Sufis in Western Society: Global Networking and Locality (Routledge Sufi Series)
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Routledge Sufi series General Editor: Ian Richard Netton Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter The Routledge Sufi series provides short introductions to a variety of facets of the subject, which are accessible both to the general reader and the student and scholar in the field. Each book will be either a synthesis of existing knowledge or a distinct contribution to, and extension of, knowledge of the particular topic. The two major underlying principles of the series are sound scholarship and readability. Previously published by Curzon Al- Hallaj Herbert I.W. Mason Beyond Faith and Infidelity The Sufi poetry and teaching of Mahmud Shabistari Leonard Lewisham Ruzbihan Baqli Mysticism and the rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism Carl W. Ernst Abdullah Ansari of Herat An early Sufi master A.G. Ravan Farhadi The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism Bernd Radtke and John O’Kane Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination Mehdi Amin Razavi Persian Sufi Poetry An introduction to the mystical use of classical poems J.T.P. de Bruijn Sufis in Western Society In recent years Sufism has undergone something of a revival as a spiritual altern- ative to other manifestations of Islam. This book investigates the development of Sufism in Western societies, with a regional focus on North America and Europe. Exploring a number of issues relating to the dynamic tensions between religious globalization processes and specific sacred localities, this book looks at the formation of Sufi movements that have migrated from their place of origin to become global religious networks. Sufi groups are highly differentiated and often inaccessible, so the origins and development of Sufism in the West have not been widely studied. Employing a comparative approach based on regional fieldwork and case studies, this book addresses theoretical issues and gives a comprehensive analysis of distinct com- munities and the development of regional branches of Sufi orders, providing an international perspective on Sufism in the West. With contributions from well- known international experts on the topic, the book addresses Sufi orders in the context of the transnational networks in which they are operating and the con- straints of the localities in which they live. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of religion, Islam and Sufism in particular. Ron Geaves is Professor of the Comparative Study of Religion at Liverpool Hope University. He has been researching Muslims in Britain since 1988 and is the current Chair of the Muslims in Britain Research Network. Markus Dressler teaches Religious and Islamic Studies at Hofstra University. His research focuses on the religious history of modern Turkey, religion and sec- ularism theory, and formations of contemporary Sufism in Western societies. Gritt Klinkhammer is Professor of the Study of Religion at Bremen University, Germany. Her research focuses on diverse facets of Islam in Germany, on theory of secularization and modernity and contemporary forms of religion in Western societies. Routledge Sufi series General Editor: Ian Richard Netton Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter The Routledge Sufi series provides short introductions to a variety of facets of the subject, which are accessible both to the general reader and the student and scholar in the field. Each book will be either a synthesis of existing knowledge or a distinct contribution to, and extension of, knowledge of the particular topic. The two major underlying principles of the series are sound scholarship and readability. Previously published by Curzon Al- Hallaj Herbert I.W. Mason Beyond Faith and Infidelity The Sufi poetry and teaching of Mahmud Shabistari Leonard Lewisham Ruzbihan Baqli Mysticism and the rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism Carl W. Ernst Abdullah Ansari of Herat An early Sufi master A.G. Ravan Farhadi The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism Bernd Radtke and John O’Kane Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination Mehdi Amin Razavi Persian Sufi Poetry An introduction to the mystical use of classical poems J.T.P. de Bruijn Aziz Nasafi Lloyd Ridgeon Sufis and Anti- Sufis The defence, rethinking and rejection of Sufism in the modern world Elizabeth Sirriyeh Sufi Ritual The parallel universe Ian Richard Netton Divine Love in Islamic Mysticism The teachings of al-Ghâzalî and al-Dabbâgh Binyamin Abrahamov Striving for Divine Union Spiritual exercises for Suhrawardi Sufis Qamar- ul Huda Revelation, Intellectual Intuition and Reason in the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra An analysis of the al-hikmah al-’arshiyyah Zailan Moris Published by Routledge 1 Muslim Saints of South Asia The eleventh to fifteenth centuries Anna Suvorova 2 A Psychology of Early Sufi Sama Listening and altered states Kenneth S. Avery 3 Sufi Visionary of Ottoman Damascus ‘Abd al- Ghani al- Nabulusi, 1941–1731 Elizabeth Sirriyeh 4 Early Mystics in Early Mystics in Turkish Literature Mehmed Fuad Koprulu Translated, edited and with an Introduction by Gary Leiser and Robert Dankoff 5 Indian Sufism since the Seventeenth Century Saints, books and empires in the Muslim Deccan Nile Green 6 Sufi Castigator Ahmad Kasravi and the Iranian mystical tradition Lloyd Ridgeon 7 Popular Sufism In Eastern Europe Sufi brotherhoods and the dialogue with Christianity and ‘heterodoxy’ H.T. Norris 8 The Naqshbandiyya Orthodoxy and activism in a worldwide Sufi tradition Itzchak Weismann 9 Sufis in Western Society Global networking and locality Edited by Ron Geaves, Markus Dressler and Gritt Klinkhammer Sufis in Western Society Global networking and locality Edited by Ron Geaves, Markus Dressler and Gritt Klinkhammer First published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2009 Selection and editorial matter, Ron Geaves, Markus Dressler and Gritt Klinkhammer; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Sufis in Western society: global networking and locality/edited by Ron Geaves, Markus Dressler, and Gritt Klinkhammer. p. cm. – (Routledge Sufi series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Sufism–Europe. 2. Sufism–North America. I. Geaves, Ron. II. Dressler, Markus. III. Klinkhammer, Gritt Maria. BP188.8.E9S83 2008 297.409182'1–dc22 2008030177 ISBN 0-203-88364-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-45711-4 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-88364-0 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-45711-8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-88364-8 (ebk) Contents List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements x 1 Introduction 1 M arkus D ress L er , R on G ea v es and GRITT KLINKHAMMER 2 Glocalization of religions: plural authenticities at the centres and at the margins 13 PETER BEYER 3 Global Sufism: “theirs and ours” 26 MARCIA HERMANSEN 4 Globalizing the soundworld: Islam and Sufi music in the West 46 MICHAEL FRISHKOPF 5 Pluralism and authenticity: Sufi paths in post- 9/11 New York 77 MARKUS DRESSLER 6 A case of cultural binary fission or transglobal Sufism? The transmigration of Sufism to Britain 97 RON GEAvES 7 Playing with numbers: Sufi calculations of a perfect divine universe in Manchester 113 PNINA WERBNER viii Contents 8 The emergence of transethnic Sufism in Germany: from mysticism to authenticity 130 GRITT KLINKHAMMER 9 Growing up as a Sufi: generational change in the Burhaniya Sufi order 148 SøREN CHRISTIAN LASSEN 10 Home, nation and global Islam: Sufi oriented activities and community building among Bosnian Muslims in Southern Sweden 162 CATHARINA RAUDvERE AND AšK GAšI 11 The reception of Sufi and neo- Sufi literature 180 MARK SEDGWICK Glossary 198 Index 204 Illustrations Figures 4.1 Shaikh Mohamed el-Helbawy 47 4.2 Muslims in Canada, by province (2001) 48 4.3 Percentage of the labor force working in natural and applied sciences 65 7.1 Abidi with his followers 116 7.2 Abidi with his books of Prophecy 117 7.3 The Naqash 120 7.4 Abidi, the Ark and his pocket calculator 122 7.5 The Jaffar Jama’a covered by a brocade 123 7.6 The Ark 124 10.1 Some of the teachers at “The Bosnian school” in Landskrona, c.1994 165 10.2 A selection of publications with a pronounced Sufi angle produced by Malmö Bosniaks 167 10.3 “The House of Associations” in Malmö, Sweden 170 10.4 Asim Ibrišević 171 10.5 Idriz Karaman 172 Table 11.1 Strong sellers in neo-Sufism, 2007 192 Acknowledgements The original idea for this volume came after a panel session entitled “Sufis in Western Societies” held at the annual convention of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta in November 2003, in which all three editors participated. Building upon the panel, the editors organized a three-day seminar at Bremen University in the winter of 2005, where most of the contributors to this volume attended and gave papers. Our thanks and acknowledgements go to Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for providing the funding which made the seminar pos- sible. We also acknowledge Ian Netton and the editorial staff at Routledge for providing the opportunity for publication. Long-suffering partners need to be remembered for their patience and special thanks to Catherine for her editing work.