08.01.07
Whitehouse link, and Idries Shah
The post on Shaykhs is commented on by Dogberry, I will comment later.
Dogberry said,
August 1, 2007 at 6:28 am · Edit
Mr Whitehouse is also the author of this article (and countless others) on his main website:
http://spiritual-health.org/Sufi/Community/Spiritual-Abuse/hamzat.htm
I linked it the other day, in response to SK’s mind control concerns, but cannot now trace it here on Darwiniana, evidently because comments are not indexed.His comments here :
http://spiritual-health.org/Sufi/Community/Spiritual-Abuse/more.htm
on how Idries Shah manipulated Western perceptions of sufism are historically interesting, albeit biased as they represent rival sufisms.The aside on Idries Shah versus Rene Guenon reminded me that I once wrote to Shah (circa 1974), asking why sufi groups were always at each others’ throats - the traditionalist followers of the sufis Guenon and Schuon were at that time outspoken critics of Shah, for instance. I pointed out that Shah always claimed that sufism is a unity, and had written that even if one shaykh opposes another, the opposition is only apparent, not real, since their actions are coordinated on inner planes, whereas I could see no evidence of coordination in socially explicable rivalry (rivalry that has continued in many forms to the present day). He replied that the traditionalists were like Jehovah’s Witnesses, whereas his sufism was like the Church of England. I still marvel at the suave ineptness of that reply, from the self-proclaimed Grand Sheikh of all Sufism worldwide.