Islam and the Sufis

As I traveled in India I noticed the Islamic community and how it operates. Islamic women still wear the veil and dark clothing. Muslims stay apart from Hindus in their own communities, which are often ghettos. Clearly there was a major cultural difference between Hindus and Muslims.

I wondered why the Sufis, who follow a mysticism like Ibn El Arabi that has much in common with Vedantic monism, did not project a more positive model of Hinduism for orthodox Muslims to emulate. I researched the Sufis further. I discovered that the Sufis were a diverse group representing various intellectual and mystical trends in the Islamic world, both orthodox and unorthodox. Some Sufis were indeed free spirited individualists with a direct communion with the Divine at a high level. The medieval Persian poet Rumi is perhaps the best example of this type of Sufi. Such Sufis were often oppressed, if not killed by the Muslim orthodoxy, like Al Hallaj in the ninth century, who was dismembered for making the rather Vedantic proclamation of "I am God."

Other Sufis were simply the Islamic equivalent of the Jesuits and could be militant, if not fanatic. Such Sufis encouraged and guided Muslim attacks against Hindu India. This was particularly true of organized Sufi orders like the Naqshbandis, which have long aimed at the  conversion of India to Islam. These Sufi orders are spiritual soldiers for Islam and, like Christian missionaries, have little respect for other traditions, particularly those of India, which they still denigrate as pagan, heathen and kafir. Most Sufi activity in the world today is under their control. 

The other question was whether Mohammed, the founder of Islam, who had many mystical experiences, was a tolerant figure whose teachings were distorted by militant Islam, or an intolerant figure that militant Islam followed faithfully. 

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