Recent headlines

These and further stories on the new Virtually Islamic blog:

 Sufism in Uzbekistan

Sufism in Uzbekistan discussed in great BBC programme:

'Honour Killing' video

'Honour killing' video shocks Syrians

Abu Qatada discussion

Trump and Far-Right

Trump and the far-right article by JM Berger

Mona Haydar profile

Mona Haydar profiled

The Karakaria in Algeria

alarabiya.net, The Karakaria in Algeria: Religious group or ‘foreign conspiracy’? " While the group itself is not new, its emergence in Algeria is. It all started when Musa Belghith, a young Algerian man from the coastal city of Mostaganem, announced on social media that he joined the Karakaria after seeing “the light” and being taught “divine secrets” by his sheikh, in reference to Mohamed Fawzi al-Karkari, the current leader of the group and who resides in the town of Temsamane in Morocco."

Little Chechnya on the Steppes

BBC Radio 4, Little Chechnya on the Steppes, "Award-winning travel writer Oliver Bullough journeys into the frozen heart of Central Asia to meet the 'White Hats'. This exiled community of Chechens survived everything that Stalin threw at them and now live an isolated and ascetic life on the steppes of Kazakhstan."

Shaykh Nazım al-Haqqani dies

Hurriyet Daily News, Islamic scholar Shaykh Nazım dies at the age of 92, 7 May 2014 "Influential Turkish Cypriot Islamic scholar Shaykh Nazım al-Haqqani died May 7 after being hospitalized for lung and kidney failure last month."

Some of the reactions online are shown below:

Also see SufiLive

'ISIL Terrorists Exhume Sufi Shrines in Aleppo'

Al-Manar, ISIL Terrorists Exhume Sufi Shrines in Aleppo "Terrorists of the so-called “Islamic State in Iraq and Levant” were shown in a videotape exhuming and sabotaging Sufi tombs and shrines in al-Bab city in the countryside of Aleppo."

#sufism - 'Sufism in Britain'

Saraya Cheruvallil Contractor, 'Online Sufism' - Young British Muslims, Their Virtual 'Selves' and Virtual Reality chapter, in Sufism in Britain via Google Books I have written on aspects of Sufism recently (see J. Kenney & E. Moosa (eds.), Islam in the Modern World, Routledge)

Urs Ajmer Sharif in photos

Thousands Of Pilgrims Flock To Commemorate Sufi Saint www.huffingtonpost.com "Click through to see photos from the festival: Urs Ajmer Sharif is a six-day long annual commemoration of the death of the Persian Sufi Saint Moinuddin Chisti, at his tomb (dargah) in Ajmer, India."

opinion: 'Urbanised Islam behind Pakistan's Sufi shrine bombings'

Opinion: Irfan Al-Alawi, Lapido Media [London], Islamicpluralism.org, Urbanised Islam behind Pakistan's Sufi shrine bombings, 15 Mar 2011 "As many analysts have observed, radical Islam is an elite phenomenon reflecting the rising expectations and frustrations of educated people who have no time to learn the complexities of the religion.

"Wahhabi-takfiri practice, which is stripped down and easy to absorb, is more attractive to busy professionals than traditional and Sufi Islam, which calls on the believer to dedicate time to study and other religious works."

Report: 'Public Life, Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe'

Tom Heneghan, Reuters, Low support for radicalism among European Muslims, 15 Sep 2010
"Support for radical Islamist groups is low among European Muslims and some leading groups with overseas roots are now cooperating with local governments and encouraging Muslims to vote, according to a new report."

Here's the report's main page: Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe, 15 Sep 2010

The full PDF report is here Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe [PDF]. The primary researcher was Peter Mandaville.

I haven't read the report yet. There are some references to the internet on it.

Pakistan Lahore bombings update

Ayesha Siddiqa, Tribune, Who’s behind the Lahore attack?, 3 Jul 2010

"The Hizbut-Tehrer (HuT), a movement for global jihad’s Pakistan chapter, has already committed its findings for its supporters and potential followers on the internet and its press releases."

Also see the following op-ed from Hizb-ut-Tahrir Pakistan (Hizbut-Tehreer) hizb-pakistan.com, The nexus of Blackwater and the rulers, 2 Jul 2010 "Hizb ut-Tahrir strongly condemns the bomb blasts in the Mosque adjacent to Ali Hajvairy’s (May Allah have mercy upon him) grave that killed more than 40 and injured around 200 Muslims. After a lull, America and its private army, Blackwater and DynCorp, have once again started the blood bath."

Lahore attacks

BBC News, Deadly blasts hit Sufi shrine in Lahore, 2 Jul 2010 "Two suicide bombers have launched a deadly attack on a Sufi shrine in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

"At least 42 people died in the blasts at the popular Data Darbar shrine late on Thursday evening, officials say."

"The shrine is largely frequented by members of the majority Barelvi sect, who are seen as heretics by the Taliban."

Details on the mosque are here: wikimapia, Shrine of Hazrat Data Gunj Bakhsh (Ali Hujwiri) (Lahore)

Sufi channel

Hamad Al-Majid, Asharq Alawsat, Saudis to Fund Sufi Channel, 28 Apr 2010 "With funding from a number of Saudi and Gulf businessmen, the Sufis have decided to start a television war by launching a satellite television channel that aims to find an audience among Sufis, while also targeting members of other sects. Sheikh Alaa Abul-Azayem, the head of the Sufi Azayemiya order in Egypt said that this channel is set to be launched soon, and that it aims to address the "deluge" of new satellite channels that are financed by Gulf States and Saudi Arabia and that are controlled by "Salafist and Wahabi extremists and fundamentalists" according to the well known almesryoon website."

Maulana Sheikh Nazim Al Haqqani’s official website

yursil.com, Mind, Body, Soul, New Website for Shaykh Maulana Nazim Adil al-Hakkani "We are excited and proud to announce the launching of Maulana Sheikh Nazim Al Haqqani’s official website, which features articles written by him personally in Turkish or Arabic language and translated into English.

"There will be a weekly Gazette (magazine) in the downloadable PDF format.

"This is the address: http://www.saltanat.org"

al-Shabaab

alarabiya, Somalia's Shabaab destroy mosque & Sufi grave, 19 Oct 09 "Al-Shabaab, which Washington says is al-Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, has targeted Sufi holy sites and religious leaders in the past, saying their practices go against the insurgents' strict interpretation of Islamic law."

Musical Interlude: Debu

Aubrey Belford, AFP/thedailynewsegypt.com, American and Muslim, band of Sufi mystics aims to go global, 27 Sep 09 "With a discombobulating mix of blonde hair and ecstatic cries of “Allah, Allah!”, the members of Islamic band Debu sway on stage at a strip mall on the edge of Indonesia’s capital.

"Led by a clutch of American siblings, the band of adherents of Sufi Islamic mysticism have become a perennial hit during the holy month of Ramadan here in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country."

The Debu Official Website has some interesting background on their music and instrumentation.

Here's an example of Debu in action, with their song "Sarayda":

Kashf: The Lifting Of The Veil

Spero News, Sufi Film Aims To Show Gentler Side Of Islam, 21 May 09 discusses 'Kashf: The Lifting Of The Veil'

The film has a Facebook site: Kashf: The Lifting Of The Veil'

Sufi Shrines attacked in Pakistan

The National, Pakistani Taliban target Sufi shrines, 10 Mar 09 also reported elsewhere. "In the highest profile attack to date, militants early on Thursday struck at the shrine of Rehman Baba, a 17th-century Sufi saint and revered poet of the Pashto language. Militants planted explosives against the columns of the mausoleum in Peshawar, causing extensive damage to the structure. It was empty at the time. They struck again late on Thursday, firing rockets at the shrine of Bahadar Baba, located in hills near Nowshera, 40km east of Peshawar."

Also see William Dalrymple's article in The Observer, Wahhabi radicals are determined to destroy a gentler, kinder Islam, 8 Mar 2009 "Behind the violence lies a long theological conflict that has divided the Islamic world for centuries. Rahman Baba believed passionately in the importance of music, poetry and dancing as a path for reaching God, as a way of opening the gates of Paradise. But this use of poetry and music in ritual is one of the many aspects of Sufi practice that has attracted the wrath of modern Islamists. For although there is nothing in the Qur'an that bans music, Islamic tradition has always associated music with dancing girls and immorality, and there is a long tradition of clerical opposition."

Also see The News, Kakakhels to repair Bahadur Baba shrine, 7 Mar 09 "The Kakakhel tribe has announced to repair on self-help basis the shrine of great saint Bahadur Baba that was damaged in a terror incident in the wee hours of Friday."

Background: Wiki: Rahman Baba

Rahman Baba in English

On TV

BBC iPlayer, Around the World in 80 Faiths: The Middle East Rich in detail, well worth seeing if you have access to iPlayer, showing a number of faiths in the region. Here's the blurb:

"Pete Owen Jones's epic journey exploring the world's beliefs continues in the Middle East, where he encounters an unknown side to a land scarred by religious strife.

"In a moving and at times disturbing film, Pete travels to Israel where he meets the African-Americans who have settled in the Holy Land to live by the principles of the Old Testament - including polygamy. He travels to Syria to explore Islam and meet the Sufi Whirling Dervishes, to Samaria to witness the 3000-year-old Passover sacrifice, and to northern Iraq to track down the ancient and obscure Yazidi sect, who have a curious reputation for devil worship."

naqshbandi.us

Mind, Body, Soul, New Naqshbandi.us Website 'heads-up' on naqshbandi.us + comment

Highlights from Terrorism Focus

Michael Scheuer, Bin Laden Identifies Saudi Arabia as the Enemy of Mujahideen Unity, Terrorism Focus, Volume 5, Issue 1 (January 8, 2008) "Osama bin Laden’s latest message is one of the richest, most comprehensive and starkly realistic he has issued since the start of the Iraq war. The following essay is the first of two that will analyze the message and offer an assessment of its importance. This essay considers al-Qaeda’s dour recognition of its inability to control post-occupation events in Iraq as a small vanguard organization and a non-Iraqi presence in the country. The second part of this article will examine bin Laden’s confidence that al-Qaeda has accomplished its main goal in Iraq: establishing a base from which to project its influence and military power into the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula."

The same issue of Terrorism Focus (a product of the Jamestown Foundation) has a very interesting article by Abdul Hameed Bakier entitled Ex-Baathists Turn to Naqshbandi Sufis to Legitimize Insurgency. "The “Men of the Army of al-Naqshbandia Way” (Jaysh Rajal al-Tariqah al-Naqshbandia, or JRTN) is a Sunni jihadi group that first announced insurgency operations against the Coalition in Iraq in December 2006 in response to the hanging of Saddam Hussein (, December 30, 2006). Since then, the Naqshbandi army has claimed numerous attacks against the Coalition, posting links to video clips of these attacks in various jihadi forums. Like some other insurgency groups, JRTN publishes a monthly magazine promoting the group’s ideology and enumerates its operations against Coalition forces while soliciting donations (, December 28, 2006)."