10.13.08
Alert: new blog foreign policy on sufism
The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony (Hardcover)
by Stephen Schwartz
I just came across this new book on sufism. Readers of this blog might be aware of a series of seemingly inflammatory or off-the-wall posts on the subject, with diatribes against ‘sufi hyenas’, and sundry potshots at the whole ism. These remarks were designed ‘silly’, so that anyone who wasn’t involved with the ‘problem’ would disregard them as springing from a madman, but as a warning for those entangled in sufisitic confusions who might get what was indicated (sillykitty a frequent commenter here responded at once). But even that safety valve was inadequate, and I am not in any case so anthropologically naive or Islamophobic as to denigrate sufism for reasons of ethnic prejudice. So one needs to rethink such a flagrant botch of public relations. My profound apologies, sahibs, as I bow stepping backwards on the way to skipping town, etc…
Reason: and it’s not funny: as I warned with my outbursts, sufis are by and large good and wholesome people, exemplars of pious devotion. Yet they are repeatedly subject to massacres. And this has been documented in some recent and desperate examples by the author of this book, which is unnerving for a critic of sufism: a recent massacre in Iraq which you have read about in the Iraq news under another label was in reality a sufi massacre.
So, having made my point, it is time to adopt a new approach to issue of sufism lest the unlucky day come when a Wahabi reads this blog and takes matters into his own hands. I think the danger non-existent, but our previous approach here needs to be phased out. The solution is simple: we need two words: sufism, among adherents to the Islamic faith, and the ragtag wild goose chase of Western New Agers, in some phantom of sufism. I tried to make clear I was referring to the latter, by and large. In fact, Westerners know very little about Islamic sufism, and routinely miscompute what they are dealing with. So, on one level, one can only welcome attempts like this book to recount the history of sufism. We need to have a good on the ground picture of what sufism is in Islamic terms.
There could be problems with this book. For all we know this is the state department trying to promote sufism as strategy in the war on terror (see the Amazon review, btw).
That said, it is not hard to restate the problems I see in sufistic studies in another language or style. Frankly, I don’t recommend a ‘sufi’ path for Westerners, which is not to say you can’t safely study the subject to whatever depth you wish, as one of the great spiritual movements in world history. But if you wish to adopt a ‘sufi path’ or get ambitious as a disguised Faust to penetrate its occult labyrinth, then you will enter a casino where the game is rigged and you will get nowhere. It is my feeling the legacy of sufism has become in many cases corrupt, or else out of tune with the basic liberal assumptions of Westerners, whatever their enthusiasm about entering a new and different world. Remember that you surrender your ‘rights’ when you enter that world. Everything after that is what you get as your just desserts after your ‘last decision’.
We just don’t live in the world of medieval Islam, so the transplant is not likely to take, after several generations of New Age experimentation.
History is on the move, and as sufis themselves have often said, the ‘path’ is reborn ‘from beyond time’.
From Publishers Weekly
Schwartz, a journalist and convert to Islam, offers Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, as an aid to the United States’ efforts to fight extremism. He provides an incomparable history of Sufism, covering in one short book all the major Sufi saints, schools, and the persecution of Sufis by Wahhabis. Deeply anti-Wahhabi, Schwartz encourages U.S. policymakers to ally with Sufis to undermine the Wahhabi influence. Schwartz believes the Wahhabi philosophy, which is literal and extreme in its interpretation of the Islamic faith, to be the motivation behind Muslim terrorism, with Wahhabi Saudis providing the financing. Wahhabis abhor Sufis for centuries-old traditions they label as idolatrous. Schwartz critiques the Western media for inaccurately dismissing Wahhabi attacks on Sufis, including the insurgency in Iraq, as Sunni-Shia disputes. In reality, Schwartz argues, they are part of the centuries-long Wahhabi campaign to destroy Sufism and moderate Islam. Schwartz’s opinion—that Sufis are the natural allies of the U.S. in the ongoing war on terror—is well presented and worth considering. (Sept. 16) “”
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
Review
Advance Praise for The Other Islam
Stephen Schwartz is internationally known as a serious student of Islam and its mysticism and as a special friend of the Bektashi Sufi order. The Other Islam is an important work that will, I sincerely hope, open the minds of non-Muslims as well as Muslims to the heritage and present reality of spiritual Islam. Let this book help spread the message and enlightenment of Hajji Bektash Veli throughout the world. —H.E. Hajji Dedebaba Reshat Bardhi, World Supreme Head of the Bektashi community
The Other Islam is more than an engaging introduction to Sufism in full. Stephen Schwartz has also sketched a suggestive roadmap for the kind of inter-religious dialogue that can move the world beyond the clash of civilizations to a mutually enriching encounter of noble religious traditions. Schwartz’s Sufi-inspired conviction that it is, finally, God’s world, not one in which nihilism married to distorted monotheism will have the final word, can and should be embraced by serious Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. —George S. Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, and biographer of Pope John Paul II
The Other Islam presents a different side of the Muslim world and Islam, at a time when Islam is identified in the West with militancy, violence, radicalism, and terrorism. Stephen Schwartz gives readers a good picture of how we should look at Islam’s full spectrum of doctrines and interpretations, and understand that Jihad can be interpreted and implemented by peaceful and spiritual ways. His contribution to the understanding of the other dimensions of this worldwide religion and culture, especially now, is very significant. We should all wish for a greater role for the various Sufi orders in the socio-political culture of the Muslim world. —Reuven Paz, Director, Project for the Research of Islamist Movements (PRISM) of The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel