Branding of the State: Labeling certain sectors of Islam as Extremists is so passe

Seriously though it is. No really it is, I'm just as surprised as you are really. So for this week's little project I decided to look into modern day issues surrounding Sufism and I managed to dig up some rather interesting tid bits. Most primarily the interplay between Sufism, Colonialism, and the State. How exactly, well a you hopefully well know at one point in time Europe ruled a majority of the world

notice how everything is in the process of being ruined 

and if it wasn't outright controlled it was in someway being used as a playground for a few great powers. Such as Britain and Russia in the form of the Great Game, which depending on who you talk to may or may not have existed. The game was a form of geostrategy and politics revolving around increasing tensions between the two powers in the middle east. Notice on the map how the only thing between Russia and India (which was the crown jewel of the British Empire) was Afghanistan and Persia (and they still barely touch).

Lions and Afghans and Bears...wait that isn't right

So as the two major powers played their games real people on the ground dealt with the fallout as always. One of the responses to the game and to Colonialism throughout the middle east was resistance by the Sufism surprising right? Well actually if you think about it, not all that much. The Sufism were made up of large spread esoteric networks of Teacher and Students which in many ways the making of an underground network for resistance. However, because these groups were made up of a single teacher with many followers adhering to their principles the European Empires (which was rife with Orientalism and had (and to a good degree still does) very little understanding of how non-Christian religions worked) very quickly essentially Sufism to one thing: fanaticism.

Sound familiar? Cause it really should. In fact this trend of essentializing Islam to fantaicism, extremism, or blind faith lead by ideological or personal charisma is pretty old (Marco Polo accused the Hashashin of such).  

Hashashin = Win

And it is interesting that it is almost an essential part of the Western Christian World's discussion of Islam. Never discussed are issues such as Islam contributions to medicine, science, or mathematics. Never discussed are issues such as Islam's overwhelming message of non-violence and peace. And, of course, never discussed is the fact that more often then not violence by Muslims towards the West has been a direct response to the Crusades, Colonialism, or Neo-Liberalism. All of which are parasitic systems of exploitation and domination. 

So next time when you hear the media talk of Islamic Extremists, remember the Sufis (who many Westerners speak of as not being truly Islamic and therefore acceptable in modern worship) were once considered to be that too.

Till next time 

Jacob 

Sources: 

Ernst, Carl W. The Shambhala Guide to Sufism. Boston, Mass: Shambhala, 1997.

Renard, John. Knowledge of God in Classical Sufism: Foundations of Islamic Mystical Theology. New York: Paulist Press, 2004.