Recently in Sufis Category

Actually, oddly enough, it was Sunni Muslim "hardliners" who did the deed, as they consider Sufis heretical. And Jihad Watch reader Maxwell commented: "Why wasn't there a Rachel Corrie to stop the bulldozer?"

"Sufi shrines attacked 'by Islamist hardliners' in Libya," from Malta Today, August 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Sufi Muslim shrine in the Libyan capital partly destroyed following a series of attacks blamed on ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists.

People in Tripoli saw bulldozers destroy part of the al-Shaab al-Dahmani mosque.

A shrine in the Libyan capital Tripoli venerating a Sufi Muslim saint has been partly destroyed - the latest in a series of attacks blamed on ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists.

Tripoli residents said men with bulldozers attacked the shrine of al-Shaab al-Dahmani, unimpeded by police.

The attack came a day after hardliners were accused of damaging the tomb of a Sufi scholar in the city of Zlitan.

Hardline Salafists regard the shrines as idolatrous.

On Friday, a group attacked the tomb of 15th-Century scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar in Zlitan, about 160km south-east of Tripoli.

Video footage showed chunks of masonry littering the floor, bullet holes pockmarking the walls and ornate Islamic tiling destroyed.

People in Tripoli say they saw bulldozers destroy part of the al-Shaab al-Dahmani mosque and Sufi shrine.

The destruction in Zlitan follows two days of clashes between rival local tribes which left at least three people dead.

Libya's Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur tweeted: "The destruction of shrines and mosques is a crime. Those who commit these crimes will be held responsible."

In November last year, the bodies of two Muslim clerics were removed from the Sidi Nasr shrine and mosque in Tripoli and reburied according to the principles of the hardline Wahabi school of Islam.

There has recently been an international outcry over the destruction of centuries-old shrines in Timbuktu, Mali.

The Sufi sites were attacked by the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine group which seized the city in April.....

The Taliban consider worship at Sufi shrines to be illegitimate. This is how they make their point. "Terror strikes mosque at Friday prayers; 10 worshippers killed," from the Economic Times, March 4 (thanks to Mijanur):

PESHAWAR: Ten worshippers, including a child, were killed and 30 others injured when a powerful bomb blast ripped through a mosque within a Sufi shrine at Nowshera in northwest Pakistan today.

The explosion targeted the mosque inside Akhun Punjo Baba mazar (shrine) in Akbarpura area of Nowshera, about 15 km from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital Peshawar.

Scores of people were offering Friday prayers at the mosque while hundreds had gathered to take food from a 'langar' or community kitchen.

Ten worshippers, including a child, were killed, police said.

At least 30 others were injured and the condition of eight was described by officials as serious....

Fazal Diyan, a witness, told Geo News channel that the blast occurred just after the prayers ended.

"The blast occurred within the mosque," he said. He estimated that over 1,000 people were present in the shrine. No group claimed responsibility for the blast.

The explosion was heard from several kilometres away. Reports said the blast was caused by a remote controlled bomb hidden in a cupboard within the mosque....

The Pakistani Taliban are opposed to the practice of worshipping at Sufi shrines and consider it "un-Islamic".

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for several recent attacks on Sufi shrines in cities across Pakistan, including Lahore and Karachi.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bomb blast in the mosque.

In a message,Zardari described the attack as an "abhorrent act" and said its perpetrators were the enemies of Islam....

It wasn't Islamophobes, it was Islamic jihadists. But given the amount of attention the former group receives from the mainstream media and putatively moderate Islamic advocacy groups, as opposed to the attention the latter group receives from the media and the "moderates," one may be forgiven for assuming. "Bomb kills 5 people at Sufi shrine in Pakistan," by Khalid Tanveer for Associated Press, October 24 (thanks to Twostellas):

PAKPATTAN, Pakistan -- A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded at the gate of a famous Sufi shrine in central Pakistan during morning prayers Monday, killing at least five people, officials said.

The blast at the Farid Shakar Ganj shrine in Punjab province was the latest in a string of attacks targeting Sufi sites in Pakistan. Islamist militants often target Sufis, whose mystical practices clash with their hardline interpretation of Islam.

The dead from Monday's blast included at least one woman, said Maher Aslam Hayat, a senior government official in the town of Pakpattan where the shrine is located. At least 13 others were wounded in the explosion, he said.

The bombing significantly damaged nearly a dozen shops on either side of the street outside the shrine, leaving large piles of rubble and broken wood. Blood stained the ground and the wall of one of the damaged shops.

Irshad Ali, the owner of a nearby shop that sells beads, rushed to the site after hearing the explosion at around 6:20 a.m. local time....

The motor bike was parked near a group of people eating breakfast at a stall outside the shrine. They were among those killed and wounded in the blast, said Ali, the shopkeeper.

He said a security camera used to monitor the gate was removed a few days ago without explanation.

After the attack, a top Sufi scholar, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the Sufi population. Pakistan is 95 percent Muslim, and the majority practice Sufi-influenced Islam.

"Our rulers are too busy serving foreign masters and have not prioritized protecting the people and sacred places from terrorists," said Rehman.

Earlier this month, two suspected suicide bombers attacked a beloved Sufi shrine in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, killing at least eight people and wounding 65 others.

A suicide attack in July killed 47 people at the nation's most revered Sufi shrine, Data Darbar in the eastern city of Lahore. That attack infuriated many Pakistanis, who saw it as an unjustified assault on peaceful civilians....

Contrary to his claims of moderation, the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the mega-mosque initiative, is an open advocate for Sharia, and calls for restrictions on the freedom of speech in his book What's Right with Islam. He has (like CAIR) refused to denounce Hamas. He has lied about his commitment to religious dialogue. He has lied about whether the Islamic center planned for the Ground Zero site will contain a mosque or not. And he has lied about whether or not the project is getting foreign funding. He is part of a group that helped fund the jihad flotilla against Israel.

But never mind all that! He's a Sufi!

"The Muslims in the Middle," by William Dalrymple in the New York Times, August 16 (thanks to Ralph):

[...] Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative is one of America's leading thinkers of Sufism, the mystical form of Islam, which in terms of goals and outlook couldn't be farther from the violent Wahhabism of the jihadists. His videos and sermons preach love, the remembrance of God (or "zikr") and reconciliation. His slightly New Agey rhetoric makes him sound, for better or worse, like a Muslim Deepak Chopra. But in the eyes of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, he is an infidel-loving, grave-worshiping apostate; they no doubt regard him as a legitimate target for assassination.

Do they, now? Does William Dalrymple have any actual evidence of that, or is it just wishful thinking on his part? When Feisal Abdul Rauf goes on his State Department-sponsored tours of the Islamic world, does he have to travel with armed guards? Has he received specific threats?

For such moderate, pluralistic Sufi imams are the front line against the most violent forms of Islam. In the most radical parts of the Muslim world, Sufi leaders risk their lives for their tolerant beliefs, every bit as bravely as American troops on the ground in Baghdad and Kabul do. Sufism is the most pluralistic incarnation of Islam -- accessible to the learned and the ignorant, the faithful and nonbelievers -- and is thus a uniquely valuable bridge between East and West....

In reality, Sufis from al-Ghazali to the present day have taught the necessity of jihad warfare, and have participated in that warfare. And in January 2009, Iraqi representatives of the Naqshabandi Sufi order met with Khaled Mashaal of Hamas, praised his jihad, donated jewelry to him, and boasted of their own jihad attacks against Americans in Iraq.

But never mind all that. The Sufis are peaceful!

"Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain..." -- Qur'an 9:111

"Deadly blasts hit Sufi shrine in Lahore," from the BBC, July 1 (thanks to Satya):

Suicide bombers have launched a triple attack on a Sufi shrine in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

At least 35 people died in the blasts at the popular Data Darbar shrine late on Thursday evening, officials say.

At least 175 other people were hurt in the blasts, believed to be the first targeting a shrine in Lahore.

Thousands of people were visiting the shrine at the time, officials say. It holds the remains of a Sufi saint, Abul Hassan Ali Hajvery.

The shrine is visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year from both Sunni and Shia traditions of Islam.

Khusro Pervez, commissioner of Lahore said two of the attacks took place in the main courtyard and one in the lower level of the shrine.

The attacker struck in the underground area where visitors sleep and prepare themselves for prayer, he said. As people fled, a second bomber detonated his explosives in the upstairs area.

Officials say they believe the bombers used devices packed with ball-bearings to maximise the impact of their attack....

Feel the love.

Apostasy alert from Reuters:

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber blew himself up at a gathering of Sufi Muslims north of Baghdad, killing 10 people in the latest attack by Iraqi insurgents on religious sects they disapprove of, officials said on Friday.

The bomber detonated his explosives on Thursday evening in a house near the town of Balad as Sufis gathered for a religious ceremony, Interior Ministry officials said.

Sufis follow a form of Islamic mysticism that stresses the need for a personal experience of God. Some conservative Muslims consider them emotional or even heretical.

Sectarian tensions have long been building between Iraq's Shi'ite majority and the Sunni Arab minority that dominated during the rule of Saddam Hussein. But until Thursday's blast, Iraq's small Sufi community had been spared major attacks.

Religious strife in Iraq has been stoked by the killing of dozens of Shi'ite and Sunni clerics in recent months. A leading Sunni group has accused the militia of one of Iraq's main Shi'ite parties of being behind the killings of Sunni clerics, but other religious leaders have called for calm.

On Thursday evening, two gunmen shot dead Ali Abdul-Hussein, the imam of a Shi'ite mosque in the southern city of Basra, as he stood outside his house, police and relatives said.

In Kirkuk, where ethnic tensions have been building between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen who all lay claim to the strategic oil city, gunmen killed a leading Turkmen official in a drive-by shooting as he left Friday prayers, police said.

The victim, Brigadier General Sabah Qaratun, worked for Kirkuk's local government and was a member of a leading Turkmen party. Over the past month leading officials in all three ethnic communities have been assassinated in the city...

Since a new Shi'ite Islamist-led government was named on April 28, more than 800 Iraqis and 80 U.S. troops have been killed, making May the deadliest month since January...