NYT: Sufis Under Attack as Sunni Rifts Widen

[DeepModem Mom]

Sufis Under Attack as Sunni Rifts Widen
By EDWARD WONG
Published: August 21, 2005


....Sufism, generally considered a branch of Sunni Islam, is divided into orders, the most famous being that of the Mevlevi, or whirling dervishes. Sufis seek, through dance, music, chanting and other intensely physical rituals, to transcend worldly existence and perceive the face of the divine. Their mysticism has contributed to their pacific reputation.

But in Iraq, no one is ever far removed from war. In a sign of the widening and increasingly complex rifts in Iraqi society, Sufis have suddenly found themselves the targets of attacks. Many Iraqis believe those responsible are probably fundamentalist Sunnis who view the Sufis as apostates, just one step removed from the Shiites.

Sheik Ali al-Faiz, a senior official at this Sufi shrine, or takia, rattled off a list of recent assaults - the leader of a takia in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi was abducted and killed this month; a bomb exploded in a takia in Kirkuk earlier this year; gunmen beat Sufi worshipers at a mosque in Ramadi in January; a bomb exploded in the kitchen of a takia in Ramadi last September and a bomb in April 2004 destroyed an entire takia in the same city.

The early attacks were frightening, but until this spring there had been few Sufi deaths. Then, on June 2, a suicide bomber rammed a minivan packed with explosives into a takia outside the town of Balad, 40 miles north of Baghdad, killing at least 8 people and wounding 12.

The attack took place in the middle of a ritual. The minivan hurtled through the front gate, then exploded when people ran toward it, said a neighboring farmer who gave his name as Abu Zakaria. "I hurried there with my brothers in my car," he said. "It was a mess of bodies. I carried bodies to the car without knowing whether they were dead or alive."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/international/middleeast/21sufis-web.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. oh no!

It seems whenever there is violence in the Muslim world, Sufis are persecuted. At least I know that the brothers and sisters and died did so while doing zkr (surely that is the ritual they spoke of, as it is the one thing every order does). That tekkas are being attacked is terrible. My heart goes out to them, for Sufis feel that all paths lead to God, and are people of tolerance and love.

[Orrin_73]

2. The problem is

that the wahhabi's hate sufism. I think that those attackers are wahhabi's.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. oh yeah

I figured that had to be the case. Sad, too, because the Muslims I know (Sufis and non-Sufis) have always been open and welcoming.

[IndianaGreen]

4. The Shias of Iran persecute the Bahais, another branch of Islam

Ironic, isn't it? A brutal secular tyrant like Saddam pretty much left the Iraqi religious minorities such as Christians and Jews pretty much alone. The successors to Saddam will not be as "tolerant" as Saddam was.

[Hardrada]

5. Tolerance and love

as though Shrub cares about that sort of thing. He wants the oil and beliefs don't, in the end, matter worth a damn.

[Agnomen]

7. June 2 was a Thursday - zikr night

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Yes

When I do zkr, I am in heaven. I know when my brothers and sisters died, they went straight to the arms of the Beloved.

Salaams to you. Are you a Sufi initiate? Not many know about Thursday night as being zkr night unless they are or they hang out around Sufis.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Not a Sufi, but just wanted to say that what you wrote about zkr...

was beautiful.

[Tin Man]

6. Good thing we jumped into the middle of all this

...is it too late to bring back Sadam?