02-25-2009, 11:18
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#1
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Asset
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 24
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Can Sufi Islam counter the Taliban?
Taken from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7896943.stm
Thoughts? My Arabic teacher is Sufi, and I've been wanting to take his course on Sufi Islam for quite some time, it seems wholly dissimilar from the Islam touted by bin Laden and his cronies. I'd love to hear comments/experiences from QPs who have worked in the area.
On another note, the idea of a bunch of Pakistanis sitting around smoking hashish cracks me up. Of course, they're not fighting - they're too busy getting stoned!
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lonepine is offline
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02-25-2009, 11:33
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#2
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Asset
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Posts: 23
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Sufism is wonderful. I have a book of the writings of Rumi on my desk, and they are some of the most beautiful and heartfelt expressions of religious devotion I have ever encountered. It has a lot of similarities to the Christian mystical tradition found in Orthodox Christianity, such as Hesychasm, with which I am very familiar (my father recently got his doctorate in theology studying a particular Christian mystic). I'd love to see Sufism gain more ground in Islam.
EDIT: I just reread the OP; I'd missed the part about soliciting QP opinions. I am of course not a QP, so feel free to ignore this post - I have no boots on the ground experience with Sufism, only the brand found in the US and through the writings thereof.
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Last edited by Kosta; 02-25-2009 at 11:36.
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Kosta is offline
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02-25-2009, 11:34
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#3
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,822
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lonepine
Taken from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7896943.stm
Thoughts? My Arabic teacher is Sufi, and I've been wanting to take his course on Sufi Islam for quite some time, it seems wholly dissimilar from the Islam touted by bin Laden and his cronies. I'd love to hear comments/experiences from QPs who have worked in the area.
On another note, the idea of a bunch of Pakistanis sitting around smoking hashish cracks me up. Of course, they're not fighting - they're too busy getting stoned! |
Skipping the gray man approach and going straight for the front of the class, eh?
Best of luck.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
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The Reaper is offline
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02-25-2009, 12:23
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#4
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NorCal
Posts: 15,370
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Quote:
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I'd love to hear comments/experiences from QPs...
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JMHO--if it doesn't offer a political or monetary advantage and power to the tribe, I see it as a long shot among those who are armed, who hold power, and who want to keep it in the tribe. 
But I've been wrong before...just ask my wife and she'll tell you the date, time, subject, what I was wearing, and what the weather was like at the time. 
Richard's $.02 
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“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)
“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
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Richard is offline
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02-25-2009, 12:35
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#5
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Asset
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 24
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Kosta,
Asking for QP experiences was more wishful thinking than anything else, as The Reaper pointed out. Your mention of Heychasm is really interesting. I had never heard of it before, but am reading several articles on it.
Richard,
True, it does seem like naivete to expect ordinary (read: unarmed) worshipers of Sufi Islam to rebel against Wahabbism. That said, there must be a tipping point where the masses are unable to reconcile their beliefs with the actions of the Taliban in the area, basically what happened to the Shining Path guerillas in Peru - the locals saw through the lies and stopped giving support, even though the SP was heavily armed and very violent.
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lonepine is offline
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02-25-2009, 18:45
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#6
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Guerrilla Chief
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: The Nam
Posts: 777
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
JMHO--if it doesn't offer a political or monetary advantage and power to the tribe, I see it as a long shot among those who are armed, who hold power, and who want to keep it in the tribe.
But I've been wrong before...just ask my wife and she'll tell you the date, time, subject, what I was wearing, and what the weather was like at the time.
Richard's $.02 |
Well said, Sir Richard, I couldn't agree more (but not about the being wrong part and what your wife has to say about it  )!
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