, and all the mysteries of Mevlevistan beckon. Who, on a Spiritual Search, could resist? And who cares if along with this "mystical" version of Islam the Jihad cannot be far behind.

Posted by: Hugh at April 2, 2005 09:15 PM (and slightly emended on April 10, 2005)

Posted by: Hugh at April 11, 2005 8:32 PM

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/004940.php

Posted by: hutchrun at April 12, 2005 12:20 AM

Or, is this is a fake group, trying to throw crap on the generally less "Islamic" branch of generally more skeptical Sufi thinkers?

From what I've read, some branches of 'Sufism' (from the Arabic word for "sackcloth", a poor monk's robe), through history, have been more like post-Enlightenment non-practicing 'christians' who looked into Taoism, mediation, etc. for new insights

In many ways, this type of Sufi had a bemused view of orthodoxy, Koranic or otherwise. More in the trend of humanistic zen buddhists than puritannical, misogynist wahhabis.

But they were thus persecuted by 'traditionalist fellow Muslims' for thinking of the Koran as poetry, not reality. And they learned to pretend to 'play along' -when it was needed to survive the murderous pogroms of the passing ayatollahs- but managed to retain a gently 'cynical' core. (Idries Shah's popularizations are an easy introduction to the central tendencies.)

How much of this 'mystical' Sufi sect survives, I can't tell.

Here's one link:

htt://www.sufimovement.org./index.html

And, whether any of them are in Iraq, there isn't much sign.

But, if they've degenerated into this kind of literalistic jihadism, they need to re-learn one of their old proverbs:

"Keep a green tree in your heart, and perhaps the singing bird will come."

(Keeping an AK-47 in your hands doesn't leave must room for nightingales.)

Posted by: BigSleep at April 12, 2005 2:56 AM

Sufi'ism got its good press because in the 1960's and '70's, American popular culture decided that doctrinal religion was bad, and mystical religion good. When I was being trained at the aptly named Foggy Bottom on Southeast Asian affairs, I was told how wonderful Monsoon Islam is, because it was Sufi-directed, and Sufis dialogue with Quakers. Never mind that Quakers are just incendiary Ranters and Levellers who got the worst in run-ins with Cromwell's Ironsides; while Sufis gave us the Jurementados our troops face in Mindanao ca. 1901, and the culture that continues to give the Philippines a headache.

It's also a load of fun to see a "liberated" Westerner who calls himself a "Buddhist" squirm when told that a woman who gets an abortion will be led around the 18th Hell in a portable stocks while the child she aborted tugs at her clothes (homegrown Chan--Zen's just the Japanese mispronunciation--that they don't teach you in Comparative Religion 101).

Posted by: Kepha at April 12, 2005 3:27 AM