Terra Incognita

By Jeffrey Gettleman, "For Somalia, Chaos Breeds Religious War" - The New York Times - New York, NY, USA Saturday, May 23, 2009

Dusa Marreb, Somalia: From men of peace, the Sufi clerics suddenly became men of war. Their shrines were being destroyed. Their imams were being murdered. Their tolerant beliefs were under withering attack.

So the moderate Sufi scholars recently did what so many other men have chosen to do in anarchic Somalia: they picked up guns and entered the killing business, in this case to fight back against the Shabab, one of the most fearsome extremist Muslim groups in Africa.

“Clan wars, political wars, we were always careful to stay out of those,” said Sheik Omar Mohamed Farah, a Sufi leader. “But this time, it was religious.”

In the past few months, a new axis of conflict has opened up in Somalia, an essentially governmentless nation ripped apart by rival clans since 1991. Now, in a definitive shift, fighters from different clans are forming alliances and battling one another along religious lines, with deeply devout men on both sides charging into firefights with checkered head scarves, assault rifles and dusty Korans.

It is an Islamist versus Islamist war, and the Sufi scholars are part of a broader moderate Islamist movement that Western nations are counting on to repel Somalia’s increasingly powerful extremists. Whether Somalia becomes a terrorist incubator and a genuine regional threat — which is already beginning to happen, with hundreds of heavily armed foreign jihadists flocking here to fight for the Shabab — or whether this country finally steadies itself and ends the years of hunger, misery and bloodshed may hinge on who wins these battles in the next few months.

“We’re on terra incognita,” said Rashid Abdi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit group that tries to prevent deadly conflicts. “Before, everything was clan. Now we are beginning to see the contours of an ideological, sectarian war in Somalia for the first time, and that scares me.”

For two years, Islamist insurgents waged a fierce war against Somalia’s transitional government and the thousands of Ethiopian troops protecting it. In January, the insurgents seemed to get what they wanted: the Ethiopians pulled out; an unpopular president walked away; and moderate Islamists took the helm of the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia, raising hopes for peace.

But since then, the verdict on the moderates has been mixed. In the past two weeks, the Shabab have routed government forces in Mogadishu, the capital. The tiny bit of the city the government controls is shrinking, block by block, and Ethiopian troops have once again crossed the border and are standing by. As many as 150 people have been killed, and the relentless mortar fire has spawned streams of shellshocked civilians trudging into the arid countryside, where they face the worst drought in a decade.

If Mogadishu falls, Somalia will be dragged deeper into the violent morass that the United Nations, the United States and other Western countries have tried hard to stanch, and the country will fragment even further into warring factions, with radical Islamists probably on top.

But out here, on the wind-whipped plains of Somalia’s central region, it is a different story. The moderates are holding their own, and the newly minted Sufi militia is about the only local group to go toe-to-toe with the Shabab and win.

The several-hundred-square-mile patch of central Somalia that the Sufis control is not nearly as strategic as Mogadishu. But the Sufis have achieved what the transitional government has not: grass-roots support, which explains how they were able to move so quickly from a bunch of men who had never squeezed a trigger before — a rarity in Somalia — into a cohesive fighting force backed by local clans.

Many Somalis say that the Sufi version of Islam, which stresses tolerance, mysticism and a personal relationship with God, is more congruent with their traditions than the Wahhabi Islam espoused by the Shabab, which calls for strict separation of the sexes and harsh punishments like amputations and stonings.

“We see the Sufis as part of us,” said Elmi Hersi Arab, an elder in the battered central Somalia town of Dusa Marreb. “They grew up here.”

The Sufis also tapped into an anti-Shabab backlash. The Shabab, who recruit from all clans, and, according to American officials, are linked to Al Qaeda, controlled Dusa Marreb for the better part of last year. Residents described that period as a reign of terror, with the Shabab assassinating more than a dozen village elders and even beheading two women selling tea.

“We respected the Shabab for helping drive out the Ethiopians,” said one woman in Dusa Marreb who asked not to be identified for safety reasons. “But when the Ethiopians left and the Shabab kept the war going, that to us didn’t make sense.”

The Sufis, a loosely organized, religious brotherhood, also drawing from many different clans, had studiously avoided getting gummed up in Somalia’s back-and-forth clan battles, often no more than thin cover for power struggles between businessmen and warlords. But in November, Sheik Omar said, the Shabab shot dead several Sufi students. The next month, the Shabab tore apart Sufi shrines.

A spike of panic shot through the Sufi schools, where young men like Siyad Mohammed Ali were studying Islamic philosophy. “We had never told the Shabab how to worship,” he said. “But now we were under attack.” Men like Mr. Siyad became the backbone of the new Sufi militia, which got a crate of AK-47s from one set of clan elders or a sputtering armored truck from another. In December, the Sufis, whose organization is called Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama, which roughly translates as the followers of the Prophet Muhammad, drove the Shabab out of Dusa Marreb. Since then, the Sufis have defended their territory several times against Shabab incursions.

Hassan Sheik Mohamud, the dean of a college in Mogadishu, said the rise of the Sufis was “absolutely, totally new historically.”

“They had a reputation for being peaceful,” he said.

The Sufis are loosely allied to the transitional government, which has promised to rule Somalia with some form of Islamic law. The president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, is a bit of an enigma, coming from a long line of Sufi clerics, yet rising to power in 2006 as part of an Islamist alliance with a decidedly Wahhabi bent. He has said that he wants women to play an important role in government, but several prominent Somali women said that during a recent meeting, he would not look them in the eye.

Many Somalis say that Sheik Sharif is making the same mistake his predecessors made, spending more time riding around foreign capitals in a Mercedes than working Mogadishu’s streets to cultivate local allies.

Out here, the Sufis are moving ahead with their own small administration, meeting with United Nations officials and running patrols. At night, in a circle under a tree, they rest their AK-47s on their Korans, drop their foreheads to the earth and pray.

“We have jihad, too,” said Sheik Omar, a tall man with a long beard and warm eyes. “But it’s inner jihad, a struggle to be pure.”

Picture: Of the Sufis, Sheik Omar Mohamed Farah said, "We have jihad, too. But it's inner jihad, a struggle to be pure." Sheik Omar is a Sufi leader in Dusa Marreb. Photo: Michael Kamber for The New York Times.

Je Suis un Oiseau

[From the French language press]:
"Je suis un oiseau. Ce corps était ma cage. Mais je me suis envolé, le laissant comme un signe."
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (m. 1111 AD)

El Hadji Ndiogou Niang, le pdt de l’Union pour le progrès islamique du Sénégal s’est éteint à Paris le mercredi 15 avril 2009. Il est parti serein, le sourire aux lèvres et le visage lumineux.

Par Dr. Daouda Ndiaye, "El Hadji Ndiogou Niang, le pdt de l’Union pour le progrès islamique du Sénégal s’est éteint à Paris" - Le Quotidien - Dakar, Sénégal - Mardi 26 mai 2009


"I am a bird. This body was my cage. But I flew, leaving it as a sign. "
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111 AD)

El Hadji Ndiogou Niang, President of Upis, the Union for Islamic progress in Senegal, died in Paris on Wednesday, April 15, 2009. He left serene, smiling, with a radiant face.

He was born in Tivaouane on the 21st October, 1946. Founding member of Upis, he created through it 968 schools, attended so far by 36'875 pupils. Koranic schools as well as French-Arab schools, they also offer professional training.

By inviting the Cardinal Thiandoum to the inauguration of the Kindergarten of the Islamic Upis, and more generally to other ceremonies he showed, like the members of his organization, that interreligious dialogue could be a source of wealth and peace.

May Allah the Almighty, through consideration for the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and Shaykh Ahmed Chérif Tidjani (ra), his spiritual master, welcome him in Paradise!
(Amen!)

The Path of Syncretism

By Kunal Ghosh, "Ideological and Development War Ahead" - Mainstream, Vol XLVII, No 23 - New Delhi, India
Saturday, May 23, 2009

Attack on Mosques/Dargahs of Sufi-oriented Sunni Muslims

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Abdullah Haroon made a link in the UN between Darul Uloom Deoband in India and terrorism in Pakistan’s NWFP and FATA areas where the Al-Qaeda and Taliban ideology flourishes. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind protested to the MEA, Pak High Commission and UN Secretary-General against Pakistan opening this new front. (Ref: ‘Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Protests Pak Link’ The Times of India, Kanpur, New Delhi, December 19, 2008)

In the aftermath of the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack, when India put forth incontrovertible evidence that the terrorists were trained in and came from the Pakistani soil, there was a debate in the UN General Assembly and Abdullah Haroon said:
Some of you may not be aware that how this matter has taken root in a deep way, led entirely by Mullahs in India in Deoband. I am not pointing a finger. I am coming up with a very good suggestion. It is for the clerics in Deoband, who wield great influence in the North West Frontier territories of Pakistan and in FATA, to come to Pakistan, get together and embed, offer a Fatwa in Pakistan against suicide bombing.

Haroon’s was a sincere attempt to draw attention to the need for an ideological offensive against terror. The Government of India, petitioned by the Mullahs, misunderstood and thought it to be a red herring for diverting attention toward India. Facing a lot of criticism in India the Deoband seminary responded by organising conferences and rallies against terrorism and the first such conference was in February 2008. However, the pronouncement in the conference was that ’unjust violence’ is un-Islamic. It stopped far short of naming specific outfits or actions. Why cannot the Deoband clerics go to the Taliban controlled areas of the NWFP in Pakistan and organise such a conference?

Arif Mohammad Khan, who had been a Cabinet Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government in the 1980s and resigned on the issue of the regressive stand taken by the government on the infamous Shah Bano legal/judicial case, wrote a scholarly article, ‘Sending a Wrong Message: There’s a Disconnect between the Clergy and the Common Muslims’ in The Times of India, September 30, 2008, New Delhi. He examines the syllabus of the Darul Uloom seminary of Deoband on the question of jihad and forcible conversion to Islam and shows that the syllabus prescribes the sword even when the infidel is not the first aggressor and is at complete variance with the Holy Quran; in fact the syllabus is based on Hedaya, a 12th century text. He mentions that he wrote to the Deoband authorities pointing this out but received no reply.

He further says: This syllabus is not confined to Deoband, the seminary that was established in 1866, but is prescribed in more than 5000 of its affiliates across the country (India) and thousands of madrasahs in Pakistan, run by former students of Deoband. It is curious that for admission into these madrasahs no formal application is needed; instead madrasahs send recruitment teams to very poor and backward areas emphasising that the education, food, lodging and clothing provided by the madrasah are all free.

Further, Arif Mohammad Khan cites a published case study by a Pakistani psychologist, named Sohail Abbas, based on personal interviews of 517 arrested jihadis, which concludes that almost all the jihadis belonged to the Deobandi school of thought.

Development and Education on War Footing
The recruitment strategy of the madrasahs, as mentioned by Arif Mohammad Khan, should be an eye-opener for the political leaderships of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Boys from very poor half-starved families, not getting any form of education whatsoever, are being targeted by a certain group of madrasahs that seem to be flushed with finance. Therefore the first task before the governments is to provide development and free education to the poor all over the Indian sub-continent. Extremism in any form, be it of the religious or Naxalite variety, flourishes only in dire abominable poverty. The situation in Pakistan’s North West frontier is fast spinning out of control and there is no time to lose. We need development on war footing, and that is why I call it a developmental war. If we lose the developmental war, we are sure to lose the ideological war to the extremists.

Attack on Shrines of Sufi-oriented Sunni Muslims
Muslim Extremism: In the last one month two important mosques have been attacked and bombed by the Taliban in the NWFP of Pakistan.

The Rahman Baba mosque in Peshwar was bombed because of its Sufi connection. A famous Sufi Dervish, called Rahman Baba, had established this mosque and the complex includes his mausoleum where thousands of devotees offer obeisance everyday. Even now most of the people of the NWFP are of Sufi-Islam persuasion, but that is sought to be changed at the point of the gun. The Taliban attacked the Jamrood mosque at the Khyber Agency of the NWFP soon after they attacked the aforesaid Rahman Baba mosque.

Initially I was puzzled as to the reason for this attack because, according to newspaper reports, that mosque is an ordinary Sunni mosque and contains no mausoleum of a saint. I found a clue in a recent article by Syed Salim Shahzad, Asia Times Online’s Pakistan’s Bureau Chief. Shahzad, in his article, ‘US Strikes at Taliban’s Nerve Centre’ (Thursday, April 2, 2009 7:55 am (PDT)), talks of drone attacks by the NATO in Orakzai area and says:
Orakzai is important for another reason. The Taliban chose it as a base from where to send fighters into Khyber Agency to attack NATO supply convoys. The Taliban don’t have roots in Khyber Agency, where the people are mostly traders and being Sufi are not religiously like-minded with the Taliban, so the militants have been unable to set up bases.

So the mosque was attacked because people of the area are of Sufi-Islam persuasion. In Shahzad’s statement it is also implied that the Taliban are anti-Sufi. We observe that Pakistani spokesmen and Indo-Pak writers are repeatedly drawing attention to an ideological fault-line in Sunni Islam and are pointing fingers at Deoband. It is well known in Pakistani circles that the Taliban and their associates, such as Lashkar-e Tayaba, Sipah-e-Salar, Jaish-e-Mohammad etc., follow the Deobandi interpretation of Sunni Islam and are against veneration of Sufi saints and the Sufi institutions such as Dargahs and Khanekas. Deobandis also hold the Shia and the Ahmadiya to be un-Islamic. True to their ideology the Taliban have been attacking Sufi-oriented Sunni mosques and Shia mosques in the NWFP.


Incidentally, I have come across several Muslim gentlemen, who are good citizens of India in every perceptible way, who candidly admit that they follow the Deobandi interpretation of Islam and hold Sufi practices such as visiting saints’ Dargahs and offering flowers or Chadar there as un-Islmaic. So all Deobandis are not terrorists, but all terrorists seem to be Deobandis. The connection between Deobandi and Wahhabi thoughts are given later in this article. The Al Qaeda, head-quartered in the secret hideouts of the NWFP, is an avowedly Wahhabi organisation led by a Saudi Arabian, Osama bin Laden. Since the Deobandi Taliban is aligned with the Al Qaeda, there must be some ideological affinity between the two.

In 1996 Aruna Asaf Ali (awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously) wrote in her article titled, ‘An Agenda For National Renewal’ (published in Mainstream, New Delhi, September 26, 1996, pp. 13-17):
Fanatical indoctrination imparted over the years in hundreds of schools run by the Jamaat-e-Islami in Kashmir is widely believed to have been a potent factor in the growth of fundamentalist and secessionist forces in that state.

The Jamaat-e-Islami is a well-known political party of Deobandi persuasion, founded in Lahore by Maulana Maudoodi. The Jamaat in Bangladesh or India is a sister organisation of the Pakistani Jamaat and the madrasahs in Kashmir are manned by former students of Deoband. So it is no wonder that the militants of Hizbul Mujahideen, who had been indoctrinated by the Jamaat and been fighting a secessionist war in Kashmir against the Indian Army, occupied and eventually burned down the Dargah of Saint Nuruddin Noorani at Chrar-e-Sharief. Separating Kashmir from India is not their only aim. They also aim to destroy the Sufi-oriented Sunni Islam of Kashmir. (It should be recalled that the Bangladeshi Jamaat sided with the Pakistani forces and took part in the genocide during the liberation struggle in 1971.)

Hindu Extremism: The story of the attack on Sufi Dargahs will remain incomplete unless we mention what happened during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Tens of Dargahs in Ahmedabad alone were destroyed or vandalised. These Dargahs were the symbols of Hindu-Muslim syncretism where the two communities mingled in harmony and where on occasions vegetarian food was prepared by Muslims to be served to Hindu devotees. It is often said that it is only the Hindus who visit (Sufi) Muslim shrines and there is no reciprocity vice-versa. This simply is not true and here are a few examples.

During the recent Gujarat riots, a Hindu mob burned down the tomb of noted classical singer Ustad Faiaz Khan near Ahmedabad. It is well known that Faiaz Khan Sahab used to start all his recitals by saying “Om Ananta Narayana Hari”. He obviously believed in the philosophy of “Ishwara Allah tere naam (Ishwara and Allah are thy two names)”. He was a religious person and known to maintain all the observances of a good Muslim. Among India’s musicians there are many like him. Late Ustad Alauddin Khan, father of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and guru of Pandit Ravi Shankar, often visited a Masjid and a Mandir on the same day. The Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan used to play in a Banaras temple and has repeatedly talked about his gaining a spiritual experience while performing there. Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote poetry on the goddess Kali. Noted classical singer Pandit Ajay Chakraborty and many other Hindu singers of Bengal sing a song written by the same poet in praise of Prophet Mohammad, “Noor Nabi Mohammad”. The list is endless.

The purpose of mentioning all this is to urge both Hindus and Muslims not to abjure the path of syncretism which is so rooted in the culture of this land. Muslim Indians of eminence should work for upholding the Chishtiyya tradition and in particular for restoring the kalashes on the spires of the Chishti dargahs of Ajmar and Fatehpur Sikri; these kalashes had been present for more than six centuries as symbols of Muslim-Hindu syncretism and have been removed between 1975 and 1997, a span of 22 years. As a gesture of friendship the Hindus of Ahmedabad should re-build the tomb of Ustad Faiaz Khan and all vandalised Dargahs.

We shall now focus attention to another significant political formation concerned mainly with security in Central Asia.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or SCO
Vladimir Radyuhin in his article, ‘SCO: Towards a High-profile Role in Afghanistan’ (ref: www.hindu.com/2009/03/31/stories, re-printed as ‘Stage Set for a High-Profile SCO Role in Afghanistan’ in Mainstream New Delhi, April 10-16, 2009), says:
The Special Conference on Afghanistan, held in Moscow last Friday…. was organised by the SCO…..It was remarkable for a broad range of participants from outside the organisation. They included UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Secretary-General of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mark Perrin de Brichambaut; US Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Patrick Moon; and NATO Deputy Secretary-General Martin Howard. There were also representatives …from the European Union and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Afghanistan was represented by Foreign Minister Rangin Dagdar Spanta…….

The Moscow Conference call for adopting a comprehensive approach to Afghanistan was consonant with Mr Obama’s new emphasis on diplomacy, economic assistance, the building of a strong Afghan army and security forces and on shutting down the Pakistani safe haven for extremists. If anything, the Moscow Declaration came harder on Pakistan demanding that it find effective means to combat terrorism, including denying sanctuaries and dismantling the extremist and terrorist network and ideological centres.

The last sentence of Radyuhin’s summary calls for dismantling of ‘ideological centres’ in Pakistan. He might as well have widened his net to include ideological centres in the whole of the Indian subcontinent. It should be noted that India was represented in the Moscow conference and has an observer status in SCO.

Wahhabi Deobandi Connection: The Anti-Sufi Stand
Wahhabism sprang in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century and started a challenge to traditional Sunni Islam worldwide. Muhammad Ibn Abd-el Wahhab was a scholar in 18th century Saudi Arabia and is the father of Wahhabism. Later an Indian scholar, called Maulana Maudoodi, nourished this stream of thought and is widely respected in the Wahhabi circles. Maudoodi’s writings influenced the scholars of Al Azhar university of Egypt. Abd-el Wahhab held that Sufi practices of building mausoleums or dargahs around the burial chambers of saints and veneration of these saints amount to idol worship and hence must be eradicated.

The clerics of Deoband agree with Wahhab’s thesis and they aggressively preach against Sufism in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Wahhabis destroyed Sufi dargahs and Khanekas and killed Sufis wherever they came to power in the Middle East. Yet Sufism has always been a part of traditional Sunni Islam right from the days of Prophet Mohammad. Sufi orders are to be found from Morocco to Indonesia everywhere. Sufism derives from certain chapters of the Holy Quran.

There are more than a hundred Sufi orders in the world, and all except one, the Naqshbandiyya order, [!] preach universal love and believe in the Quranic concept of Wahdat ul Ujud or Unity of All Existence. Sufis offer a path of spiritual training under a Murshid (a teacher or Guru) which lead to direct realisation of God. In other words, the Wahhabis wish to eliminate the spiritual dimension of Islam altogether. Traditionally there has always been a sectarian tendency among the Ulema of Islam, but it was held in check by the Sufis because the Ulema usually deferred to the Sufi Peers or Dervishes. There was a bipolar balance between the two arms of traditional Sunni Islam, the Sufi and the Ulema. This balance has been disturbed by the rise of Wahhabism.

Yet it must be said that for nearly two centuries Wahhabism could not manage to create dent in traditional Sunni Islam till the formation of OPEC in 1973 and the rise in the petro-dollar power of Saudi Arabia. This Wahhabi state has financed thousands of Wahhabi madrasahs all over the world and Deobandi ones in South Asia to enhance its political influence. The Deobandis do not openly admit to being Wahhabis. But their attitude toward Sufism is the give away. One suspects that the thousands of Deobandi madrasahs of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh which offer free board and lodge to poor students are bank-rolled by the Saudis. Intolerance is the inevitable result of the spread of Wahhabism, and extreme intolerance leads to terrorism.

Sufism and World Peace
The importance of Sufism for world peace and harmonious co-existence needs some elaboration. A great musician of India, Amir Khusro, was a Sufi spiritualist and a realized soul. He wrote,

Khusro rain Suhag ki jaagi piya ke sang,
Tan mero man piyu ka, dono bhayo ek rang.

(Khusro remains awake with his beloved in the night of union, the body is mine but the mind belongs to the beloved, the two fuse to become of one colour.)

His language is medieval Hindi and not Urdu. His imagery is of love, but this love is spiritual and not physical. The great Turkish [!] Sufi Maulana Jalal Uddin Rumi (fondly called Maulana Rum) wrote:

I knocked on the door and the voice called ‘who is it’?
I said it is me, Rumi, but the door did not open.
I knocked again and the voice asked ‘who is it?’ once again,
I answered, “It is you my friend” and then the door opened.

This poem describes an experience akin to what is known as ‘monistic mystical experience’ in Catholic and Orhtodox Christian literature and as Nirvikalpa Samaadhi in Hindu literature. The purpose of quoting these two poets is to show the similarity in spiritual thoughts of different religions and different climes. It is this which offers a basis for universal love which all Sufi orders practice.

Relentless assault on Sufism by Wahhabi fanatics is destroying the foundation of peaceful co-existence of different religions. The latest is the recent destruction of the mosque-dargah complex of the revered Sufi Rahman Baba in the town of Peshawar. Even now most of the people of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan are followers of traditional Sunni Islam and hold Sufis in reverence. But they are unarmed and unorganised and have no chance to defend their faith against the organised might of the armed-to-the-teeth Taliban, often backed by the Pakistani state.

People of the Swat valley were traditionally following Sufi Islam and the traditional law which is based partly on tribal customs and partly on Shariah. So restoration of this law is not so dangerous in itself, provided they stay in the traditional Sufi path and the ruling Awami National Party can reverse the Wahhabi/Deobandi trend. But that is unlikely, because the ruthless Taliban have killed an enormous number of tribal elders all over the province, including in the Swat valley, so that a link with the past is broken and the traditional Sunni leadership is now in disarray.

The latest flogging of a 17-year old girl for stepping out of home with a male companion, who was not father or brother, holds ominous portents. Incidentally in this case what the Taliban has enforced is Salafi Law that is practised in Saudi Arabia; the traditional law of the Swat does not prohibit a woman from stepping out with a non-relative male companion. Once again we observe that the Taliban prefers the Saudi law to the traditional one. Saudi Arabia is now trying to pacify some of the Taliban by offering monetary allurement and mediation in order to help their American allies. But this is hardly likely to work.

Conclusions
Development and alleviation of poverty are the primary necessary conditions for fighting Islamic extremism, but they are not sufficient, in my opinion. An ideological offensive is also imperative. Only a war that combines developmental and ideological measures would be sufficient.
Is the Saudi state prepared to eschew Wahhabism and return to traditional Sunni Islam? That perhaps is too tall an order. The least that they can do is to stop financing the spread of Wahhabism abroad and allow a space of legitimacy to traditional Sunni Islam and Shia Islam at home. This amounts to granting religious freedom within the Islamic fold.

Again calling for religious freedom for non-Islamic faiths would be too tall an order at this juncture. Instead of bank-rolling madrasahs, the Saudi state and its businessmen should provide development aid to Pakistan and Bangladesh. They should stop financing madrasahs in India. But there is still no evidence of any dawning of this kind of wisdom among the rulers of Saudi Arabia.

Indian and world policy-makers must wake up to the need for waging an ideological battle at the global level. The SCO seems to be have woken up to the need for an ideological offensive inside Pakistan. Surely that is not enough, because it leaves the source-spring (Saudi Arabia) of the ideology intact.

Dr Kunal Ghosh is a Professor, Aerospace Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

The Strongest Weapon Is Education

By Chris Brummitt with Carley Petesch, "Pakistan's mystics in sights of Taliban" - Associated Press/WRAL - Raleigh, NC, USA
Saturday, May 23, 2009

Peshawar: Worshippers still flock to the grave of Rahman Baba, a Muslim mystic revered by millions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But they now pray at a mound of rubble and twisted steel - all that remains of his tomb since militants bombed it.

The blast in March was the most high-profile in a recent spate of attacks against Pakistan's homespun, tolerant brand of Islam by hard-liners trying to replace it with the more austere version espoused by the Taliban, al-Qaida and other Sunni extremist groups.

"This hurts deep in my heart," said Ihasan ul-Haq, as he looked through a rainstorm onto the ruins of the once ornate, whitewashed tomb on the outskirts of Peshawar, a main northwestern town coming under the influence of the extremists. "And to think they do this in the name of Islam."

The attack was a sign of the extreme intolerance of the militants and the threat posed by the insurgency to the religious and cultural heart of Pakistan, a nation of 170 million people that the U.S. sees as critical in the global fight against Islamic extremism.

As in other countries where Islam replaced earlier religions, the faith widely practiced in Pakistan is different to that in its birthplace, the Arabian peninsula. While still devout and socially conservative, most Pakistanis follow or are influenced by Islam's mystical path of Sufism and incorporate local trappings such as visiting the shrines of saints, devotional songs and dancing. Some estimates say up to 75 percent of the country belongs to this group.

However, the extremists take their cue instead from Islam as practiced in the deserts of 7th century Arabia and are opposed to Sufism and indigenous forms of the faith - particularly the veneration of saints - which they consider dangerous deviations. The extremists gained strength in Pakistan in the 1980s, partly on the back of funding by the United States, which used hardline groups as proxies to fight Soviet rule in Afghanistan.

The fissure between the two forms of Islam has left some wondering whether the government or its Western allies could harness the moderation of the Sufis, and any anger they feel toward the militants, against the Taliban's spreading grip over the nuclear-armed nation. In a study in 2007, the U.S.-based RAND cooperation recommended the United States reach out to Sufis to strengthen moderate networks in Muslim countries, citing as an example Indonesia, another Muslim country where foreign groups have been discreetly helping the moderates.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi*, the descendant of a famous mystic and the keeper of his shrine, speaks often of the need to promote Sufism over extremism. But there has been little sign yet of a sustained effort by the government to reach out to the Sufis as allies or highlight how far out of step the extremists are with the country's religious mainstream.

"If you want to understand the inclusiveness and tolerance of Islam, you have to visit the shrines of Sufis," Qureshi said. "I believe that if you want to counter terrorism in long term, the strongest weapon is not the Kalashnikov, it is education, it is a changing of hearts and minds."

But even with their shrines under attack, Sufis are not rising against the militants or even loudly criticizing them.

Some of this silence is down to fear. The Taliban are known to terrorize and kill opponents. Many people also complain that the security forces would not support them if they put their necks on the line. Another reason is that for many ordinary Pakistanis, anger at the Taliban is offset by anger at the United States for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that many here view as directed against Muslims. Experts also note the Taliban are primarily a political movement, not a religious one, despite how they may present their struggle.

"If most of Pakistan believed what the Taliban believe, the story would be over," said Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the U.S Council on Foreign Relations. "So there is something there, but a lot of it has to do with political control. They use the rhetoric of Islam and claim to follow a pure version of it, but this is not a religious issue."

The shrines to the saints, which range from simple tombs tucked away in tiny villages to large complexes in cities that rake in thousands of dollars a day in donations, are found across the country. They are traditionally visited by men and women - another red flag to the extremists, who believe in the strict segregation of the sexes. Such is the pull of the saints, members of the country's tiny Hindu and Christian minorities pray at some shrines - and meet no objection from other worshippers.

Many are havens for hashish smokers and dealers. Beggars, fortune tellers, food hawkers, drummers, devotional singers and wealthy folk handing out plates of lentil curry mingle at the most popular tombs, which pulsate with life late into the night.

In Karachi, the country's biggest city, hundreds remove their shoes each day to climb the steps to the seaside shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, an 8th century saint credited with bringing Islam to the area. Incense fills the air, as families, the young and the old, file past the tomb, pressing their heads against the stone, kissing it and throwing rose petals. Before leaving they take a pinch of supposedly holy salt from a pot on the tomb.

Mohammed Ahmed, a devout Muslim who teaches computer studies, started visiting the shrine after his wife had trouble conceiving. Now with a grinning 1-year-old girl on his hip, he comes each Saturday to say "thank you" to the saint for granting his wish.

For orthodox Muslims, asking any power but God for help is a grave sin that represents a watering down of the fierce monotheism that is at the heart of Islam. But Ahmed sees no sin, jokingly saying that asking for help by way of Ghazi ensures that his prayers get "priority" with God.

Militants have attacked or seized shrines before, but in targeting the resting place of Rahman Baba, they chose one of the most famous tombs in the region. Scholars say it is hard to overestimate the affection felt by the Pashtun ethnic group of northwest Pakistan and southern Afghanistan for Baba, who lived 300 years ago. In many houses in the region, his verses of love, peace and devotion to God sit alongside the Quran, Islam's holiest book, as the only books on the shelf.

"His grave is the center of Pashtun culture," said Dr. Raj Wali Khattak, from the Peshawar University's Pashtun literature department. "While there is some dispute over who the greatest Pashtun poet is, no one disagrees that he is the most popular."

The attackers, who have not been caught, crept into the complex before dawn as the watchman was praying at the adjoining mosque. They detonated explosives left on the pillars of the tomb and on his tomb before fleeing. The blasts irreparably damaged the building, which has since been demolished to allow for a new one to be built.

The complex is a frequent meeting place for Peshawar's literati and houses a small library that is visited by around 60 people each day. The library, which was undamaged, is home to a collection of around 100 books in English, including biology text books and general knowledge tomes.

"This place is like a paradise for us," said Khurshed Afridi, who is studying for a masters degree in sociology. "It enhances our mind."

[*Picture: شاه محمود قریشی]

‘Sufism and Peace’

By Schezee Zaidi, "Benazir, Curman nominated for Rs2 million PAL awards" - The News international - Karachi, Pakistan
Saturday, May 23, 2009

Islamabad: The Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) announced the nominations of Benazir Bhutto and Peter Curman for the highest literary awards launched by it in 2008 for the first time since their inception in 1995.

PAL Chairman Fakhar Zaman made the announcement of the awards at a press briefing held here on Friday.

According to the announcement, eminent Swedish poet Peter Curman has been nominated for the International Quaid-i-Azam Award for Literature, as a mark of respect to his contributions to the world literature. Benazir Bhutto has been selected for the International Quaid-i-Awam Award for Democracy, as a mark of respect for her courageous struggle for democracy.

The PAL chairman said that both these awards are worth Rs 2 million each [$ 25'000.-]. According to him, these are the highest literary awards in South Asia.

Peter Curman, born in 1941, is a Swedish poet. His first selection of poetry appeared in 1965 and since then he has published twelve books of poetry, debates, anthologies and one love novel. Together with Ingemar Lindahl, he translated John Lennon’s ‘In His Own Write’. He is well known in this region, as his works have been published in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Gurmukhi.

Curman was for many years the president of the Swedish Writers Union (1987-95) and was lately the chairman of the Swedish Joint Committee for Literary and Artistic Professionals, an umbrella organisation for 18 creative unions representing the cultural scene of Sweden. He has also been one of the driving forces behind the literary cruises in the Baltic Sea in 1992 and in the Black Sea and the Aegean in 1994 that resulted in two dynamic Writers’ and Translators’ Centres under the auspices of Unesco on the Swedish island of Gotland and the Greek island of Rhodes.

Peter Curman is also the initiator of the Swedish digital printing house — PODIUM — an initiative aimed to introduce new technology — print-on-demand — to distribute new literature in limited editions as well as worldwide.

The PAL chairman also announced another new award titled ‘Pas-e-Zindaan Award’ for best writings appearing during dictatorial and military rules of Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf. He said that many political activists and writers suffered torment and imprisonment during dictatorial regimes but they kept on writing in their prison cells.

He said that the PAL has collected all such writings and four best works will be selected for awards. The decision regarding the awards worth Rs 100,000 [$ 1250.-] for each work will be made by a national committee comprising 13 prominent writers and judges.

Fakhar Zaman also announced the new board of governors for PAL by adding new members representing all four provinces and Islamabad. The newly-appointed members are Afzal Ahsan Randhawa, Masood Ashaar, Dr. Tahir Tounsvi, Dr. Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, Dr. Fahmeeda Hussain, Dr. Shah Muhammad Marri, Saleem Raz and Professor Alamgir Hashmi.

The PAL chairman also made an announcement with regard to enhancement in financial assistance to writers from the previous Rs 3,000 to a flat amount of Rs 5,000 from 2008, as approved by the prime minister. He said that as per the decision, eight more literary institutions have been added to the list of Learner Bodies and the financial assistance has also been increased. It has also been decided that other literary societies will be given financial assistance. He said that Rs 4.3 million will be distributed among these institutions.

Fakhar Zaman said that earlier the PAL initiated a scheme to provide writers with insurance facility. As many as 700 writers were insured under this scheme so far. However the process was stopped but now provision of medical facility would be included in the scheme.

Fakhar Zaman announced that arrangements are being made for holding an international conference on ‘Sufism and Peace’ in which about 100 delegates from 70 countries will participate along with Pakistani writers from all four provinces of the country. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani will preside over its opening session. Soon after the confirmation of his availability, date and schedule for this conference will be announced.

Fakhar Zaman said that a big project is underway to compile selected writings published in all Pakistani languages from 1947 to 2007. This voluminous selection will be published in two volumes, separately in each Pakistani language.

He also announced that a selection of resistance literature published in Urdu from 1999 to 2007 will also be published soon. He said that it was decided in a meeting with Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani that PAL should publish a book on the personality and writings of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as a writer and intellectual. The PAL is also in the process of reprinting ‘Bhutto Trial’ in two volumes, a book comprising documents and reports on the trial of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

The PAL is also working on a plan to publish a selection of writings of anonymous writers, relating to the legendary personality of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Another book ‘Khushboo Ki Shahadat’ is being published by the PAL comprising poems published after the murder of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

[Picture: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani]

A Gentle Way of Teaching

IU News Room, "Book Marks - The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb. " - Indiana University - Bloomington, IN, USA
Thursday, May 21, 2008

Recent books by Indiana University faculty members and alumni as well as titles from the IU Press

Frances Trix's new book, The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb (University of Pennsylvania Press), tells the life story of Rexheb, a Muslim mystic from the Balkans who founded the first Bektashi community in America.

Through Bektashi stories, oral histories and ethnographic experience she acquired during her more than 20 years studying with Rexheb, Trix recounts the life and times of this modern Sufi leader and the communities in which he lived: the traditional Bektashi tekke in Albania where he first served, the displaced persons camps to which he escaped after the war, the centuries-old tekke in Cairo where he waited and the Bektashi community that he founded in Michigan in 1954 and led until his passing in 1995.

As a linguistic anthropologist, Trix taped 12 years of their weekly meetings in Turkish, Albanian and Arabic. She draws extensively on Rexheb's words, as well as interactions at the Michigan Bektashi center.

Readers come to know Rexheb's gentle way of teaching through example and parable, poetry and humor. The book also documents the history of the 700-year-old Bektashi order in the 19th and 20th centuries in the Balkans and Egypt and its transposition to America, attesting to the role of Sufi centers in Islamic community life and their interaction with people of other faiths.

Trix is an associate professor of linguistics and anthropology at Indiana University and an ethnographer of Islam in Balkan immigrant communities. Her books include *Spiritual Discourse: Learning with a Muslim Master* and *Muslim Voices and Lives in the Contemporary World*.

A Celluloid Campfire

By Robert Duncan, "Sufi Film Aims To Show Gentler Side Of Islam" - Spero News - USA
Thursday, May 21, 2009

'Kashf: The Lifting Of The Veil' focuses on the human face of Pakistan and its cultural heritage of Sufism and Spirituality

A film about Sufism from a region better known for the Taliban aims to show a gentler side of Islam. The film, "Kashf: The Lifting Of The Veil," is described as the first English-speaking feature film from Pakistan in 30 years and is being distributed by "Spiritual Cinema Circle."

According to an article at "CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan", "the movie explores Sufism - the mystical side of Islam- through the eyes of Armaghan, who was born after an oath his mother made to a Sufi Pir when she was childless. Armaghan’s mother promises the Pir, who blesses her, to let her son ‘walk the Sufi path’ when he grows up. However, he returns to Pakistan from America after 25 years, unaware of the secret about to change his life."

Sufism is not a Islamic denomination, but rather a mystical-ascetic form of Islam. Followers of Sufism aim to focus on the more spiritual aspects of Islam and to obtain direct experience of God by being trained how to used what are described as "intuitive and emotional faculties." While Sufism and Islamic law are considered to be complementary, Sufism is criticized by more fundamentalist Muslims - such as followers of Wahhabism - as being a heretical innovation of Islam.

Kashf, the film's website claims, "is a story of universal relevance exploring humanity’s basic questions of who we are, and why we are here." The film's promoters say they hope that once viewers see the film they will "ask if Sufism and its history in Pakistan can stem the tide of extremism and the Taliban."

Kashf's director is the Pakistani television actress Ayesha Khan who is based in New York and Santa Fe. In an interview posted at "CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan," Khan said it's difficult to gauge how strongly Sufism "influences Pakistan today versus the past but one must keep in mind, unlike Wahhabism which is a recent phenomena, Sufism has been part of this land we claim as Pakistan since before the 12th century. It permeates and enriches our culture and our identity in ways which are visceral and we should as a nation be determined to preserve that."

Later in that interview, Khan added, "If the government was serious in its intent and reached out with a long term goal of education to people in Pakistan and providing means with which they could be economically viable, the elements at risk would themselves realize the fabulously coined label of Taliban are nothing but thugs who are hiding behind a façade of Islam which has nothing to do with the practice of Islam."

Besides Khan, actress Ali MacGraw also lives in Santa Fe. Kashf's promoters say MacGraw saw the film at the Santa Fe Film Festival and called it "a huge and impressive accomplishment. I was fascinated to see the many aspects of Pakistan which are not normally accessible to us on our television reportage ... a riveting film."

In recent years MacGraw has been known as a proponent of Hatha Yoga and her "Yoga Mind and Body," and was credited in June 2007 by Vanity Fair as being one of the people responsible for the yoga's popularity in the United States.

Kashf was nominated for Best Editing at The Santa Fe Festival, and is currently playing in various Art House Theaters and various universities, including Brown, Stanford, NYU and Columbia.

Film Distributed By New Age Subscription Company
Kashf is being distributed over the internet by the New Age internet DVD subscription company Spiritual Cinema Circle. In an online interview at OrganicAuthority.com, Spiritual Cinema Circle co-founder Stephen Simon said, "We see Spiritual Cinema as the 21st Century version of shamanic storytelling - with filmmakers as the modern day shamans, sitting around a celluloid campfire, passing down the myths and hopes of a culture from one generation to another."

Spiritual Cinema Circle has previously distributed films such as "What the Bleep Do We Know," "The Secret," and "Conversations With God."

In that same interview, Simon said his company seeks to differentiate between "Religion" and "Spirituality." "'Religion' reflects the teachings of particular organized religions that commonly present specific rules, regulations, and rituals that must be followed in order to experience a connection with the Divine which is usually identified as male and outside of humanity. 'Spirituality' entails a more personal, inner-directed, and individual experience of the Divine, which is represented as an integral aspect of our own humanity. The Passion would be a classic example of Religious Cinema while Whale Rider would be a prime example of Spiritual Cinema," Simon was quoted as saying.

"Spiritual Cinema illuminates the landscape of our evolution and stirs us to remember who we can be when we reach beyond the seen into a realm where we engage the magical aspects of our human potential," Simon said elsewhere in that interview.

In that vein, Kashf is described as exploring "one man’s journey towards Sufism, the mystical side of Islam. In the midst of worldwide headlines of the Taliban, 'Kashf: The Lifting Of The Veil' focuses on the human face of Pakistan and its cultural heritage of Sufism and Spirituality."

[Kashf official website: http://www.kashfthemovie.com/]

To Rule them with their Guns

By Yaroslav Trofimov, "Taliban's Reign of Fear Spreads in Pakistani City " The Wall Street Journal - Asia News/USA-Pakistan
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Peshawar: A few days ago, Peshawar police advised Manzur Khan to shut down his video store. The reason: information that the Taliban, who consider movies un-Islamic, were planning to blow it up.

Mr. Khan is complying, liquidating his stock of Bollywood dramas and pirated American blockbusters. "Customers are not coming anymore because of the fear," he says. "Our business has totally collapsed."

The fear is well justified. A few hundred yards from Mr. Khan's store, a car bomb that targeted an Internet café -- which offered another activity prohibited by the Taliban -- killed 13 people on Saturday. Other recent explosions ripped through women's clothing stalls, Sufi religious shrines and girls' schools as Islamist insurgents tightened their noose over this strategic city of three million people.

"The Taliban often come into the city from surrounding areas to terrorize, to spread panic and fear," Peshawar mayor Mohammed Umar Khan says. "We in Peshawar are paying the price, losing our people, our economy and our businesses."

The Pakistani military is now engaged in an offensive to drive the Islamist militants from the nearby Swat Valley. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday the U.S. was sending $110 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan, including food, water and tents for refugees from the fighting, which began after the Taliban tried to expand the territory under their control.

The Taliban are unlikely to seize Peshawar, the capital of the troubled North West Frontier province and headquarters of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force.

But, through a campaign of bombings, kidnappings and murders, the militants are increasingly imposing on Peshawar the rigid religious restrictions that are already enforced in Swat, Waziristan, and other northwestern areas that have succumbed to Taliban control.

Such "Talibanization" is a grim setback for a storied city that braced itself for revival when a secular Pashtun nationalist movement, the Awami National Party, won provincial elections last year, ousting a coalition of religious parties. At the time, the ANP promised to reverse many Islamist-imposed restrictions, such as a ban on Pashtun traditional music performances in Peshawar's main concert venue, Nishtar Hall.

Instead, the ban stayed in place, in a city that's becoming increasingly more conservative because of the Taliban threat -- and that many secular residents abandon for Islamabad or Karachi. Mr. Umar Khan, the mayor, says the new administration held award ceremonies for Pashtun musicians in Nishtar Hall, but couldn't risk letting award winners showcase their talents. "We fear that if we allow the music, the show will be bombed," he says.

In addition to going after businesses they deem un-Islamic, the Taliban often strike Peshawar warehouses and convoys that supply U.S. and allied forces in neighboring Afghanistan -- choking the coalition's main supply route.

They have attacked Sufi shrines, seeking to eradicate an Islamic tradition that's widespread across Pakistan.

Even doctors at Peshawar's main hospital have been ordered by the Taliban to stop wearing Western clothes, and to adopt the loose-fitting national dress known as shalwar kameez.

With Taliban spies roaming the streets, the fear is palpable in Peshawar's bazaars, where many are reluctant to be seen talking to a foreigner, and glance around with visible discomfort during a conversation.

"Everyone's scared here," says Qassem Ali, the owner of a shop that sells colorful, silver-laced women's garments in Peshawar's Ladies Market, where another bomb went off Saturday. "The Taliban want every woman to be burka-clad. Women fear that anyone who comes here will be targeted, and are staying at home. We sit idle from morning till evening."

Nobody took responsibility for the latest attacks, but Mayor Umar Khan blamed Mangal Bagh Afridi, a former bus driver who has become an Islamist warlord in the Khyber tribal agency adjoining Peshawar. The militant belongs to a loosely coordinated network of Taliban groups that includes militants led by fiery radio preacher Maulana Fazlullah, who is currently fighting the Pakistani army in the Swat Valley, and the Waziristan militias commanded by Baitullah Mehsud, whom the Pakistani government blamed for assassinating former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

Omar Mullah's original Taliban militia that once ruled Afghanistan is believed to be based in Baluchistan province, which neighbors North West Frontier.

Spreading outside the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier, Taliban groups have shut down video stores and Internet cafés in much of the North West Frontier province. In the Swat Valley, in particular, they focused on eradicating girls' education, blowing up some 200 schools and branding female teachers "prostitutes."

The school-bombing drive is reaching Peshawar, where a girls' school was blown up last week.

"They don't want Pashtun children to be educated -- this way they can rule them with their guns," says Sardar Hussain Babak, the provincial minister of education.

Picture: Girls attended classes inside a tent at the camp. Photo: Ali Imam/Reuters

To Give People Relief

By Izgi Güngör, "It’s OK to stretch, just don’t believe" - Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey
Thursday, May 21, 2009

Ankara: Concerns expressed by the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Bardakoğlu, that some personal-development methods such as transcendental meditation and yoga can lead people to extremism may stem from the rising popularity of such movements in society at the expense of traditional Islamic beliefs, theological and social experts say.

A top religious clerk’s remark that practicing some personal-development methods such as transcendental meditation, reiki and yoga may lead people to extremism has spawned divergent commentary from experts as well as the practitioners of these movements in the country.

Ali Bardakoğlu, the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, sparked the controversy by saying that some personal-development methods, though presented to people as a harmless way to combat stress, seek not to meet modern man’s loneliness, but rather to create a commercial sector in society.

"Although these movements are justified and presented to people with promises for further success, health and happiness, rather than the religious discourses, these movements are based on the Indian-oriented Far East philosophy and religious doctrines," Bardakoğlu said in an article in the Religious Affairs Directorate’s monthly magazine. He also leveled a self-criticism at religious circles, saying, "We, however, failed to recognize and make people recognize how praying, thinking, invocation and worship are powerful instruments to give people relief for their loneliness, desperation and pessimism."

Religious scholars and practitioners of transcendental meditation, reiki and yoga suggested that Bardakoğlu’s concerns may have stemmed from the rising popularity of such movements in society, particularly among elites, at the expense of their own religion, Islam, and from the perception of such exercises as missionary activities. While agreeing that such exercises had lost their original purposes and become a large commercial industry, practitioners of these movements said that such activities were not in conflict with Islam but instead reinforce each other.

"Bardakoğlu could have felt he needed to warn against possible missionary activities in this respect. He probably wanted to point to some possible anti-Islamist elements in such exercises," said religious scholar Mehmet Hayri Kırbaşoğlu. "Of course, such methods can be applied, but they shouldn’t be against Islam," he said.

He said, "These services sometimes can’t be performed so innocently. The services in Islam, for instance, are free. But this field is becoming a huge sector, as Bardakoğlu said. It is mostly the elites who are affiliated with such practices. People should first seek relief in their own religion."

Kırbaşoğlu added that the directorate should question why people feel such a need to adopt such practices in a nation that is mostly comprised of Muslims.

For religious scholar Ali İhsan Yitik of İzmir-based 9 Eylül University, who specializes in the Far East and has studied the issue, such types of exercises are a kind of Hindu worship, from which most of the movements originated.

"Both Islam and such movements actually defend the same values. They both urge people to control their feelings and dominate their reason over their feelings," he said. "But the threat is likely to appear when the exercise was put into action, as such exercises have today turned into a type of worship for religions belonging to other cultures practiced by elites. They try in a way to realize the worship method owned by another religion to achieve their ultimate goals, which eventually results in alienation from the society and its original religion."

The growing popularity of such exercises among upper class Turks also leads members of this group to see themselves as superior to others, he says. "The yoga methods applied in yoga centers today, moreover, are far from classical and original yoga doctrines," Yitik added. "They are a rather simplified form of Hinduism, adapted for Westerners and capitalist societies."

Another yoga instructor, who has been active in yoga since 1988, said their main fight was to break down prejudices concerning yoga, which has been seen as a missionary activity. "It is not a religion, but a philosophy," she said. There are some institutions in Istanbul and Ankara that abuse their original purposes and see it as missionary activity, but the majority focus on practicing the philosophy."

Not missionary activity
Yoga instructor Adnan Çabuk, 33, one of Turkey’s longstanding authorities on yoga, reiki and transcendental meditation, said such movements are not in conflict with the doctrines of Islam and cannot be deemed missionary activity.

"Instead they all reinforce each other. There is a great parallelism, for instance, between the systems of yoga and Islamic Sufism. They both employ the same spiritual elements. People perform ritual prayer in Islam religion and we have, too, exercises similar to this ritual," said Çabuk.

"Some yoga systems are likely to use some religious elements, but this shouldn’t be mixed with missionary activity, as yoga, which originates in India, is a philosophy and lifestyle, not a religion or a kind of worship. There are no yoga trainers or experts who come to Turkey from India to spread Hinduism here. Since the terminology is from India, yoga instructors have to use it."

As in other sectors, he said, there are some who try to commercialize these types of activities in Turkey, but in principle, such types of movements focus on providing spiritual relaxation and bliss to people.

"People usually come to us to get rid of stress stemming from their heavy workloads and fast-paced lives. There are, of course, some who take them as a fashionable thing, but it primarily the stress and health problems that lead people to be affiliate with such practices," Çabuk said.

"We have students from every segment of society, including ministers, film producers, businessmen, students and those from the high society. Even psychologists send us some of their patients."

Refracting religion through media lens
Conservative and right-wing newspapers handled a recent article by the Directorate ofReligious Affairs on yoga and other spiritual activities by highlighting the directorate’s controversial comment that yoga has religious roots from the Far East.

Conservative daily Yeni Şafak led with a story about the article with the headline, "Yoga warning from Religious Affairs." The Far Eastern religions underlie the roots of yoga, reiki, transcendental meditation and similar activities, and this could lead people to extremism, the story read.

Daily Zaman also highlighted that the directorate defined yoga as an activity with religious roots.

More liberal daily Radikal highlighted the part of the article saying that loneliness pushes people to do yoga and reiki.

Daily Milliyet wrote, "The despair of modern individual: Bardakoğlu’s comment on yoga."

Two Half-day Workshops

NYOC, "Connecting With The Divine: Sufi Practices & Teachings" - New York Open Center - New York, NY, USA

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Connecting With The Divine: Sufi Practices & Teachings
with Shaykh Taner Ansari and Shaykha Muzeyyen Ansari

A Half-day Workshop
Saturday, May 30, 10:00 am–1:00 pm

Sufism is a spiritual science that offers us tools to clear the path of communication between the human heart and the Divine.

Sufis teach that our hearts are imprinted with signs sent directly from the Essence (Allah)—the conscious energy of existence.

Join Shaykh Taner and Shaykha Muzeyyen to discover techniques to clear blockages that our egos have placed in the way of this sacred conversation; learn to recognize the signs in our hearts by using centuries-old methods such as zikr (repetition of the names of God); mushahada (contemplation); rabita (telepathic heart connection between the Lover and the Beloved); and adab (specific behaviors that reflect awareness of the Divine).

--

Sufi Purification Practices: Healing the Self, Healing the Planet
with Shaykh Taner Ansari and Shaykha Muzeyyen Ansari

A Half-day Workshop
Saturday, May 30, 2:30 pm–5:30 pm

In the Sufi healing tradition, the purification of mind, body and spirit is considered to be of utmost importance.

We tend to accumulate toxins and lose our vitality because of our environment, our genetic inheritance, or the misuse of our energy, and this toxicity can cause illness as well as cloud our judgment and impede our spiritual development.

In this workshop we will learn simple but powerful traditional Sufi purification methods.

Shaykh Taner and Shaykha Muzeyyen will teach us how to ground, heal, and sustain ourselves with purifying dietary choices, healthy recipes, herbal remedies, breathing exercises, energy work, mantras and the power of a positive outlook.

Shaykh Taner Ansari, a renowned teacher of Sufism, has been practicing Sufi healing for 30 years and is director of the Sufi organizations Qadiri Rifai Tariqa and Ansari Tariqa. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Grand Masters of Sufism.

Shaykha Muzeyyen Ansari, a second-generation healer, co-founded the Ansari Institute of Sufi Healing (AISH) with her husband and has edited and written many articles on Sufism and healing. An ordained shaykha, she lectures and leads congregational zikr.

Shaykh Taner is the author of *Alternative Healing: The Sufi Way*

[For further information or to register, click here or on the title of this article]

The New York Open Center is a non-profit holistic learning center offering evening events, full-day workshops, ongoing classes, and advanced trainings.

For a Middle Way

By Adil Morrison, "An Oasis of Sanity" - Globalia Magazine - Berlin, Germany
Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The month of May saw a significant event take place in the city of Norwich, in the East of England.

The importance of the event is difficult to overemphasise, particularly when looked at from the perspective of the growing presence and visibility of Islam in Europe what this means for relations with European society at large.

Every year, Norwich plays host to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, an annual event aimed at celebrating creativity, innovation, beauty and diversity with jazz, classical music, comedy and dance.

Only this year, there was a slight difference. The Open Trade Network, a Norwich-based organisation, which aims to promote an alternative model of trade to that of liberal “free” trade, by actively supporting local and independent producers and businesses, and the EMU-member Islamic community were given the task of organising a two-day market in the city centre.

The event was organised on the principle of a free market: stallholders were not charged a fee for space.

A crucial aspect of the market ethos is that it aims to improve perhaps strained relations between the Muslim community and the local authorities. This has been demonstrated with great success in several countries across Europe – including Germany, Spain, Portugal and the UK – to name but a few. In most cases, well-known local politicians and dignitaries have been present.

The marketplace does not just benefit Muslims. This a key point, and one that cannot be stressed enough; it is a vital element in the overall fabric of a society – this is something that has been appreciated by both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Another key element is that this type of event helps to dispel myths and stereotypes with regards to the Muslim community. The typical European’ view of Islam and Muslims is quickly brought into question and then completely shattered – this is something that needs to be done. The market idea is just one way of doing this.

Elements within the mainstream media have a very dangerous tendency to think in extremes – there is no room for a middle way. You have on the one hand, westernised, secular Muslims and on the other hand, extremists. What public events, such as this one help to do is to demonstrate that this is simply not the case, and that there does exist an Islam that is true to itself, but at the same time does not conform to terrorist conventions.

A wide array of traders attended making for a truly memorable occasion - the stalls ranged from food and drink, to books and beauty products - even a masseuse and a traditional coffee maker were plying their wares. In total, there were around twenty traders on both days, including both Muslims and non-Muslims. What gave the market its particular significance was that all traders accepted both the gold dinar and silver dirham.

The timing of the event could not have been better when we consider the economic situation the world is currently being confronted with: people are crying out for an alternative to what has been exposed as both an unjust and untenable system. That alternative was on display in practice, in Norwich - furthermore, the gold and silver currency was not just a novelty, but rather it was traded and exchanged.

The proprietor of the coffee stall personally accepted around € 40 [$ 54] worth of silver in exchange for coffee over both days. Over the weekend there was around € 100 [$ 136] worth of silver coins exchanged, which were then used in the marketplace. Additionally many people brought their own stockpiles of gold and silver coins from home. Although not a huge amount, it was nevertheless a significant step for Muslims and for European society as an entity.

As one visitor remarked: “We all know gold and silver is correct, so why aren’t we using it?” What made this market particularly interesting is that it was coupled with an open day at a local mosque, a minute’s walk from the marketplace. The mosque played host to an event - “Oasis of Sanity” featuring an exhibition entitled “The New Bedouins” - the basic components comprised of: a multi-media exhibition aimed at illustrating the history of the community and their contributions to civic life in the city.

As well as the “New Bedouins” exhibition, there were a carefully calibrated combination of talks, seminars or workshops including “Real Sufism”, “Open Trade”, “Caribbean Roots” and “English Beginnings” given by distinguished Norwich-based scholars, including Hajj Abdul Haqq Bewley.

The aims of the Open Trade Network, among others, are to extend the Open Trade initiative in market creation to other cities in Europe, as well as linking up with compatible and sympathetic market initiatives to create a database of manufacturers, producers, craftspeople and traders well disposed towards the themes of Open Trade to begin to link up such traders in journeys to open markets.

Another of the aims of the community, in conjunction with the Open Trade Network, is to repeat the success of this month’s market on a more regular basis. The next market being in June- may we wish them success in their endeavours.

[Visit the Norwich and Norfolk Festival 2009 website]

[Picture: Jonathan Holloway, Artistic Director and Chief Executive. Photo: BBC UK. Read the BBC Interview with Jonathan Holloway (2006)]

The Clouds of Mercy

By Syed Salman Chishty, ""Annual Urs sharif of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Chishty (ra) 2009"" - Chishty Foundation - Ajmer, India
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

797th Urs Sharif Of Khawaja Gharib Nawaz

The blessed Urs sharif of Hazrat Kahawaja Moinuddin Chishty (ra) is about to start and the blessed city Ajmer is getting into the mood of joy and celebrations.

"Salaams and Greetings Dear Friends and respected Elders, I hope this mail finds you all in the best of health, strength and Imaan.

Alhamdulilah, SubhanAllah, Mashallah - the blessed Urs sharif of Hazrat Kahawaja Moinuddin Chishty (ra) is about to start and the blessed city Ajmer is getting into the mood of joy and celebrations.

As a humble Khadim (servant) of Khawaja Gharib Nawaz i am glad to inform and invite you all for the 797th Urs sharif celebrations. Following are the dates and events during the annual Urs celebrations:

Urs Sharif 2009 is from June19 to July 2
6th of Rajjab will be on June 29 - The dates may change due to the sighting of the moon.

June 19: Flag Ceremony
June 23: Urs begins (Jannati darwaza opens)
June 26: Jummah prayers
June 29: Chhati Sharif (Annual Fathea Jannati darwaza will be closed)
July 2: Qul Day, end of Urs

Often while walking around the blessed lanes of Ajmer Sharif we hear a beautiful lyrical which translate as:

'The clouds of mercy have spread out ecstatically
For spring has arrived in the garden of Chisht.
Friends, get a ticket to Ajmer
For Khwajah’s festival has arrived.

The soul acquires peace in Ajmer
Life smiles in Ajmer
A treasure of mercies lies in Ajmer.

Khawaja’s tale took place in Ajmer
Why do you hesitate?
Pay heed to what I say

Once this opportunity slips away
it will not return
Friends, get a ticket to Ajmer.'

With best of Dua's n regards, May Allah always smile upon you all.
Ameen.

Love, Peace, Dua’s and Blessings"

Haji Syed Salman Chishty S/o Late S.M.Usman Chishty Sb.Chishty Manzil ,Jhalra Street ,Dargah ,Ajmer Sharif ,Post Box # 50Rajasthan ,India. Cell # + 91-9829174973 Tel : +91-145-2429473+91-145-5149473 +91-145-5131786

Picture: A view of the Jhalra - the 11th century water spring in the Dargah Sharif. Photo: Syed Salman Chishty.

The Importance of Interfaith

By Tareq Altamimi, ""Sufism, Principles and Dialogue" - Volunteering for Peace CC -Palestine" - United Religious Initiative Community - San Francisco, CA, USA

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Volunteering for Peace CC in Palestine organized a conference entitled "Sufism, Principles and Dialogue" Wednesday May 6th at the Gallery Hall in Hebron.

The meeting hosted Shaykha Khadija Radin who began turning in 1971 after she first saw whirling performed by the followers of Sufi Murshid Samuel Lewis in San Francisco, California. They had recently lost their beloved teacher.

She was enraptured by the meditative movement which was to change her way of life. She was, at the time, a teacher and choreographer of modern dance. Formerly a member of the Lucas Hoving Dance Company in New York. Shortly thereafter she resigned from an administrative and teaching position with the San Francisco Art Commission to travel from Holland overland to India and back, searching out the mystics, especially the Dervish.

Shaykha Khadija was originally Jewish and she converted 30 years ago and become one of the leading teachers in her group.

The event also included; The head (Shaikh) of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the head of the Palestinian Islamic Supreme Council of the Jurisprudence, Shaikh Tayseer Al-Tamimi (a well known interfaith leader in Palestine and a consultant to president Abbas in religious issues), a group of juries males and females from the Palestinian court (2 of the juries were from the women who recently appointed as high court juries in Palestine), a group of 7 Palestinian Sufis from Alqasimy Tariqa in Palestine, the vice-governor of Hebron and representative of president Abbas to the meeting, Universities professors, students, and other local leadership.

This event is the first of its kind in Palestine to address the topic Sufism to the Palestinian community and discuss about it. There are small group of Sufis in Palestine who also had the chance to take part and learn about similarities and differences with other groups around the world.

The meeting was chaired by Tareq Altamimi the coordinator of Volunteering for Peace CC and the member of the Global Council of URI; the meeting started with a prayer from the Emam of al-Aqsa mosque Shaykh Abd Alkareem Zurba. Then Mr. Altamimi provided an introduction to URI, its main principles and purposes and presented the members of Volunteering for Peace who were attending the meeting.

After a welcoming from the chairman, Shaykh Tayseer Al-Tamimi provide an introduction about the importance of diversity in the Palestinian community and the openness to the world and to other religions. He welcomed Shaykha Khadija to Palestine and her students and spoke about Sufism in Islam. He also spoke about the current situation of Holy places in Palestine.

Then the Vice-governor of Hebron and the representative of President Abbas spoke and welcomed Shaykha Khadija and the audience in the city of Hebron and spoke about the importance of interfaith and knowing about other groups and methods of worshipping He also spoke about his excitement on this event which take place for the first time in Palestine and encourage organizing this kind of conference.

He also thanked Volunteering for Peace for organizing the event and brought the governor's blessing to this event.

Then Shaykha Khadija started with thanking Volunteering for Peace for organizing this event and inviting her to it and for giving her the opportunity to make this event in Palestine. She provided an introduction about the Mevlevi way of Sufism which is using prayers and dhikr as a method of worshipping God.

She started with an introduction of the existence of human being and the uniqueness of God. She provided a detailed information about the Mevlevi way (tariqa) of Sufism and spoke about the Whirling Dervish's way which she uses to reach to God. She mentioned that her way of worshipping God is based on love and dhikr. She also gave live examples of the classes she normally provide around the world in the US, Europe, India, and other countries.

Then the group of local Sufis of Al-Qasimy in Palestine had a chance to present their way (Tariqa) and spoke about the Academy they already established to teach Sufism in Palestine and the activity they organize in Palestine. They also spoke about many similarities with what Shaykha Khadija already mentioned.

Then an open discussion started, many questions were raised from the audience who raised very important points, and cleared stereotypes which they have about Sufism and its practices.

They also had a chance to hear from Shayka Khadija about her experience in other countries and about the concept of Sufism.

The dialogue was interactive and had many questions raised from University professors, Doctors, women leadership, Islamic Law experts, Shariaa teachers, and the previously mentioned key guests. There were many ideas and questions which were raised on Sufism and the Mevlevi way through questions an answers by Shaykha Khadija.

The meeting language was in English with a direct translations into/from Arabic. Photos are available at Volunteering for Peace CC on Facebook and will be available also at http://www.uri.org/community/ .

We wish you were able to join us the fruit of success of this very important conference which took Place for the first time in Palestine.

Khadija Radin is also a Shaykha of the Sufi Ruhaniat International, a Sufi Order founded by Murshid Samuel Lewis. She resides at The Dervish Center in upstate New York, teaching Sufi studies, the Mevlevi and other styles of turning and meditation.

She is the director of the Body Mind Restoration Retreats, a cleansing and renewal program hosted at the center in the summer.

Khadija Marcia Radin began formal training in meditation in 1969 with Swami Rudrananda and later with Swami Muktananda. To learn more about Shaykha Khadija and her work check the following link http://www.whirlingdervish.org/about.htm

[Visit the URI's website http://www.uri.org/]

Trancelike Material

By Robin Denselow, "El Tanbura: Friends of Bamboute" - The Guardian - London, UK
Friday, May 15, 2009

El Tanbura are one of Egypt's great bands. Formed 20 years ago (this is their anniversary album), they set out to revive the music that was popular in the cafes and smoking dens of their home city - Port Said, on the Suez canal - before electronic keyboards took over.

There are more than 20 musicians in the band, most of them singers, and their often trancelike material ranges from sturdy and gently insistent dance songs through to folk, Sufi religious songs and tunes in the Dama tradition, as with the pained Noh el Haman.

Many tracks start slowly, with a solo voice joined by chanting backing vocals; the tempo gradually increases as the singers are driven on by hand drums, the ney flute and the ancient lyre, the simsimiyya, often ending up as a frantic dance workout.

This is a band best experienced live, but this impressively varied set makes a suitable introduction before their June concerts in the UK.

[Visit the official El Tanbura website http://www.eltanbura.com/]

With the Islamic Spirit

By Balraj Puri, "5000 Years of Kashmir" - United News Network - New Delhi, India
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Kashmir is a unique civilizationed experiment which can claim, as observed by Sir Aurel Stein, the distinction of being the only region of India (undivided) which possesses an uninterrupted series of written records of its history.

The archaeological excavations in Bourzahama, 15 kilometers from Sringar, establish its antiquity to before 3000 BC ( ie over 5000 years). It was contemporaneous to the Mohenjudaro civilization. Moreover, the excavations further provide evidence to the fact that some of the practices and rituals prevalent 5000 years are still prevalent in Kashmir society today.

In other words, this is a unique experiment of continuity of a tradition for such a long period. According to James Ferguson, the Nagas, the earliest inpatients of Kashmir, were an aboriginal race of Turanian stock before the Aryans conquered the North India.

Again, Sir George Grierson, the pioneering authority on Indian languages, maintains that Kashmiri to is not of Saskrit origin but of Dardic origin that means Kashmiri does not belong to Indo-Aryan family of languages, spoken from Dhaka (Bangladesh) to Pershawar (Pakistan).

The original Naga tribes resisted absorption in the Vedic civilization by the Aryans. According to legends, some Nagas attended the religious seminars of Nagarjuna at Nalanda and impressed by the way he contradicted the Vedic doctrines, invited him to Kashmir. According to GMD Sufi, on account of his connections with the Nagas, he received the name of Nagarjuna. (Some scholars claim that he was a Kashmiri as Naga in his name suggests ). He was elevated to the status of Bodhistava.

It was under his leadership that the fourth council of Buddhism was held at Harvan near Srinagar in Kashmir in 100 AD where Mahayana school of Buddhism was founded. Influenced by Naga-Tantric thought of Kashmir, Buddhism got transformed into its Kashmiri version. Buddhism was, in a way, Kashmirised before it was adopted by Kashmiris.

Shivas supremacy over Vedic gods
With the decline of Buddhism in India and its eventual absorption in the mainstream religious thought, the process started in Kashmir also. But in Kashmir this, was done with reservation. Kashmir adopted shaivism. Shiva is not a Vedic god but of pre-Aryan tribes.

Abhinav Gupta, the eminent Kashmiri philosopher, claims the primacy of agamas religious texts of ancient Kashmir dating between first and fifth century AD over the Vedas both in point of time and performance of rituals.

The interaction between Vedic and Kashmiri traditions did develop in course of time. But in Kashmirs religious literature the supremacy of Shiva over the Vedic supreme god Indira has often been asserted. Margendre Tantra, for instance, refers to a legend in which Shiva is regarded as the supreme deity from whom Indira brings the sacred knowledge of Tantra to the world, thereby reducing him to a mere communicator of Shivas knowledge.

According to VN Darbu, the pre-Vedic people of Kashmir were admitted to Vedic society with distinctive characteristics of their own life at different periods. Eventually indigenous religious beliefs, and Buddhism were synthesized by great Kashmiri philosophers Vasugupta (ninth century AD) and Abinava Gupta (tenth century AD) into Kashmiri version of Shaivism called Trika philosophy.

Influence of Buddhism is discernible in many rituals and customs of Kashmiri Hindus even today.

Islam as Consolidator of Traditions
According to GMD Sufi, Monastic theism of Kashmir Shaivism is very near to Islam. He particularly compares it with the tenet of celebrated Muslim mystic Mansur al Hallaj (858 to 922 AD) who proclaimed Anl Haq (I am creative truth). Kashmir thus accepted Islam not as a negation but as a culmination of a proud spiritual heritage.

It did not surrender to Islam as a spiritually exhausted personality but greeted it in a friendly embrace.

Islam did not come to Kashmir as a faith of conquerors and thereore did not humiliate or hurt its pride.

Muslim rule was not an outside import but followed the conversion of a local ruler.

Mass conversion of the people of Kashmir to Islam owes to a unique character that emerged from the soil in the person of Alamdar-e-Kashmir, Shaikh Nooruddin Noorani, popularly called Nund Rishi (14th Century), who became the patron-saint of Kashmir. He translated Islam into Kashmirs spiritual and cultural idiom and converted it into a massive emotional upsurage. Farooq Nazki calls him a Muslim Shaivite.

According to Dr. B.N. Pandit, his poetry is a mixture of Shaivism and Sufism. Proclaiming himself to be the spiritual son of Lall Ded, who represented the acme of pre-Islamic spiritual heritage of Kashmir, Nund Rishi carried it ahead as a part of its Rishi order (as Sufism in Kashmir was called).

Islamic beliefs and practices enjoyed as much autonomy within wider Islamic tradition as pre-Islamic Kashmir did during Vedic and post-Vedic tradition of India. It neither affected the independence of Kashmir nor, at first, materially change its cultural and political conditions. (Sufi).

Many scholars have noted pre-Islamic influences in Kashmiri Islam. Abdullah Yausuf Ali traces practice of relic worship as in Hazratbal shrine where the Prophets (PBUH) hair is preserved to Buddhist influence. Dr. Arthur Nave observes, Kashmiri Muslim has transferred reverence from Hindu stones to Muslim Relics. Similarly Muslim saints are worshipped like Hindu gods and godlings. Islam in sufi form thus came to Kashmir not as a destroyer of the tradition, as is the case in many other lands, but as its preserver, consolidator and perpetuator.

The fact that Islam is rooted in Kashmiri tradition and the tradition is permeated with the Islamic spirit has enabled Kashmiris to reconcile cosmopolitan affiliations with territorial nationalism. Kashmiri Muslim has remained a Kashmiri as well as a Muslim and rarely suffers from schizophrenic pangs which Islamic links and local patriotism often generate among Muslims elsewhere in India.

Kashmir has been a melting-pot of ideas and races. It received every new creed with discrimination and enriched it with its own contribution, without throwing away its earlier acquisitions.

As Sufi observes, the cult of Buddha, the teachings of Vedanta, the mysticism of Islam have one after another found a congenial home in Kashmir.

He adds, it has imbibed the best of Buddhism, the best of Hinduism and the best of Islam.

Similarly, on account of its cultural homogeneity and geographical compactness, all admixtures of races who emigrated to Kashmir from ancient times merged their identities into one whole. According to the renowned Kashmiri scholar and historian Mohammed Din Fauq, even the people who came from Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkistan as late as six and seven hundred years ago were so mixed with Kashmiri Muslims in culture, civilization and matrimonial relations that all non-Kashmiri traces are completely absent from their life.

Monumental Achievements
Kashmir was, at one period, the clearing house of several civilizations and the influences of those are found in this natural retreat. It had also made monumental contribution to Indian culture.

Its position within India was similar to that of ancient Creece in European civilization. It has been one of the biggest seats of Indian culture and learning which, in the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, dominated the intellectual scene of the country for almost 2000 years.

There is no branch of human knowledge to which ancient Kashmir did not make a pioneering and a substantial contribution. Among political achievements of Kashmir, mention may be made of the conquest of Lalitaditya- Muktapdia (725-753 AD), whom the great Kashmiri historian Kalhana describes as the universal monarch moving round the Earth like the Sun. According to Sufi, he is the most conspicuous figure in Kashmir history.

He raised this country to pitch of glory it had never reached before. He, writes Mohibbul Husan, defeated the Arab forces led by Mohammed Bin Qasims successor in Sindh Junaid and overran his territory. He collected a galaxy of scholars from all over India in his Durbar.

Kashmiris similarly hail another golden period of their history during the reign of the Muslim king Zain-ul-Abdin popularly called Bud Shah (the great king) from 1420 to 1470. It constituted a climax never attained by any other independent king in Kashmir. He invited artisans, craftsmen, scholars and men of letters from far-off foreign countries as a result of which Kashmir flourished materially and culturally.

He laid lasting basis of a truly secular polity. In Rodgers words, he was three hundred years ahead of England. According to Jonaraja beauty dwelt in his person and the goddess of hearing on his lips, fortune rested in his breast, and patience in his mind. Sufi quotes sir Wolsley who says Zain-ul-Abdin possessed a stock of learning and accomplishments from which Akbar was excluded, his views were more enlightened than the emperors and he practiced a tolerance which Akbar only preached.

According to the greatest Kashmiri poet of modern age, Mehjur, Akbar learnt from him (Bud Shah) the art of running the affairs of the state. It was emperor Akbar who brought an end to indigenous Kashmiri Muslim rule that had lasted 250 years.

The watershed in Kashmir history is not the beginning of the Muslim rule as is regarded in the rest of the subcontinent but the changeover from Kashmiri rule to a non-Kashmiri rule.

Crisis of Kashmiri Civilization
Kashmirs 5000 years old civilization is facing unprecedented crisis today. Why it has ceased to grow and is stagnating? What are the lessons of the past and how relevant are they in current situation?

It is a universal principle that a tradition survives, if it continues to change. Kashmiri traditions have continued to evolve in order to survive.

Continuity and change have a symbiotic relation. The foremost change that Kashmir needs today is to provide for dissent which has been absent so far. The wholesale conversion to Buddhism of the Naga tradition was followed by similar adoption of Shaivism. Conversion of Kashmiris to Islam, too, was almost universal ie about 95% of the population. Though Kashmiri retained the essence of its tradition, it did modify. Faced with divergent options, perhaps for the first time Kashmirs survival depends on allowing respect for dissent.

Otherwise, too, right of dissent is essence of democracy. Freedom is possible only in a democratic system. Freedom of expression and respect for opposite view point must be introduced in Kashmiri society.

Another new development is that Kashmir is no longer a homogeneous society with the same race, language and predominant religion cut off from geographical barriers from the outside would.

In fact there is colossal ignorance among leaders and intellectuals of Kashmir about the heroes of Jammu, freedom fighters, movements against feudalism and system of tyranny, Sufis and saints and eminent masters of art culture and music. The Kashmiri leaders, who ruled the state, after the end of monarchy, from Sheikh Abdullah to Omar Abdullah (with the exception of a brief period of GN Azad) have made absolutely no contribution to get a history of Jammu written. The same is true about Ladkah.

Diversity has in modern times been university recognized as a great virtue. In isolated and homogeneous society becomes stagnant and is likely to decay. Jammu and Kashmir state is endowed with maximum diversities.

If the aspirations and interest of each diversity is appreciated and reconciled with one another, this state would became a model state for the subcontinent.

The current drift breeds tensions and misunderstanding which does not do good to any one of them.

[Picture: Map of the Kashmir region, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas, Austin. Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir]