The Daily Orange

I would like to respond to one part of the article as I find it extremely misleading - specifically the points made about Sufism by the writer and Pr. Bashiriyeh. I greatly respect his personal experience and his teaching and understand ans support his struggle, but would like nevertheless to clarify some of the misconceptions about Sufism that this part of the article exemplifies.
The author states that "Bashiriyeh comes from a Sufi family, a small religious sect of Islam known for its mystic practices. He credits some of his liberal ideas to the influence Sufism had on him."Sufis don't take the so-called appearances of religion seriously, like praying and fasting" he said. "But they regard the inner-most, the internal message of religion more important. Because Sufism is a liberal interpretation of Islam, it is based on toleration and accepting other people's points of view, and it is a very a-political type of sect.'"

There are several things that I find highly problematic in this statement. First, Sufism is not a sect. Sufism indeed is a contested subject. As a variegated set of spiritual exercises and teachings about spiritual and ethical ideals towards cultivating a spiritual self, Sufis represent a great variety of individual experiences both historically and contemporary in various geographic locations and on the web and thus cannot be talked about as a sect. Their sheer diversity and magnitude of numbers makes such a definition obsolete.

Additionally, many devotees and masters in fact emphasize the importance of al-Shari'ah and ritual practices as a first and necessary step in the process of cultivation of a spiritual self towards realization of the Divine Love. Some of the master historically were important figures in various schools of jurisprudence. Thus it is inaccurate to talk about Sufis as not caring about fasting or prayer or "appearances of religion". Here the Professor seem to map his own experiences on a vary larger number of Muslims and their variegated experiences of the Divine Union. In fact fasting, or limiting one's intake of food, is an important technique in a set of spiritual exercises talked about in various Sufi manuals and individual experiences of some tariqa (order, brotherhood) members.

Finally, I take a serious point with the claim that Sufism and Sufism are "a very a-political type of sect." Let me provide a couple of examples of how political the life of Sufis was/is/might be. For instance, Bektashi order was suppressed by the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II b/c seen as a threat to his political power. Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (now a transnational Islamic/ist movement) (al-ikhw?n al-muslim?n) focused on social and moral reform rooted in Islam. Hasan al-Banna (the founder) defined the Brotherhood as "a salafiya message, a Sunni way, a sufi truth, a political organization, an athletic group, a scientific and cultural union, an economic enterprise and a social idea." And the Brotherhood continues to be critically important politically and socially in the lives of great number of people in several countries not only Egypt. (There are of course famous cases of Sufis involvement in anti-colonial struggle in Algeria and Morocco). Naqshbandi tariqa in Ichkeria and shaykh Shamil were very active members of jihad against Russian Imperial forces in 1834-59. The two wars at the end of the 20th beginning of the 21st centuries between Russia and Chechnya (Ichkeria) also witnessed active participation of some sheykhs and tariqas. Sufism in Dagestan at the beginning of the 21st century has also been active politically as a power struggle between shaykh Nazim and his followers and shaykh Said Afendi had important political ramifications. These shaykhs and their followers were involved in politics through their representatives in local administration. Said Afendi's followers penetrated the political structures thus incorporating these Sufi shaykhs and their followers within the corrupt and semi-criminal state system. Finally, totalitarian and criminal government of Uzbekistan (Central Asia) is actively promoting Sufism as "safe Islam" - so we are talking about emerging form of "state Sufism." There are very many Sufis and tariqas in the country that are opposed to this deployment of spiritual teachings and practices by the criminal government of Uzbekistan intolerant of any opposition - religious or secular.
These are but some examples. There are very many others. Indeed, Daily Orange needs to research any subject written about in a nuanced and detailed matter as to help the faculty to teach about Islam and Sufism against stereotypes and simplistic generalizations and not to reiterate these. Respectfully, Svetlana Peshkova