Fully Human

By William C. Chittick, Ph.D., *Sufism and the Path of Love* - The Huffington Post - New York, NY, USA; Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Before modern times, sharia-mindedness played a much more limited role among Muslims than it does today. No doubt jurists devoted a great deal of effort to writing books on the fine points of law, and theologians dedicated their lives to investigating the mysteries of the divine nature. But these were the pursuits of scholars who often had little or no influence on the lived Islam of the people.

Those who asked questions about the meaning of life or felt the call of love for God did not seek guidance from jurists or theologians. Instead, they turned to teachers experienced in matters of the spirit. These teachers were called by a variety of names, "Sufi" being one of many. They were usually deeply learned in both jurisprudence and theology, but they considered these the groundwork for the real task of becoming fully human. From around the 11th century, many of these teachers reached out to vast audiences through poetry. The best known examples remain Ibn al-Farid in Arabic, Rumi and Attar in Persian and Yunus Emre in Turkish.

During the same period there was a flowering of prose works on love. One of the most influential authors in the Persianate lands was a man by the name of Ahmad Sam'ani, who died in 1140, 65 years before the birth of Rumi. He was a member of an eminent family of scholars from Merv, a great cosmopolitan city in Central Asia. Unlike some of his more famous relatives, he wrote only one book, a 600-page discourse on the 99 most beautiful names of God. During his own lifetime he was known as an eloquent preacher.

Sam'ani explains that God is motivated by love and compassion in everything he does. No matter which of the divine names we take as a starting point for meditation, we will find that it serves the purposes of love. This includes not only gentle names like merciful and forgiving, but also awe-inspiring names like severe and avenger.

Along with others who wrote on the same topic, Sam'ani understood love as an immediate corollary of tawhīd. God, in his absolute unity, embraces an infinity of possibilities. He desired to make these manifest: "I loved to be recognized," as the famous saying puts it, "so I created the creatures that they might recognize Me." Otherwise, why bother with creation?

On the human side, recognizing God's merciful self-manifestation stirs up love for him. Since he alone is real, love for anything else is ephemeral and unreal. In any case, people cannot avoid love. They are full of desires, wants, wishes, loves, passions, cravings (as the consumer society knows so well). Created in the image of a loving God, they cannot not love. Their problem is that they cannot see beyond their noses.

Along with others who wrote on the same topic, Sam'ani understood love as an immediate corollary of tawhīd. God, in his absolute unity, embraces an infinity of possibilities. He desired to make these manifest: "I loved to be recognized," as the famous saying puts it, "so I created the creatures that they might recognize Me." Otherwise, why bother with creation?

On the human side, recognizing God's merciful self-manifestation stirs up love for him. Since he alone is real, love for anything else is ephemeral and unreal. In any case, people cannot avoid love. They are full of desires, wants, wishes, loves, passions, cravings (as the consumer society knows so well). Created in the image of a loving God, they cannot not love. Their problem is that they cannot see beyond their noses.

Along with others who wrote on the same topic, Sam'ani understood love as an immediate corollary of tawhīd. God, in his absolute unity, embraces an infinity of possibilities. He desired to make these manifest: "I loved to be recognized," as the famous saying puts it, "so I created the creatures that they might recognize Me." Otherwise, why bother with creation?

On the human side, recognizing God's merciful self-manifestation stirs up love for him. Since he alone is real, love for anything else is ephemeral and unreal. In any case, people cannot avoid love. They are full of desires, wants, wishes, loves, passions, cravings (as the consumer society knows so well). Created in the image of a loving God, they cannot not love. Their problem is that they cannot see beyond their noses.

Settling down in love depends upon achieving recognition of the One, because nothing can satisfy unlimited craving but the Infinite. Self-centeredness, however, makes love for fellow humans impossible, much less love for God. As Rumi said, the ego is "the mother of all idols," the greatest obstacle to love.

Sam'ani's book aimed at awakening people to beauty and alerting them to their innate love for God. Theologians could offer creeds, jurists could tell people what to do and what not to do, but all this was dry and stultifying if not leavened by love. In contrast, Sam'ani offered delicious prose mixed with occasional poetry, a fine sense of humor and wonderful anecdotes, in many ways prefiguring Rumi. Here is a typical passage from his book, urging readers to see through their own illusions and to engage in the really difficult task of overcoming the self:

Ash'ath the Covetous was passing by a tray-maker's shop. He said, "Make these trays you're making bigger. Maybe someone will give me something on one of them." Here you have your own breast full of wishes, your own worthless heart! It is said that there were 360 idols placed in the Kaabah. If all the accountants in the world came to record the number of idols in your breast, they would be not be able to do so. In our times it is not necessary for Azar to carve idols, for everywhere in the world there's someone with unwashed face, an Azari idol in his breast. "The ego is the greatest idol."

In the city a Zoroastrian is walking and wearing his cap, and you are walking with the turban of tawhīd on top of your head and a fanciful notion of tawhīd inside it. If turban and robe make someone a Muslim, then bravo, O leader of the sincerely truthful! And if "Zoroastrianism" means to attach your heart to two, well, you know what needs to be done. In short, know that nothing is given out on the basis of talk!

Abu'l-Qasim Mudhakkir lived in Naishapur, though he was originally from Merv. He was a sweet-tongued preacher. Once he was holding a session and saying fine words. A man stood up and said, "If the work is done with talk, you have gone to the place of honor. But if this pot needs some seasoning, then you can't settle down on the basis of words."

There was a singer who used to go to the home of a nobleman. Whenever he sang a song, the nobleman would say, "Bravo!" He would sing another song and again he would say, "Bravo!" The singer was also a poet. One day he said,

Every time I sing, you say, "Bravo, sing another!"
But bravo doesn't buy me any flour.

In the bazaar, you can't buy anything with "Well done!" They want pure gold and unalloyed silver.

O respected man! In this road they want a burnt liver, they want a heart full of pain, they want footsteps with truthfulness, they want a spirit with love, they want togetherness without dispersion. If you have the hard cash, then the work is yours.

Indeed, the first trial you face is the trial of your own being. Gather this being and hand it back to the Sultan of tawhīd so that he may destroy it, for nothing can bring together a dispersed man except tawhīd. Tawhīd is assaying: discarding the specious temporal and selecting the authentically eternal.

Everyone in the world is attached to giving one and taking two. Those who follow this path are attached to giving all and taking one.

For more of Sam'ani, see Chapter 9 of my 'Sufism: A Beginner's Guide'

[Picture: Professor William C. Chittick. Photo: Stony Brook University]

The Word Tahrir

By Subhi Mujahid, *Egyptian Sufis contribute in establishing Al-Tahrir Party* - Islam Online - Cairo, Egypt; Tuesday, April 12, 2011

In a new step that will alter the role of Sufis in Egypt, Al-Azamiya Sufi Order officially announced its participation in Al-Tahrir Party, who announced their formation on February 5th in Tahrir Square.

In this context, Sheikh Alaaeddin Abul-Azaem, sheikh of the Azamiya Sufi Order said: “we participated in the party to politically compete with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis. Our main goal is dialogue and social connection with one another.”

Motivation

He elaborated on his statements to Islam Online by stating: “I feel free after the January 25th Revolution. I can now say what I want. I no longer feel as though I am a slave without honor or dignity. This is the first time in Egyptian history that the Egyptian people overthrew their leader. In the past, the only way to oust a leader was through assassination; but we ousted our leader for the first time and it won’t be the last.”

He continued: “a year ago, Dr. Ammar Ali Hassan, expert in Sufi movement affairs spoke about Sufism in Egyptian politics, in addition to Sheikh El-Sharnoubi who suggested the establishment of a Sufi political party. At the time, I strongly opposed the idea. However, following the January 25th Revolution and after observing the Egyptian media’s sympathy with the Muslim Brotherhood and the so-called Salafis, I realized that Sufism can be lost in the middle, so we decided that it was necessary to have a political party of our own that can represent us.”

He pointed out that there was, several days ago, “a meeting between the Muslim Brotherhood and Christians, where they agreed upon holding a dialogue that will address the expectations of each group from the other. The first meeting will commence in May and there will be a press conference that will inform the general public of the terms reached.”

He stated that Sufis, through their political participation, are not establishing a religious party limited to a specific group, but is establishing a civil and pluralistic party. He pointed out that their party combines Egyptians from different sects and trends, including Copts and Armenians. He stated: “what brings us together is the party that we hope will bring about the civilized Egypt we all dream of.”

Party’s goals

Dr. Ibrahim Zahran, Head of Al-Tahrir Party stated that the January 25th Revolution is not and will not be over until its goals have been met. “On February 5th, we announced in Tahrir Square the party’s establishment and its goal of mutual forgiveness and not just dialogue,” he said.
He explained to Islam Online: “Al-Tahrir party is a political, civil, and reformative party, looking to achieve justice, prosperity, and freedom for the Egyptian people under the slogan “freedom, justice, development, strength, and leadership,” where everyone can participate.”

He added: “we have established the values of the party, the most important of which is to free minds, encourage mutual respect, acceptance, educating the youth to help build a brighter future, leadership of the people, and political and economical freedom.”

He stressed the party’s belief in democracy, collective decision-making, equality, freedom, truthfulness, condemnation of all types of violence and terrorism, respect for human rights, and combating unemployment and poverty, in addition to the need to develop establishments that would protect the interests of the public.

The official spokesman of the party, Ashraf Jaber clarified that the party is not merely named after Tahrir Square, but it believes in the implementation of the word Tahrir (liberation).

Time to Draw a Line

By Syed Badrul Ahsan, *Of bauls, of things Mephistophelean* - The Daily Star - Dhaka, Bangladesh; Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Dreadful things are happening in the country. And if they keep happening, it will be our heritage, our cultural traditions that will eventually mingle with the dust. It is no laughing matter when twenty eight bauls, followers of the venerable Lalon, are put to public humiliation on the orders of a half-baked cleric in Pangsha of Rajbari.

Their beards and hair and moustaches were clipped or shaved off on the orders of a fanatic on the wild charge that these worshippers of divinity were apostates, were indeed Hindus and therefore needed to be brought back to the 'right path.' You wonder where all this audacity in these zealots springs from. More seriously, it is this audacity that sends tremors going all across and over your sensibilities, this black courage that not even the government appears to be able to put down with a firm hand.

We will not go into a discourse on Lalon and his philosophy of God and of the universe we are part of. Spiritual figures like Lalon hold a niche far above our power to analyse or subject to academic dissection. And because they do, it remains our faith that Lalon, that indeed all men of God who have caused Creation to be manifested so potently in this land of poets, mystics and preachers, will hold, now and for all time, the Olympian grandeur we associate with their holy existence.

Remember if you will the desecration the Taliban subjected the Bamiyan statues to in Afghanistan. Those statues have been ground to dust and yet the calming memory of the statues remains in men's consciousness. It is the Taliban who struggle for respectability in a world they would rather mutilate to their liking.

Which is as much as to suggest that the misdeed perpetrated on the bauls in Pangsha by men with skewed notions of Islam ought not to be blown out of proportion. No, we do not blow it out of proportion. But we do understand, given the viciously mediocre times we inhabit, that there is a need for firm action against those who have of late sought to undermine the values we have for generations lived by.

When Fazlul Haq Amini threatens Sheikh Hasina with doom, when the late Moulana Obaidul Haq informed an audience of the Islamic faithful some years ago that women were not ordained by the Lord of the Universe to govern nations, it is time for good men and women, for those who comprehend the essence of this free country, of civilized living, to sit up and take notice. These are men who have their acolytes in the shape of those ready and willing to commit sacrilege at the resting places of saints.

The imam who had those twenty eight bauls hauled off to the barber's thought he was doing the work of God. It did not occur to him that he was trying to play God and that in doing so he was flailing away at God.

No, there is no surfeit of these blasphemers in Bangladesh. But, then again, do not forget that once upon a time not long ago the numbers of the Taliban in Afghanistan were negligible. Then these Taliban went on to create havoc in Afghanistan. Today they create havoc in not just Afghanistan but in Pakistan as well.

Here in Bangladesh, the historical fact of religious militants setting off simultaneous explosions in all but one district in the country six years ago is a reality we have not pushed aside. Those men share something with the men who went after the beards and hair and moustaches of the bauls in Pangsha the other day: in the name of God they are forever ready to raise misanthropy into Mephistophelean anti-faith.

Which is why this nation, in the name of those who died in defence of its liberty, in the name of all faiths -- Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism et al -- must watch out for these elements. Their evil-driven political ancestors once razed the Shaheed Minar to rubble in Bangladesh. Those ancestors left no trace of the Kali Mandir that once highlighted the expanse of the Race Course.

It may well be that given half a chance, the likes of those who went after the bauls' beards and moustaches will one day go after the monuments that stand witness to the cultural legacy of this land. If these men can take to the streets not just in the name of the Creator but armed with copies of the Quran hugging their perspiration-driven chests, they can do anything.

Remember the Spanish Inquisition, when self-professed representatives of God burnt good people at the stake and left the soul of society singed for centuries?

There is a malaise abroad in the land. It comes in the shape of fanatical persecution ... of Ahmadiyyas, of bauls, of men drawn to the spiritual glow inherent in Sufism, of helpless women, of enlightenment. It insults poetry and drags music through the mud. It seeks to stifle laughter and happiness. It aims at commandeering our faith. It undermines the good and the beautiful and the sublime in men and women.

It is time to draw a line in the sand. The moment is here and now to beat all these forces of darkness back into their caves. Shaming the bauls is to shame all of us. It is time to shame those who have caused us that shame.

Dialogue As A Gateway

By Staff Reporter, *Sada remembered as a pillar of interfaith harmony* - The Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan; Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Rawalpindi: Speakers while paying glowing tributes to late Mehboob Francis Sada, director Christian Study Centre (CSC) said Sada was a noble person who worked tirelessly for peace, social harmony through interfaith dialogue and upheld the idea of ecumenism at the national and international level and his sudden demise on Jan 14 this year was a tragic loss for the nation.

Christian Study Centre (CSC) on Sunday organised the reference in memory of Sada to eulogize his services in achieving humanitarian and philanthropic goals.

Representatives belonging to various minority segments, religious scholars, rights and social activists, diplomats, intellectuals, politicians, educationists, literati, a number of clergies, students and hundreds of Sada's lover participated in the reference.

Ashfaq Salim Mirza, Dr Khalid Masood, Naeem Mushtaq, Naeem Mirza, Shafique Chaudhary, Fayaz Baqir, Haroon Adeem, Aslam Khaki, Shamim Javed, Dr Sarwar Kamran, Dr Farooq Khan, Bishop Rufin Anthony, Jacob Dogra, Rahat William, Hanook David, Naeem Qureshi and Dr Alvin Murad spoke on the occasion. Romana Bashir of CSC conducted the proceedings.

Speakers said that late Sada was a staunch nationalist, who struggled throughout his life for equality, justice and unity in Pakistan. "He vehemently supported and participated in all the movements to end discrimination and discriminatory laws in the country. Sada's contributions to cause of peace, interfaith harmony, social and political awareness, youth, education and Christian community are highly commendable," speakers said.

Ashfaq Salim Mirza, a writer and intellectual, in his address said late Sada had traveled far and wide; from America in the west right down to Australia in the South, just to voice his noble ideas on the international forum bringing pride to his nation and valiantly tried to efface the tarnished image of our country and promote it as a peaceful and tolerant nation due to the existence of a multi-religious populace. "Yet, despite having such unique accomplishments he lived with his 'feet on the ground', that is why he was able to reach out to the masses and embodied the true Christian spirit of simplicity," Mirza maintained.

Aslam Khaki, a lawyer and member Shariah Court said Holy Prophet (pbuh) offered the Namaz-e-Janaza of Najashi who was a non-muslim and to him late Sada was the 'Najashi' of this era whose' final rites could have been performed according to Muslims' rites. "For Sada 'dialogue' as a gateway to healthier relationships, was always the better way for a positive solution to any prevailing issue, that is why as a consistent reformist and humanitarian activist he was part of innumerable 'peaceful demonstrations' regarding a communal problem, minority rights, corruption, educational reforms and discriminations," he said.

Dr Khalid Masood, fromer chairman, Council of Islamic Ideology said in a hostile environment, Sada fearlessly pursued his ideals of creating a better state and society where citizens were equal in eyes of the law and people belonging to different faiths and denominations lived in peace and harmony. "He was close to all progressive individuals, institutions and political groups who aspired and strove for a just, egalitarian and prosperous Pakistan," Masood said, adding Sada worked closely with enlightened Muslim scholars because he had a penchant for literature, wrote prose and poetry.

Naeem Mirza from Aurat Foundation said that Sada encouraged faith communities to meet and work together to address issues of shared concern, advance public knowledge and understanding of different faith communities, to promote good community relations, and to endorse social inclusion and combat religious discrimination by encouraging communication, understanding and partnership between faith communities and with public, voluntary and private sector bodies.

The speakers also shed light on different aspects of Sada's personality from the poetry of 'Bhullay Shah', the verses of 'Faiz' to the 'naats and qawwalis' of Islam and Sufism, the meditative hymns of Buddhism, The 'Punjabi' 'Bhajans' and 'Hymns' of Christianity and Sikkhism, Sada upheld the unique philosophy of the 'universality' of all religions exposing the common characteristics of all through comparative analysis.

They said having a strong link with different 'churches' across the country, Mehboob was opposed to 'sects' and strongly supported ecumenism, regardless of frictional relationships with a particular church clergy.

A documentary on life of Shah Shams Sabzwari was also screened on the occasion to highlight role of Sufis and Shrines to promote interfaith harmony and to bring people of all religion on a single platform. Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, and others Sufis message for love, peace and brotherhood was also highlighted in the documentary. Romana Bashir and others recited poetic work of various poets dedicating to Mehboob Sada. On the occasion, CSC distributed shields among the family members of Sada in promotion of interfaith harmony.

[Picture from Oasis]

Piety, Poetry, and Politics

By Staff Reporter - Freer and Sackler / The Smithsonian's Museum of Asian Arts - Washington D.C. USA; Thursday, April 21, 2011

Piety, Poetry, and Politics: Sufi Muslims in South Asia

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
The conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Email Rahul S. Madhavan at southasia@jhu.edu to register.

Please note: Conference registration does not include tickets for the Sufi concert. Details on obtaining free tickets are listed beneath the concert description.

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MORE INFORMATION
For more information, contact Kenneth Robbins at rajanawab@comcast.net.
For readings on Islam, visit the University of North Carolina website.

Schedule

Thursday, April 28
Friday, April 29
Saturday, April 30
Special Events
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Thursday, April 28

Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036

SESSION 1: Sufism in South Asia, 10 am–12:30 pm

10–10:10
Opening Remarks
Walter Anderson, associate director, South Asia Studies Program, Johns Hopkins University

10:10–10:30
The Beliefs of Blind Men: The Dangers of Definition
Kenneth X. Robbins, Board of Directors, Friends of the Asian Division, Library of Congress

10:30–10:45
Welcome Invocation
Haji Syed Salman Chishty, Maulana Kari Al-Haj Syed Mahzar Ali; Salman Ahmad of Junoon

10:50–11:20
Sufis of South Asia: An Overview
Carl Ernst, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

11:20–11:50
Politics and Sufis in Pakistan
H.E. Mr. Abdullah Hussein Haroon, Pakistani Ambassador to the United Nations

11:50–12:30
Discussion

SESSION 2: Sufis: Shared and Contested Spaces, 2–4:30 pm

2–2:30
The Good, the Bad, and the Highly Problematic: Complicating Notions of Muslim Engagement in the Indian Public Sphere
Rachana Rao Umashankar, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2:30–3
Grave Danger: Deoband, Sufi Devotions, and Saints' Shrines
Brannon Ingram, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

3–3:30
Sharing Saints, Shrines, and Stories: Practicing Pluralism in Maler Kotla and North India
Anna Bigelow, associate professor of Islamic studies, Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies, North Carolina State University, Raleigh

3:30–4:30
Discussion

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Friday, April 29

Library of Congress
Members' Room
Thomas Jefferson Building, First Floor
Washington, DC 20540-0002

SESSION 1: Sufis in India Today, 10 am–12:10 pm

10–10:20
Opening Remarks
Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress

10:20–10:50
The Chishtys and Sufism in India Today
Syed Riyazuddin Chishty, Gaddi-Nashin - Dargah Ajmer Sharif
Haji Syed Salman Chishty, Gaddi-Nashin - Dargah Ajmer Sharif, director, Chishty Foundation, Ajmer

10:50–11:20
Shah Madar and the Madariyya Sufis
Maulana Kari Al-Haj Sayed Mahzar Ali Jafferi Waqari Madari, Sajjadah Nasheen, Madariyya Sufi Order; Boghani Sameer Aziz, general secretary, Al-Madar Educational & Charitable Trust; Kenneth X. Robbins

11:20–11:50
Sufis and the Openness of India
Muzaffar Ali, executive director, Rumi Foundation

11:50–12:10
Discussion

SESSION 2: Sufi Music and Poetry, 2–3:40 pm

2–2:10
Opening Remarks
H.E. Ms. Meera Shankar, Ambassador of India to the United States

2:10–3:10
Sufi Music
Salman Ahmad of Junoon; Dhruv Sangari, leader of the Shahi qawwals of Ajmer Sharif; Brian Q. Silver, sitarist and ethnomusicologist

3:10–3:40
Qadir Bedil (1644–1721): The Most Important Mystical Poet of the Indian Subcontinent
Moazzam Siddiqi, director, South and Central Asia Division, Voice of America (retired)

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Saturday, April 30

Freer Gallery of Art
Meyer Auditorium
1050 Independence Ave SW
Washington, DC 20560

SESSION 1: Sufis and the Arts, 2–4:20 pm

2–2:15
Opening Remarks and Introduction
Dr. Julian Raby, director of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Debra Diamond, associate curator of South and Southeast Asian art, Freer and Sackler Galleries

2:15–2:45
Landscapes of Sufi Space in Mughal Delhi and Lahore
James Wescoat, Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2:50–3:20
Qawwali: Sufi Music and Poetry in the Tradition of Amir Khusro
Scott Kugle, associate professor of South Asian and Islamic studies, Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, Emory University

3:25–3:55
Royal Albums to Romance Literature: Sufi Themes in Deccani Painting
Navina Haidar, associate curator of Islamic art, Department of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art

4–4:20
Discussion

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SPECIAL EVENTS

Digital Image Presentation: Visualizing the Sufi Path: Paintings, Posters, and Photographs

Shown at the beginning of each morning session
Prepared by Kenneth X. Robbins

South Asian Sufi Book Display

Friday, April 29, 10 am–4 pm, Library of Congress
Prepared by Nuzhat Khatoon, Library of Congress

Concert: Sufi Music from South Asia: Salman Ahmad and the Chishty Sufi Sama Ensemble

Saturday, April 30, 7:30 pm, Freer Gallery of Art, Meyer Auditorium

Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear one of South Asia's leading ensembles of Sufi qawwali music, made famous in the U.S. by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

The Chisty Ensemble appears regularly at major Sufi shrines and festivals in India. For this occasion, the ensemble is led by guest artist Salman Ahmad (vocals and harmonium), founder of the South Asian rock band Junoon. He performed for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and was profiled in the PBS special The Rock Star and the Mullahs.

Joining him are Dhruv Sangari, Ashlam Hussain, and Asraf Hussain, vocals; Amjad Hussain, dholak (double-headed drum); and Akhtar Hussain, tabla.

Free tickets required. Up to four tickets can be reserved (with service fee) beginning 10 am on Monday, April 18, by contacting Ticketmaster at 800.551.7328 or ticketmaster.com. Unreserved and no-show tickets (two per person; no service fee) are distributed at the Meyer Auditorium beginning one hour before showtime.
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Picture: An Ascetic; India, Deccan Plateau, 17th century
7.1 x 4.3 cm; Watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1907.762

Jhuley Lal's 1,068th Urs

By Z. Ali, *Hindus, Muslims pray together at Jhuley Lal’s shrine to remember the avatar, the saint* - The Express Tribune - Karachi, Pakistan; Sunday, April 10, 2011

Hyderabad: Clang, ring, clap. The entrance to Jhuley Lal’s shrine resonates with chimes, bells and rhythmic clapping. An avatar for Hindus and a Sufi saint for Muslims, he is remembered by his devotees for his austerity, his message of love and peace — and even miracles. He was known as Jhuley Lal because he had a swing that swayed on its own, which was one of his many miracles.

Both Hindus and Muslims unite in reverence for his 1,068th urs. It begins on the first day of the Chait or Chaitra month of the lunar Bikram Sambath calendar. Historically, the day marks the start of ploughing fields after the wheat harvest. But for a Hindu follower, the celebrations have a different significance.

The avatar

“He was an avatar of the god Varuna — the god of rivers. Born to Mata Devki on the first moon of Chait, his birth was the acceptance of invocations for deliverance from a cruel ruler during the Soomro dynasty,” explains Dewan Lekhraj, the Hindu custodian of the shrine.

According to the Hindus, Jhuley Lal’s real name was Udaichand. Uday in Sanskrit means moonbeam. He was also called Uderolal which means ‘one who has sprung from water’ — this explains the belief of him being an incarnation of the Hindu river god.

The tyrant Mirkshah Badshah, enthroned in Thatta in the 10th century AD, had unleashed a reign of terror and forced the conversions of Hindus, they believe. The Hindus went through a 40-day penance and implored god Varuna — the Indus River — to rid them of the persecutor. Their supplication was accepted with the birth of Uderolal.

After coming of age, Jhuley Lal went to Mirkshah Badshah and with his miracles and charismatic personality convinced him to desist oppression. “Whatever you see around you is the creation of only one God, ‘Allah’ or ‘Ishwar’, he had told the despot,” narrates Lekhraj. Mirkshah.

The Sufi saint

Muslims believe that Jhuley Lal, who is also known as Shaikh Tahir, was a saint who performed many miracles to promote love, peace and harmony. “Shaikh Tahir is our pir (spiritual guide). He saved the Hindu dharma in Sindh,” says Ghulam Abbas Shaikh, the Gadi Nashin of the shrine.

The shrine, in Ordero Lal village, Matiari, has walls inscribed with the ‘Kalima’ and the names of Hindu deities.

Abbas says that it is probably the only shrine in the sub-continent where believers of the two faiths pray together. Devotees mostly hail from Karachi, Thatta and interior Sindh.

Interfaith harmony

The place has remained a bastion of peaceful co-existence between the two faiths. However, there is one incident of conflict reported. In the late 19th century, an idol was placed inside the shrine which led to a quarrel. However, Sir Charles Napier intervened and the issue was settled.

Many people attribute the revival of Jhuley Lal’s following in the 20th century to Professor Ram Panjwani, who shouted a slogan in Sindhi: “Jeko Chawando Jhuley Lal, Tehnja Theenda Bera Paar (Whoever will say Jhuley Lal, his worries will sail through)”.

Conference Failed

By Yasser Shmies, Osama el-Mahdy, Hamdi Kasem; *Reconciliation fails between Sufis and Salafis* - Al Masry Al Youm - Cairo, Egypt; Sunday, April 10, 2011

The conference that the Muslim Brotherhood held in Beheira on Saturday to achieve reconciliation between Sufis and Salafis has failed.

The Sufis complained of Salafis demolishing shrines of revered religious figures. The latter deems such shrines as anti-Islamic.

Sebaiya Sufi Order Sheikh Ahmed Sebai refused to sign the reconciliation document unless it stated that demolishing the shrines was “haram” [forbidden by Islam], which Sheikh Abdel Selim, the Salafis’ representative, refused to include in the document.

Translated from the Arabic Edition

In The Long Line

By Ali Pektas, *Burcu Karadağ wants to be judged by her music, not by her gender* - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey; Sunday, April 10, 2011

People passing by the café hear the sound of the ney from inside, and they venture all the way up to the door that leads to the room where the music is coming from.

Many decide to sit down on one of the chairs outside and wait for the session to come to an end. When the lesson finishes, they expect a male ney musician will emerge. But what they see is Burcu Karadağ, a well-known Turkish female ney player.

Karadağ is not the first woman to ever pick up a ney and play it, but she is Turkey’s only professional ney player who has made, and is making, a mark on both the national and international music scene.

She is also the only female ney player to have her name etched permanently in the long line of ney musicians that have come before her. Karadağ, a professor at Haliç University, also works with a variety of musical ensembles connected to TRT İstanbul Radio.

As it turns out, Karadağ and the ney were a perfect fit for each other from the beginning. After she finished primary school, she scored high points on the exam for the conservatory. The jury, who saw her talent, was convinced at the time that if she were to orient herself in the direction of the ney, in the future she could really be an exceptional example and a “first” and an “only” in her own right. She told her family about the jury’s opinion. Ever since that day the ney, which up until then she had really only ever seen on television and had certainly never thought she might play one day, has been her closest friend.

Karadağ went on to enter the İstanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory, where she took ney lessons from Salih Bilgin and Niyazi Sayın, lessons in Turkish music theory from Erol Sayan and Doğan Dikmen and Western music lessons from Ali Eral.

Playing like a man

Karadağ recalls that her friends and teachers at the conservatory all said that she had a very unique style of playing the ney. “They used to tell me I played the ney like a man. Since I was so young, I didn’t really understand what this meant. I elicited a very strong sound from the ney and people told me I understood immediately what was said to me in terms of the education we were getting. But actually, I never set out with the idea that somehow ‘there are no women in this arena, I should try and make my mark here’.”

Karadağ does admit that she was the target of many negative comments regarding her choice of instrument from early on. “You are not the first, you cannot play very well, you certainly can’t play the ney with nail polish,” were just some of the comments she heard in the past. Her response to this sort of criticism was simply to work harder than ever.

Karadağ has these comments regarding criticisms she receives as a ney player who happens to be a woman: “I am a Muslim and I am a strong believer. I grew up with the Sufi philosophy, but I cannot say that I have transferred this all into my life. Just two months ago the bangs in my hair were purple. At that point, I would hear comments like, ‘Can a ney player really have purple hair?’ But I don’t pay attention to these sorts of things. Actions speak louder than words. This is the motto of my life. My answer to those who may think badly of me is my own art. Let those who criticize me criticize me for my art.”

Karadağ has performed in concerts with different groups and orchestras all over Europe, from France to Germany and from Austria and Belgium. She has been invited to take part in many different international projects. Part of the reason for her popularity in these arenas is that she always wants to do unique things with her art. Karadağ has stayed true to the essence of the ney but at the same time managed to bring this traditional instrument, which has been closely associated with Sufi music, beyond the arenas in which it has been played and enjoyed for hundreds of years. In the process she has made it possible for new audiences to get to know and appreciate this instrument and the culture which lies at its heart.

Because of Karadağ’s efforts, many people who had never even seen a ney before have gotten to understand what it is. She notes that this in turn has awakened curiosity in many people about Sufism and Rumi. “I have introduced many people to this instrument. And they tell me that it is because of me that they have gotten to know the ney. For me, this is the best applause I could get. When people ask, I explain about not only the ney, but also Sufism and Mevlana [Rumi]. And so they learn and this is where I feel I get my rewards for any difficulties I have to put up with. And this is really enough for me.”

Concert in Konya

Karadağ has worked with a number of different musicians, including classical pianist/composers Fazıl Say and Sabri Tuluğ Tırpan, pop singer Sertab Erener and Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu. She dreams of being able to give a concert in Konya, which each year hosts ceremonies commemorating Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. Karadağ notes that she has not yet been invited to perform at special ceremonies in Konya, saying: “Ever since I was 11 years old, I have known that [playing in] Konya is the highest point a ney player can achieve in terms of performance. Despite the fact that I have performed in many different countries abroad, I have never played solo in Konya. This is painful for me. But complaining comes from weakness, so I won’t complain. When the time comes, it will happen, I hope.”

Karadağ also has an album project in the works. She says it is going to be a fusion album and will include lots of Western instruments and compositions but no classical pieces.

Karadağ says that for the past five years, new students have been coming to her based on word-of-mouth referrals. Most of these students are male and they are generally older than her. About this experience, she says: “Usually when I give lessons, I sit among my students. So when someone opens the door and says they are looking for the teacher, and I say ‘yes, it’s me, how can I help you?’ They just stare at me for a while. This is because the image they have of a ney musician is much different than what they see. They probably think a ney player should be old, with a moustache, or perhaps with a beard, but above all, a male. And so they are very surprised at seeing me. At first, some people really put me down and didn’t take me seriously. But it would take at the most a couple of weeks for them to change their minds. Just seeing this change makes it all worth it. People look at me differently before they know me compared to after they get to know me.”

Karadağ believes that projects undertaken by such musicians as the world-famous Kudsi Erguner and electronic musician and reed flute player Mercan Dede in recent years have done much to increase interest in the ney. She also believes that the ney being played in different kinds of music, as well as support from the government for Turkish traditional arts, has been important in this change. But she also points to a danger that she perceives: Because of all the popular interest in the ney these days, lots of bad ney music is also being produced, more so than in the past.

“People who simply have not received enough training in the arts decide to try and become instructors after just one year of playing the ney. The people who are really at fault here are those who give these people the encouragement and the feeling that they have really learned enough to be teachers. It is wrong when people, who have only gotten one or two years of training, can’t even really read the notes yet, and don’t really play the ney that well, appear before others and announce that they are now teachers. It is wrong for our future generations. So the responsibility that lies with those who really love the ney is great on this front.”

Towards Sufism

By Saleha Rauf, *Solo Exhibition: Showing you Shiraz* - The Express Tribune - Karachi, Pakistan - Saturday, April 9, 2011

Lahore: Ejaz Gallery is showing Dr Mohsen Kiany’s paintings in an exhibition, titled Bagh-e-Rang that highlights Iranian sufism, poetry, culture and various other aspects.

The artist’s use of blue, orange and green justifies the title.

Kiany said, “In my paintings, I have tried to show the beauty of the Iranian culture. I have highlighted it through colours that best represent the culture and tradition of Shiraz.”

The artist has used several techniques including drawings lines with the back of the brush and a knife. He has highlighted the importance of the city as an arts and cultural hub. Some of the paintings use calligraphy to represent the religious and spiritual content of an Islamic culture.

Dr Naheed Malik, an artist and teacher, said that the Kiany had a unique approach towards Sufism.

“His use of both males and females while depicting sufis themes shows the importance he has given to women,” she said.

The exhibition will remain open till April 15.

Picture: One of the paintings by Dr Mohsen Kiany. Photo: Express/Abid Nawaz

Sidi Shebl

By Hend Ibrahim, *Thousands of Sufis celebrate birthday of Sidi Shebl in Monufiya* - Al-Masri Al-Youm - Cairo, Egypt; Friday, April 8, 2011

Thousands of Sufis celebrated the birthday of Sidi Mohamed Shebl Ben al-Fadl Ben al-Abbas, known as Sidi Shebl, in Monufiya Friday.

The celebrations come as Sufis have accused members of the Salafi movement for demolishing the shrines of revered Sufi figures.

Sheikh Suleiman Ghanem alleged there is an organized smear campaign being waged to distort the image of Islam.

Attacking shrines violates Islamic principles and the sanctity of the dead, said Ghanem.

The Ministry of Religious Endowments plans this month to implement a program to confront religious extremism following the recent spate of attacks on mosques and shrines. The ministry will hold seminars to emphasize the peaceful principles of Islam.

Morocco's Spiritual Riches

By Siham Ali, *Fez hosts fifth Sufi festival* - Magharebia - USA / Morocco; Wednesday, April 20, 2011

An annual Sufi celebration enables visitors to explore Morocco's spiritual riches.

The Fez Festival of Sufi Culture has entered its fifth year. The eight-day event, which runs through April 23rd, offers lovers of this culture a great variety of exhibitions, performances, round-tables and Sufi evenings.

"This is an opportunity for experts to lead the thinking on what this heritage has to offer at the very heart of modern society," event chairman Faouzi Skalli explained.

According to organisers, the festival aims to help Moroccans rediscover the artistic, intellectual and spiritual riches of their own culture and send out a positive image of Islam internationally, with the universal language of openness and peace which is a central aspect of Sufism.

The event also aims to reinforce Morocco's place in intercultural dialogue, building a bridge between the East and the West.

This year's festival centres on female figures in Sufism. It was inaugurated by Moroccan diva Karima Skalli, whose performance held the audience spellbound, and featured Spanish group Al Kawtar.

According to Faouzi Skalli, this year's choice of theme was no accident; he said that Sufism's spiritual romanticism, whether expressed by men or women, has given women an essential symbolic significance. This role is the precursor of the natural recognition of the importance of their place and their role at the heart of society.

Women, he added, have a calling to participate in spreading the message of peace and tolerance.

Over the past four years, the festival has enjoyed obvious success because there are many followers of the culture in Morocco, both men and women, expert on Sufism Karim Jamali said. Sufism enables man to rediscover his spiritual dimension in a modern materialistic world and to move towards real fulfilment, he added.

"Sufi chant immerses us in our distant past and soothes our spirits," said student Hakima Srariri, who is a fan of Sufi culture. "The festival has become a must event for those who follow Sufi culture and who meet every year in the spiritual capital."

She emphasised that "this culture must be promoted, because it preaches a number of noble values such as tolerance and the acceptance of differences".

"It's my parents who imbued me with the spirit of Sufism, which has helped me a great deal through life," added Srariri, who studied every detail of the programme, particularly the samaa evenings, together with her parents.

Jamila Chamoumi, a Moroccan woman living in Italy, has been coming back to her home country annually for three years to attend the festival. She spoke to Magharebia about the benefits of Sufism in the world which has experienced a global crisis of values.

"I sincerely feel that Sufism is a real educational science. It guides us towards the profound outcomes of its ethical rules," Chamoumi said. "I'm keen to instil the spirit of Sufism into my children, so that they will be tolerant and open to others."

"This is all about transforming oneself, leading to improved relations with society," she added. "The festival is an opportunity for me to recharge my intellectual and spiritual batteries."

Please Forgive Me

By Nasir Habib, *Boy in Pakistan tells police of school for suicide bombing* - CNN - USA/Pakistan; Saturday, April 9, 2011

Islamabad: A sorrowful Pakistani teen suspected of collaborating in this week's deadly suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine is claiming to police that scores of his young peers at a camp in the nation's perilous tribal region are being trained to stage attacks.

"I did a wrong thing," Umar Fidai said from his hospital bed aired on national TV Friday. "Please forgive me."
Fidai was arrested alive after the suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine on Sunday killed at least 41 people and wounded more than 100. The blast occurred in Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province.

The boy hails from a village in the Pakistani tribal district of North Waziristan, an area that is next to war-torn Afghanistan. The Taliban and al Qaeda have had a strong presence in the region, and Sunni Muslim militants based in Pakistan have staged attacks in Afghanistan.

Fidai said in TV interviews he got suicide bombing lessons for six months, including training to use pistols, grenades and a suicide jacket. He said an Afghan Taliban leader named Mullah Sangeen was in charge of the training camp.

He said he had been recruited one day as he was coming home from school, when a Taliban leader named Qari Zafar met him and persuaded him he would go to heaven if he carried out a suicide attack.

"The moment you will press the button of your suicide jacket, you will immediately go to heaven," Fidai said Zafar told him.

"I was only keener to go to heaven. I never thought about my family members during the training," said Fidai, whose father is dead and whose two younger sisters live in Esa Khel, his home village.

Fidai gave the interview in police custody. It is unclear how representative his comments are of his own opinions or experiences.

Ahmed Mubarak, the police chief of the Dera Ghazi Khan district, said the teen told police that more than 300 boys between ages 12 and 17 are being trained in North Waziristan's Mir Ali area to stage suicide bombings.

The boy also told police that Uzbeks and Tajiks are among the militants in that region of Pakistan, indicating the presence of foreigners there.

In his televised comments, Fidai advised the boys in training that the strikes are un-Islamic and that they should refuse to stage them.

In the bombing Sunday, a man blew himself up when he was stopped at the entrance of the Sakhi Sarkar shrine, and a second would-be suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden jacket was arrested, Mubarak said.

The shrine is on the outskirts of the district capital, more than 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) south of Peshawar.
Dera Ghazi Khan is no stranger to violent bombings. Dozens of people were killed in a December 2009 bombing that ripped through a market near the home of a provincial official.

Another blast earlier that year struck a crowd of Shiite Muslims as they took part in a procession toward a mosque, killing scores of people.

Pakistan is largely Sunni Muslim, and militants there have targeted religious minorities, like Shiites, Sufis and Christians.

Islamism On Rise

By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, *Sufi singers under assault in Bangladesh* - Blitz Weekly - Volume # 6, Issue # 16; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Friday, April 8, 2011

Twenty-eight followers of Bangladesh's legendary Sufi lyricist and philosopher, Lalon Fakir were physically assaulted and humiliated by a group of radical Islamists in a southern district in Bangladesh on April 6, 2011.

According to media reports, a group of local Islamists attacked the Baul Fair on April 6, 2011 and started physically assaulting the Bauls as well damaged their musical instrument. The group of attackers was mostly from the ruling party in Bangladesh. Later, the attackers cut the Sufi-type long hair of the Bauls and their mustache and drove them to local mosque for offering 'Tauba' [seeking forgiveness from Allah for committing sin]. Those who were victim of the attack are aged above 60 years.

After such huge humiliation of these mystique singer and Sufi thinkers, the group of attackers claimed that, Baul songs contain lyrics, which goes against Koran and Sharia. They said any such activity against Islam, Koran and Sharia will not be tolerated in this country.

It may be mentioned here that, Baul songs contain message of peace and religious tolerance. It gives emphasis on humanity above religion and discourages any religious extremism and killing of innocent people in the name of religion.

Bauls are a group of mystic minstrels from Bengal. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Caishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments.

The origin of Bauls is not known exactly, but the word "Baul" has appeared in Bengali texts as old as the 15th century. The word is found in the Chaitanya Bhagavata of Vrindavan Das Thakur as well as in the Chaitanya Charitomrita of Krishnadasa Kaviraja. Some scholars maintain that it is not clear when the word took its sectarian significance, as opposed to being a synonym for the word madcap, agitated. The beginning of the Baul movement was attributed to Birbhadra, the son of the Vaishnavite saint Nityananda, or alternatively to the 8th century Persian minstrels called Ba'al.

Bauls are a part of the culture of rural Bengal. Whatever their origin, Baul thought has mixed elements of Tantra, Sufi Islam, Vaishnavism and Buddhism. They are thought to have been influenced by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas, as well as Tantric Buddhist schools like the Vaishnava-Sahajiva. Some scholars find traces of these thoughts in the ancient practices of Yoga as well as the Charyapadas, which are Buddhist hymns that are the first known example of written Bengali. The Bauls themselves attribute their lack of historical records to their reluctance to leave traces behind.

Dr. Jeanne Openshaw writes that the music of the Bauls appears to have been passed down entirely in oral form until the end of the 19th century, when it was first transcribed by outside observers. The Bauls were recorded as a major sect as early as mid 18th century.

Attack on Bauls in Bangladesh is certainly a crime against humanity as well as it goes against the freedom of expression of any individual in the country. Unfortunately, radical Islam and Islamism are on rise in Bangladesh for past few months.

Pro-jihadist clergies like Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini and Moulana Rezaul Karim are continuing to give jihadist instigation to people openly without any action from the government of law enforcing agencies.

The government really needs to look into this matter forthwith for the sake of saving Bangladesh from becoming a safe haven of various Islamist and jihadist elements. Attackers on Bauls should also be brought into book and punished for the sake of maintaining secularist image of Bangladesh. Culprits must be punished irrespective of their political identities.

The Calm Was Shattered

By A.R. in Delhi, *Even fundamentalists aren't safe* - The Economist - U.K. / India; Friday, April 8, 2011

Assassination in Kashmir
 
The past few months have been relatively tranquil in Kashmir, at least compared with last year’s summer of street protests, strikes and violence. On Friday April 8th the calm was shattered. A moderate leader, Maulana Shaukat Ahmed Shah, the head of the Wahhabi al Hadith organisation, was killed by an explosion as he parked his car at a regular spot while arriving at his mosque for Friday prayers.

His assassination is troubling. On a visit to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, late in 2010, I interviewed him at length about his organisation. Al Hadith promotes, peaceably, a conservative strain of Sunni Islam among the mainly Sufi Muslims of Kashmir. As we wrote then:

A Wahhabi welfare organisation, al Hadith, which almost certainly benefits from generous Saudi funds, is quietly emerging as a powerful welfare, religious and cultural force. As others bicker, it has gone about building community centres, mosques, primary and secondary schools and clinics. It is seeking permission to set up a university. Its genial leaders deny being extremists, pointing to their love of education and computers; they say that in the planned university, women and non-Muslims will be enrolled too.

As for claims that the group, which says it has 1.5m members, is spreading conservative values in a territory long known for its Muslims’ religious tolerance, one leader concedes only a “little, little component of cultural shifting”. A few more women are wearing burqas, or staying at home, than did in the past. More Arab-style mosques are springing up.

The non-Muslim minority in Kashmir is much less sanguine, seeing al Hadith as a proxy for Saudi interests and a powerful example of the spreading “pan-Islamisation” of Kashmir. They fret that ties may exist to Wahhabis elsewhere, including terrorists, and warn that a powerful new force is rising in the territory, filling a vacuum created by India. Just now their concerns seem overblown. But the government in Delhi would be wrong to think of Kashmir as yesterday’s problem.

In my interview Mr Shah repeatedly explained how he was a moderate, in favour of non-violence, how he opposed the stone-pelting by youths and the violence which had ensued, claiming over 100 lives in 2010—and how it was a mistake to equate Wahhabis with violent extremists. “We have been fighting the hard-core ideology, we have made them non-existent…Though we are Wahhabis, fundamentalists, we seek communal harmony”, he suggested. Mr Shah’s great goal was to set up a university in Srinagar where science and technology could be taught, where “we would allow women to study”, and also non-Muslims. This had long been blocked by a variety of Indian authorities. (This week’s issue of The Economist includes a briefing on the way that the Russian state has inadvertently pushed Sufi communities in the north Caucasus into the arms of violent fundamentalism.)


When I suggested that a Wahhabi group such as his might one day be linked to the Taliban (who are also fundamentalists, and have ties to Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia), Mr Shah rejected the idea entirely, saying that we “want a modernised society”, unlike the backward-thinking movement that is so active in nearby Afghanistan and Pakistan. He pointed out too that, at the 700 or so mosques that his group claims to have built in Kashmir, students were taught English and the use of computers, not how to live in caves and fight wars.


One possibility is that such outspoken moderation provoked hardliners to kill the maulvi. Yet it is unclear, a few hours after his death, how to interpret the killing. Against the backdrop of violence in nearby Pakistan, the murder of a moderate leader (though a Sunni one) looks sadly in keeping with the times. The death of liberals, such as Salman Taseer, who was gunned down in January, makes headlines around the world. The regular explosions at Sufi and Ahmadi shrines and mosques, and the routine massacre of Shia worshippers, presumably by extremist Sunnis, now hardly attract outsiders’ attention. Hardliners across the border seem ever more willing to get rid of other Muslim opponents through violence.

Indian-run Kashmir is not Pakistan, of course, but it too has a history of assassinated separatist leaders. Those who seem to be growing more moderate as they age are especially at risk. The assassinations get blamed on a range of potential killers—the Indian state, extremists who have crossed the border from Pakistan, rival factions within Kashmir. But in January a few Kashmiris, responding to a modest thawing of tensions over Kashmir, admitted that some of the high-profile killings, commonly attributed on Indian forces, were in fact done by Kashmiris themselves.

One question now is what happens to al Hadith. The extensive Wahhabi network was able to grow quickly in Kashmir, not only because of its generous overseas funding, but also because it was led by a moderate figure. If a more hardline leader were to take over, al Hadith might well come to be considered a greater threat to the valley’s Sufi moderates. A second question is whether the killing will provoke renewed violence in this dangerous corner of the world. As news of the murder spread, shops in Srinagar reportedly rolled down their shutters and nervous residents hunkered in their homes, fearing protests and anger.

A Multi-domed White Building

By Martha Perry, *Draft EIR: Controversial Religious Project in Saranap Neighborhood Could Have `Significant' Impacts* -  Walnut Creek Patch - Walnut Creek, CA, USA; Friday, April 8, 2011

Sufism Reoriented says it would reduce the environmental impacts of its proposed 66,000-square-foot project

A recently released Contra Costa County planning report says a religious organization's proposal to build a 66,000-square-foot sanctuary in the Saranap neighborhood could have "significant" environmental impacts unless the organization agrees to take steps to reduce those impacts.

However, the draft Environmental Impact Report [EIR] also says that, aesthetically, the new Sufism Reoriented sanctuary, a multi-domed white building that would be built on a 3.25-acre site on Boulevard Way, would not “degrade the quality or character of the site and its surroundings.”

The report comes more than a year after Contra Costa County's Community Development Division decided the project, to be built in an unincorporated neighborhood just west of downtown Walnut Creek, merited a thorough environmental analysis, notably over concerns about aesthetics, air quality, traffic and soil quality.

As the project became known to Saranap residents, it hit a nerve, with a large group of residents objecting to the “spaceship-looking” building that would sit on seven parcels in their semi-rural neighborhood.

Opponents complained about aggressive door-to-door visits from Sufism members disseminating what opponents called misleading information about the project. They staged a protest, held public meetings and created their own homeowners group, the Saranap Homeowners Organization, after saying that the board of the long-standing Saranap Community Association had been taken over by Sufism members to advance this project.

Sufism members and supporters contended that some of the opposition to the project stemmed from religious intolerance and lack of understanding about their organization.

Sufism Reoriented leaders say the building will be used for religious, cultural and educational programs for its 350-member congregation. Sufism Reoriented is a nonprofit religious corporation, established in 1952. It has 500 members in the United States and two existing sanctuaries. One is in the Washington, D.C., area; the other is in a building on Boulevard Way, about a quarter mile east of the project site. Sufism Reoriented also runs the K-5 Meher School, which is also located in the Saranap neighborhood.

Despite its name, the organization is not affiliated with Islam, but follows the teachings of the late Meher Baba, a spiritual leader from India. Its teachings are “designed for individuals who strive to devote their lives to the love of God through service” and whose members “work in harmony with all religions.”

The proposed sanctuary would be wedged amongst mostly single-family homes, although its address would be along a stretch of Boulevard Way also populated by apartment buildings and commercial buildings.

The facility would include a prayer hall, administrative offices, library and bookstore and classroom spaces. Sufism leaders have said that the building, particularly the domes, was designed to blend in with the surrounding grass-covered hills. They also say it would be eco-friendly and “nestled in a glade of trees.”

Visually, they say the building's impact on the surrounding neighborhood would be lessened by the fact that two-thirds of it — 46,000 square feet—would be built underground.

It is this below-ground construction, as well as the size and look of the project, that generated neighborhood disagreements and prompted the county to commission the environmental review. Senior planner Lashun Cross said the controversy surrounding the project was another factor in the county deciding to ask for the review.

This draft EIR found that the “high quality” of the construction, landscaping and pedestrian improvements to Boulevard Way would lessen the sanctuary's visual impact on the neighborhood.

But the report noted a potential for signifcant adverse impacts from the excavation and construction. They include: an increase in noise and traffic and emissions of fugitive dust; possible harm to native wildlife habitats because of the removal of trees from the site; increased sediment in nearby Las Trampas Creek; and increasing instability of soil at the site and at neighboring properties.

The excavation itself could mean trucks making numerous trips per day to haul away dirt, causing diesel exhaust that could exceed thresholds set by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for nitrogen gases.

The county prepared this report in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. Its purpose is not to recommend approval or denial of this particular project but to make the agency with jurisdiction—in this case, Contra Costa County—aware of "the consequences to the natural and human environment before carrying out or approving any project."

It is important to note that this EIR is not final. Rather, as a draft report, it is open for public review and revision. Anyone who supports or has concerns about the report's findings project has a 45-day period to comment.

The public can send comments in writing to the county’s Community Development Division by May 13 or speak at a hearing to take place 3:30 p.m. April 18 in the county Board of Supervisors' chambers in Martinez.

Senior planner Lashun Cross and the consultant will review the comments and decide if any issues raised merit further analysis. At some point, they will prepare a final EIR that will go to the county Planning Commission.

Patch contacted opponents of the project, one who said he needed more time to review the EIR before making a comment.

Steve Sardella, the outreach coordinator for the Sufism project, said his organization is willing to comply with the county’s suggestions for lessening any adverse environmental impacts. This includes obtaining a grading permit from the county to make sure that a qualified geotechnical engineer will monitor soil and groundwater conditions during excavation and construction.

“I am hopeful that many of our neighbors will read the EIR, and the county’s analysis of the potential environmental impacts of various aspects of our project and how they will be mitigated,” he said. “This EIR simply reflects the care and diligence with which protection of the neighborhood has been accomplished. The mitigation measures essentially define acts Sufism Reoriented must do as part of the project to protect the environment. Therefore, it is our intention to complete all of the required mitigations.”

To read more about the draft report's findings and mitigation recommendations go to county's web page for special projects.

Picture: Aerial view of the sanctuary project. Photo: Sufism Reoriented.

Old Tensions

By Tom Perry, *Islamist campaign against Egypt shrines focus fears* - Reuters Africa - Africa; Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Qalyoub, Egypt: Wielding crowbars and sledgehammers, two dozen Islamists arrived at the Sidi Abdel Rahman shrine in the middle of the night aiming to smash it to pieces.

Word spread quickly through the narrow, dirt roads of the poor Egyptian town of Qalyoub. Within minutes, the group were surrounded and attacked by residents who rallied to defend the site revered by their families for generations.

"They say the shrine is haram (something forbidden in Islam), but what they are doing is haram," said Hussein Ahmed, 58, describing the shrine attackers as Sunni fanatics, at least two of whom witnesses said were then badly beaten.

Acts of hardline vigilantism in Egypt are fuelling debate and concern about the role Islamists will play after the demise of President Hosni Mubarak, who suppressed Islamist groups which he saw as a threat to his rule.

Seeking to ease concerns among moderate Egyptian Muslims, secularists and the Christian minority, the ruling military council has said it will not allow Egypt to turn into an Iran-style theocracy.

The gang of bearded youths did limited damage to the Sidi Abdel Rahman shrine. The locals who thwarted their attack blame a break down in state control for allowing them to even try to impose their ideas on how Islam should be practiced.

They say five other shrines have disappeared in Qalyoub on the northern outskirts of Cairo in the weeks since Mubarak was toppled from power, part of what Egyptian media has declared a campaign by ultra-orthodox Salafists.

The head of al-Azhar, Egypt's most prestigious seat of Islamic learning, has called for efforts to confront hardline doctrine. "We'll be up to our knees in blood," Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyib warned, as quoted by Shorouk newspaper.

The recent acts have awoken between Salafists and Sufis, followers of Islam's mystical tradition to whom shrines are an important part of religious practice. Some of Egypt's most famous shrines are also revered by Shi'ites.

The attacks have spread beyond Qalyoub: arsonists set fire to a shrine in the Nile Delta town of Tala on Sunday, security sources said, widening the scope of a campaign that has echoes of Pakistan. Sunni hardliners have blown up shrines there.

Some accuse the media of exploiting a handful of cases to scare-monger: playing on fears of Islamists suppressed by Mubarak to strengthen the case of conservatives seeking a return to the authoritarian ways of his regime.

Others see acts of Islamist vigilantism as a warning sign about the intentions of hardliners, including groups with a violent past which have resurfaced for the first time in years, though these appear to have nothing to do with recent attacks.

Reports of other acts of hardline vigilantism include an arson attack on the home of a woman deemed of "ill-repute" and a punishment attack which involved a man's ear being cut off.

Hardliners were also suspected of vandalising night clubs in the weeks after Mubarak was toppled, though some bar owners now blame those attacks on criminals rather than Islamists.

FREEDOM GONE TOO FAR?

In Qalyoub, residents angered by the attack on the Sidi Abdel Rahman shrine say Egypt's new freedoms have gone too far.

Some talked nostalgically about State Security, the internal spying agency which Mubarak used to suppress Islamists and other dissidents. Notorious for human rights abuses, it was dissolved in March in line with reformists' demands.

"There is no government. Whoever wants to do something can do it," said Ahmed, speaking next to a pile of splintered timber that was once part of the shrine. "It's the first time it's happened in Qalyoub and the government is doing nothing."

Dotted across Egypt, shrines dedicated to revered figures from Islamic history have played a part in popular religious practice for centuries. Pilgrims believe they offer spiritual blessing.

But shrines are the subject of controversy among Islamic scholars, especially when they are in or near mosques. To hardline Salafists, they represent a form of heresy.

The campaign against the shrines has drawn severe criticism from Egypt's Mufti. In a Friday sermon, he accused the perpetrators of having a "narrow understanding" of Islam and "causing strife in society."

Leaders of Sufi movements, whose followers are estimated to number in the millions in Egypt, are forming groups to protect shrines, according to local media reports.

Saeed Darwish, a 63-year old Sufi sheikh who lives a short distance from the Sidi Abdel Rahman shrine, said Salafists have been ever more apparent in the weeks since Mubarak was toppled.

"These people were never seen. Today they are a big group," he said. "Our grandfathers' grandfathers knew this shrine."

SALAFI-SUFI TENSION RESURFACES

At one Qalyoub mosque, turquoise tiles mark the spot where the shrine of Sidi Gamal al-Din had stood until last month. "It was here for as long as I can remember and now it's gone," said a resident, adding that he didn't know who had removed it.

Ahmed Hussein, a local activist with the Nasserite Party and a witness to the Sidi Abdel Rahman attack, said Salafists had removed all five unilaterally: "After state security was dissolved and the regime fell, Salafists started to relax."

There have been efforts to contain tensions.

Sheikh Sayed Abdel-Hayy, a leading Qalyoub cleric who describes his own doctrine as Salafist, said he led prayers in the Sidi Abdel Rahman mosque after the attack.

He blamed the attack on misguided youths who were not part of any organisation.

They had gone astray due to Mubarak-era policies that prevented clerics from engaging and teaching the youth. "What happened was wrong -- wrong in its execution," he said.

"They read books themselves and this could lead to mistakes. They say 'Enough, we'll implement God's law ourselves'. This mistake is being inflated and exploited and rumours are being circulated around it."

Abdel-Hayy, a state-appointed imam, said he supports the idea of removing shrines in mosques, but in an official way and only with local support. There can be no coercion, he added.

Addressing the wave of vigilantism, he said: "There is no doubt that there are mistakes but there are also exaggerations."

Eight Qalyoub shrines had been removed peacefully with official coordination in the last two years, he added. The five others that had disappeared in recent weeks had also been removed peacefully by ordinary people, he said. "In this security vacuum people took matters into their own hands."

(Additional reporting by Rasha Mohammed and Sarah Mikhail; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)

Picture: Reuters/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany

Drawn With Devotion

By Afshan S. Khan, *Azeemi’s pencil sketches on display at RAC* - The News international - Karachi, Pakistan; Friday, April 08, 2011

Islamabad: An exhibition of pencil sketches by Asif Javed Azeemi is on at the Rawalpindi Arts Council (RAC).

The love for ‘sufi’ saints compelled the artist to depict their magnanimity on paper with the help of pencil sketches. The portraits of different ‘sufi’ saints of the subcontinent were drawn with devotion by the artist. It is quite significant to add here that these black and white portraits truly depict the passion of the saints for Islam.

A mathematician by profession, Asif Javed Azeemi started artwork only three years back and the way his sketch work has improvised truly illustrates the devotion and the love he has in his heart for ‘sufi’ saints. This is his third solo exhibition with at least 45 pieces of art.

The portraits include the names of late ‘sufi’ saints as well as ‘pirs’ and ‘gaddi nasheens’ of recent times. They include Hazrat Syed Mohammad Abdullah (Baba Bulleh Shah), Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Masood Ganjshakar, Azeem Barkhiya Abdul Haq Qalendar Baba Aulia, Hazrat Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi, Hazrat Dr. Tahir Al Qadri, Huzoor Qudwat-ul-Aulia Syedna Tahir Alauddin Gillani Baghdadi, Qazi Maqsood Ahmed Azeemi, Hazrat Zinda Pir Sahib, Baba Tajuddin of Nagpur, Waris Shah, Hazrat Khwaja Ghulam Farid, Hazrat Mehr Ali Shah and many more.

Talking to ‘The News,’ Asif Javed said: “The idea behind this work is that we need to give something to our younger generation that they are totally unaware of. ‘Sufism’ is a vast subject our generation doesn’t know about and we need to explore their simple lifestyles and the way they preached Islam. At least our youth should know the names of ‘sufi’ saints and follow their mission, which was to spread love and harmony among humankind. We need to learn more about them and follow their footsteps so that we know our religion in a better way because they were the blessed souls of their times.”

The exhibition will continue at the Rawalpindi Arts Council, Cultural Complex, Shamsabad, till April 12.

The Struggle Can Be Infinite

By Staff Writer: *From Moscow to Mecca* - The Economist - London, UK; Thursday, April 7, 2011

As this part of Russia’s empire frays, fundamentalist Islam takes a stronger hold

Only the call to prayer disturbs the morning air in the small Dagestani village of Novosasitli. Dogs do not bark here. All “unclean” animals have been exterminated. Apart from an occasional counter-terrorist raid, life is quiet. People leave their houses unlocked; there has not been a theft for years. A few weeks ago two women were killed—but they were fortune-tellers, or, according to local men, witches.

Most women wear the hijab. Alcohol is forbidden, polygamy common. Officials rarely come by, but life in the village is more orderly than in much of the rest of Dagestan. The locals have built a school extension for the growing number of children. Some of the money came as a zakat—a mandatory charitable contribution by the better-off to the poor, as required by the Koran. Disputes are settled by imams.

The village is home to Abdurakhim Magomedov, a charismatic spiritual leader of Islamic fundamentalists and the first translator of the Koran into the local language. “Fifteen years ago, only half the people in Novosasitli wanted to live by sharia law. Today everyone in the villages wants it,” he says. To achieve this, he adds, Dagestan needs to be free.

Last summer, after a few young women were kidnapped from the village, a community group set up a checkpoint and a night watch. But last month a military truck with ten gunmen came and smashed the checkpoint. If this was an attempt to draw Novosasitli into Russia’s orbit, it achieved the opposite, increasing the tension that is tearing apart not only Dagestan but the whole north Caucasus—and, with it, Russia.

Russian rule has always been tenuous there. The territory, which stretches from the Black Sea to the Caspian, was colonised late and was never fully integrated into Russia’s empire. Its Muslim peoples enjoyed considerable autonomy, both religious and cultural, until the Bolsheviks took over—whereupon the Caucasus was so modernised and Sovietised that when the Soviet Union fell only Chechnya declared its independence.

Two wars later Chechnya is relatively stable under President Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel whose patron is Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister. Grozny, Chechnya’s once-ruined capital, is now a surreal place boasting several skyscrapers, the largest mosque in Europe, chandelier-lit streets and a Putin Prospect. The president enjoys something of a personality cult: official licence-plates carry his initials, and banners outside schools thank him for “taking care of our future”. Yet Chechnya is virtually a separate state, where women must wear headscarves in public and the sale of alcohol is restricted.

Violence has spread from Chechnya to other north Caucasus republics and beyond. Outsiders notice it only when suicide-bombers blow themselves up on the Moscow metro or at the capital’s international airport. Yet parts of the north Caucasus are in a state of simmering civil war. Statistics are unreliable, but by the estimates of Memorial, a human-rights organisation, at least 289 Russian soldiers and policemen were killed last year and 551 wounded. About the same number died in 2009—more than Britain has lost in Afghanistan over the past ten years.

On paper, all five predominantly Muslim republics (Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachaevo-Cherkessia) are part of a single administrative district. On the ground, however, they are separated by borders and checkpoints fortified by sandbags and machineguns. Crossing from one republic to another feels like crossing a national frontier. Taxi-drivers from Dagestan prefer not to venture into Chechnya.

Each of the republics has its own political set-up and is unhappy in its own way, but the root of the problem, say experts, is shared: the de-legitimisation and crumbling of the Russian state and its inability to rule by law. In much of the north Caucasus corruption has eroded the very basis of the state, which performs almost none of its functions and is seen as a source of disorder and violence rather than security.

This also holds true in the rest of Russia, but the north Caucasus has a strong alternative to Russia’s political system: Islam, which now unites all the Muslim republics. Whereas the first Chechen war in 1994 was fired by nationalism and separatism, the second war (which echoes still) had a strong religious dimension. The leader of the Islamist rebels, Doku Umarov, has proclaimed himself emir of north Caucasus.

Sufis v Salafis
The failures of the Russian state and the compensating role of Islam are particularly noticeable in Dagestan, the most religious, populous and complex of all the north Caucasian republics. It is double the size of Chechnya and consists of several dozen ethnic groups, most with their own language.

The conflict in Dagestan, however, is not between ethnic groups but between Sufism, a traditional form of Islam which includes local customs and recognises the state, and Salafism, which rejects secular rule and insists that Islam should govern all spheres of life. As Alexei Malashenko, an expert on Islam at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, puts it: “The goal of building a pure Islamist state might be a Utopia, but the struggle for it can be infinite.”

Salafism started to spread in Dagestan only after the Soviet collapse, partly as a reaction to the tame, officially recognised local version of Islam. (Raising a vodka shot to Allah used to be standard practice in the Caucasus, says Mr Malashenko.) Tension escalated in the late 1990s when Islamist radicals took over two villages in Dagestan, declaring sharia law and chasing away both local government and the police.

Sufi leaders, who had exercised a virtual monopoly over religious life in Dagestan and enjoyed official backing after the end of Soviet rule, saw the rise of Salafism as a threat. Local officials, many of whom were Sufis, started to put pressure on Salafis, forcing their spiritual leader out of Dagestan. In August and September 1999 Shamil Basayev, the leader of the Chechen fighters, and Amir Khattab, who was born in Saudi Arabia, led two armies into Dagestan, triggering the second Chechen war.

“I told Basayev that Dagestan was not ready for jihad, but he did not listen,” says Mr Magomedov, the Islamist leader. Indeed, most people in Dagestan resented the intruders. They treated the Russian army as a liberating force, and backed it with local volunteers. Sharia villages were cleared of radicals and the parliament of Dagestan passed a law forbidding extremism and Wahhabism, although it did not define either.

Sufi leaders used Basayev’s invasion to see off Salafis as a whole. In effect, the state took sides in a religious war. Wahhabism became synonymous with terrorism. Anyone who practised Salafism was outlawed by the authorities. Torture, disappearances and killings became commonplace. Bearded men from villages such as Novosasitli were driven to Chechnya by federal forces, only to be found dead a few days later. In Novosasitli soldiers publicly tore up copies of the Koran.

“The terror was conducted by the state, and in response [the insurgents] turned to counter-terrorism,” says Mr Magomedov, who himself has been arrested and tortured several times. His views are moderate compared with those of radical Salafis, who blow up shops selling alcohol and plant bombs on beaches. He does not condone the bombing at Moscow airport because it does nothing to advance Islam. But he has nothing against attacks on the army or security services, if they are engaged in a war against Islamist fundamentalists.

Although the insurgents use Salafism as their ideology, not all Salafis are rebels. The number of insurgents is estimated by experts at 500 men, plus 600-800 part-timers, across the whole north Caucasus. They draw their main strength not from numbers or even ideology, but from the failures of the Russian state and its injustices. Attacks on policemen and the army in Dagestan have doubled in the past year. They are met with popular indifference, if not approval.

Salafis have adopted the rhetoric of human rights and built up a mood of political protest, whereas the Sufis have been tainted by their association with a brutal and corrupt state, explains Nadira Isaeva, the 32-year-old Salafi editor of Chernovik, an independent newspaper. “The Sufi leaders have no active civil position,” she says, “but they control vast financial assets, including tourist companies that sell haj tours to Mecca.”

The result of all this has been a surge in Salafism. Ten years ago only 10% of people in Novosasitli were Salafis. Today at least 50% are, and almost all the young embrace it. Many of them have studied in Egypt and Syria, and speak Arabic.

A country of strongmen
A new local government appointed by the Kremlin last year tried to ease pressure on the fundamentalists, allowing them to practise Salafism without being arrested for it. Rizvan Kurbanov, the deputy prime minister in charge of security, says his first step was to visit a Salafi mosque and talk to its spiritual leaders, including Mr Magomedov. But the government is worried about giving Salafis equal access to services or allowing them political representation, partly for fear of a backlash from mainstream imams.

Trying to claw back some credibility, the government has cracked down on casinos (which operated openly despite a previous ban) and set up a commission to help former rebels adapt to a peaceful life. It has even talked about an amnesty for those who are willing to lay down their arms. But as Mr Magomedov argues, the people who need an amnesty are those who are accused of extremism simply because of their faith, not their actions.

Examples abound. Last year a group of young bearded Salafi men drove to the mountains for a picnic, stopping on the way in a small town where they were attacked by local Sufists. The police, many of whom are Sufis, joined in, beating them up so brutally that one of them died.

“While the authorities are trying to entice former rebels back to normal life, their own subordinates are pushing another 100 into the hands of the rebels,” says Ms Isaeva.
Police violence is not restricted to the fight with the Islamists, either. A 14-year-old boy was tortured and crippled by the police after being wrongly accused of stealing a drill. Sapiat Mag Omedova, a petite female lawyer who was thrown out of a police station and ended up with concussion, has been accused of attacking four burly policemen. None of these cases led to police bosses being punished. The police force, which is 20,000 strong, is barely controlled by the Dagestani government.

Mr Kurbanov says it is not in his power to fire a police chief, since both the police and security services answer to Moscow. That is not the only reason. Unlike Chechnya, Dagestan is a state of semi-autonomous districts controlled by local strongmen who are backed by a local police chief and often by an imam. Said Amirov, the wheelchair-bound mayor of Makhachkala, who has survived at least 15 assassination attempts, is considered to be as powerful as the president of the republic. An attempt by the president or his team to cleanse a particular police department is seen as a declaration of war against a powerful vassal.

The balance between regions and clans is fragile. Saigidpasha Umakhanov, the mayor of Khasaviurt, a town close to the Chechen border, is a charismatic strongman who led local armed resistance to Basayev in 1999. “There is no one in the republic who could dislodge me,” he boasts. “Only the president of Russia.” If he himself were to die, “at least I would die like a real man—not like some bastard with a bowed head.” The prospect of death is real enough: a vast computer screen on his desk displays input from multiple CCTV cameras.

As a powerful regional leader, Mr Umakhanov sneers at Magomedsalam Magomedov, who was appointed Dagestan’s president without consultation with local strongmen. “He is not an independent player. The oligarchs in Moscow interfere in his decisions.” The scrapping of regional elections by Mr Putin in 2004 has eliminated peaceful channels for political competition, only making places like Dagestan more explosive. Mr Umakhanov says the only way out of this paralysis is direct elections. He is not alone in feeling that way. Most Russians want to elect their regional governors. This is precisely what the Kremlin fears, as it would mean the loss of guaranteed political support from puppets in the regions.

Unable to offer any unifying idea or the rule of law, the Kremlin tries to compensate with injections of money. Corruption is so rampant that, at best, the funds get siphoned off; at worst, they are used for terrorism. The Dagestani economy is 80% subsidised by the Russian government, but there is little to show for it apart from a few seaside villas and lavish weddings for the rich—at which guests may sport gold-plated revolvers bulging in their jeans.

As for the rest of the Dagestanis, they are left with potholed roads, derelict farms and factories, a polluted sea and a grim landscape dotted with houses half-built or half-ruined. Free education and health care are myths. The rate of TB is one of the highest in Russia. Jobs, exam grades and university diplomas are all for sale.

In this region, Russian identity has been hollowed out. As one young man puts it, “The only thing that makes me Russian is a note in my passport. I can’t get a job in Moscow or even a mortgage, because I come from Dagestan.” Radicalisation of young people is increasing, both in the north Caucasus and in Moscow. The main slogan of the ultra-nationalists who rioted in Moscow recently was “Fuck the Caucasus”. Radicals in the Caucasus feel the same way about the Russian state.

Mr Putin came to power pledging to fight the centrifugal forces in Russia. After more than a decade of his rule, the risk of disintegration is greater than ever. The Kremlin has no strategy to prevent it. And the biggest threat to Russia’s territorial integrity comes not from Dagestan or any other part of the north Caucasus, but from the Russian state itself. As a young man in Novosasitli remarks: “There is no future for Dagestan inside Russia now because Russia itself is fraying at the seams.”

Picture: Leaving Friday prayers in Grozny. Photo: ITAR-TASS