Sufi Conference calls for 'purification' of Sufi orders

Sun, 14/02/2010 - in AlMasry AlYoum"
"Conference calls for 'purification' of Sufi orders"
by Osama el-Mahdy and Mai Said (Translated at AlMasry AlYaom from the Arabic Edition), Photographed by: Mohamed Abdel Ghany
(picture of Shaykh Muhammad Abu Azaim, head of Egyptian Council of Sufi shaykhs)

A conference held by leading representatives of Sufi religious denominations on Saturday called for the registration of all officially acknowledged Sufi orders and for forbidding what it called "intruders" from organizing events not in accordance with established Sufi doctrines.

Conference participants criticized some of the dances performed during religious events organized by what they called "false" Sufi sects. They also condemned the practice of erecting tents that are shared between men and women at these events.

"Sufism must be purified from such intrusive practices," Sheikh El-Husseini, leader of the Husseini Sufi order, said.

According to another Sufi leader, Sheikh Alaa Eddin Abul Azayem, "No genuine Sufi order would ever allow men and women to share the same tent at a religious event."

Some conference attendees also blasted a recent documentary film about Sufism entitled "Al-Mawled," produced by Al-Jazeera News Cairo Bureau Chief Hussein Abdel Ghani, accusing the latter of promoting "false information."