Comments on: Sufism under attack?

By: tushar

tushar — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

if islam was spread mainly thru sufism, then sufi islam would naturally be the dominant sect in the subcontinent. However it is still a minority. Therefore, get the notion out that islam was spread by love and peaceful means. Read the texts written by unbiased authors…nay, read the texts written by the muslim conquerors themselves, and see for yourself how islam was spread by the sword and economic strangulation of the dhimmis.

By: tushar

tushar — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

@ajtr….
Wow man!!..What pure thoughts you have!! No wonder Islam is called the ‘religion of peace!!’ A few more like you is what Islam needs!! And then there will no longer be doubts and misunderstanding that others have regarding Islam!

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Friends come and go, but relatives tend to accumulate.

By: Rabia

Rabia — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I believe that people should be free to follow whatever sect they feel best explains ‘Islam’ to them. Destructions of Masjids or shrines belonging to Sufis, ahle Hadith or deoband and indeed non-Muslim shrines is simply wrong and unIslamic. I don’t think only Sufism teaches love and tolerance – Islam teaches love and tolerance. Members of all Islamic sects who follow the basic principles of Islam are tolerant and that includes non-Sufi Muslims too. The Sufis are also coming across ‘intolerant’ in their bid to support and promote Sufism.

By: saifullah

saifullah — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I believed government has to pay attention to rebuild them again and take care of those precious old building all that government and people involved in those area can do it. In UK all old castles are still safe because white people keep maintain them so why not our nation.

By: kabul

kabul — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

does any one think collecting jaziya tax is islamic? Please take steps to stop jaziya tax.

By: Sufi Sindhi

Sufi Sindhi — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Before going into details of the sufisim lets see what history has shown. Whenever you think of Islam, It comes up with the wars with the non-muslims, conflicts with the people who were forced to accept islam. But Sufism gives a crystal view of non-violence aspect of Islam. We need a platform where there is no difference of sects,races and religions. Sufisim gives that platform where people from across the all religions comes and learn the lesson of humanity, peace, brotherhood, tranquility and non-violence.

By: adam

adam — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I do not pretend to know much about sufi tradition but it sounds much more like what I would live under then the false religion practiced by the salafists. I say no compromise. Every single taliban should be caught and punished in public. I am usually very tolerant but anyone who forces religion down my throat, I am extremely intolerant of. I should be free to live my life how I want to. After all I am the one who will have to face my maker on the day of judgment.

By: shridharV

shridharV — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Sam,
There is no religious text I have seen that is devoid of confusion or contradiction. This is because of the nature of life. Context matters all the time.

There will always be the orthodox followers of faiths, moderate followers, mildly agnostic as well as rabidly atheistic folks.

Depending on the power balance at the moment any one or these types can oppress the others. Swat being one type (super orthodox) and the great cultural revolution in china as another (super atheistic).

It is incumbent on the critical mass of tolerant citizenry to keep these extremes at bay.

The success of a society is determined by how it is able to build this critical mass.

The way to do this consists of many steps in many dimensions, four key ones being;

– inclusion of all (specially women)
– enshrining dissent in the culture
– building a foundation of jurisprudence
– education & awareness for all

if we can keep these four pillars of a solid society stable, then the crazies can never take control.
——————————

The texts themselves are unequivocal: they are perfect in all their parts. By their light, religious moderation appears to be nothing more than an unwillingness to fully submit to God’s law. By failing to live by the letter of the texts, while tolerating the irrationality of those who do, religious moderates betray faith and reason equally.

Unless the core dogmas of faith are called into question – i.e., that we know there is a God, and that we know what he wants from us — religious moderation will do nothing to lead us out of the Swat, errr… wilderness.

– Sam Harris, The end of faith

By: shridharV

shridharV — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

One cannot ask a rhetorical question to a religion or a philosophy. It can appear provocative, even if the intention was not so.

Finally the answers to this question are provided by human beings.

Any religion accretes ideas, customs and attitudes as it goes along. Nothing remains the same forever. Same thing is true of Islam. A major example is the Shia sub culture. There are those who are ok with that and then there are others who are not.

Same thing here regarding Sufism.

We have to stop painting with just one color.