By Markus Dressler, Ron Geaves, Gritt Klinkhammer

In contemporary years Sufism has passed through whatever of a revival as a non secular substitute to different manifestations of Islam. This e-book investigates the advance of Sufism in Western societies, with a local specialize in North the US and Europe. Exploring a few concerns in terms of the dynamic tensions among spiritual globalization techniques and particular sacred localities, this e-book seems on the formation of Sufi hobbies that experience migrated from their fatherland to turn into international non secular networks.

Sufi teams are hugely differentiated and infrequently inaccessible, so the origins and improvement of Sufism within the West haven't been extensively studied. using a comparative procedure in keeping with neighborhood fieldwork and case reports, this booklet addresses theoretical matters and provides a finished research of specified groups and the advance of local branches of Sufi orders, supplying a global point of view on Sufism within the West. With contributions from recognized foreign specialists at the subject, the ebook addresses Sufi orders within the context of the transnational networks within which they're working and the limitations of the localities within which they live.

This booklet might be of curiosity to students and scholars of faith, Islam and Sufism particularly.

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It is even more than likely that Noor or Maryam have used one or more of these structures in their personal searches. Yet it is precisely in this “one or more” that the salient point lies. Our two women do not refer to any of these structures predominantly, let alone exclusively. They do not belong to these organizational, movement or network units, but at best only refer to them. It is the implications of this feature on which I wish to focus. The diaspora Islam of Noor and Maryam as such carries no authority outside themselves.

47 After briefly studying with Shaikh Ahmad al-­Alawi48 whom he met in 1932, Schuon seems to have had his own visionary inspiration to connect with Mary and Jesus in his spiritual practices. His movement has been known as the “Tariqa Maryamiyya”, or the path of Mary. While the practices of the tariqa are Islamic, there is also a certain eclecticism featuring terminology and practices from Christian, Hindu and Native American traditions49 on which Schuon had also written. Schuon chose not to lecture publicly and to remain personally secluded,50 but taught a closed circle of followers in Bloomington.

For example, most Sufi eclectic groups discussed above incorporate “Sufi psychology” as something that is cultivated and even practiced professionally, in some cases, by members. The concept of global Sufism also helps us theorize debates about Islam and the role of culture in which Sufism is usually seen as being “culture friendly”76 as opposed to the deterritorialized, “pure Islam” discourse of the Islamists. 77 Since the Murabitun and Keller focus on “fiqh as the answer”, these latter are correspondingly more successful with such diaspora Muslim youth.

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