Lam : Yes, at least usually, Sufism is for the good. There have been many discussions between Ernie and me, mostly private, about types of Islam. Maybe I mentioned it, but worth repeating. Years ago I was a Baha'i, a religion that has Shiah Muslim roots AND Sufi background. From what I know, most Sufis are OK , and your views are pretty much on target. There are some exceptions, both in history and in today's world, though. Could go into a lengthy digression about these exceptions, but to boil it all down, some modern day Sufis, mostly in Egypt and the Caucasus, are as militant as the worst of jihadis. Local reasons. Historically, in India especially, Sufis, or some of them, were useful to the invaders and were in on the plunder and other bad things. But these are exceptions. Usually you are quite correct. ---------------------------------------------- Otherwise, as Ernie has said over and over, most South Asian Muslims are not the same as the Saudis or others who are better known, like many Pakistanis. There are reasons for this. In Indonesia there still are Hindu and Buddhist ideas which are alive in popular culture. In any case, most ( or a lot of ) Indonesian Muslims are not interested in jihad. But it is hard to generalize since Indonesia has about 2 / 3rds as many people as the USA and is diverse. Then there are the Gulf states. No problems with most Muslims there And I am a big fan of Al-Jazeera. Most of the Gulf people are as broad minded as Muslims can ever get. There even is some of this in Iraq. Then there are the Muslim reformers. Personally I think they would be better off simply switching to another religion, but, anyway, there are classes of reformers in a score of countries, always in a minority, but at least there are some. Lastly there are the MINOs, Muslims In Name Only. This may be the majority of all Muslims. Probably most people in all religions are -INOs , In Name Only. CINO, HINO, BINO, etc , and in all likelihood, TINO, too. I have zero reason to worry about MINOs. Heck, I have met some nominal Muslims along the way and they are just like anyone else. Where I get upset is when they start to take the Qur'an seriously. Then everything changes. There is so much violence, though, and it makes me sick to think about it. I was feeling really bad after watching the TV program about Mumbai. It was horrible. The ideology that inspires such criminality must be ended. But if you have a chance to see it, "Terror in Mumbai," with Fareed Zakaria, you would do yourself a favor to see it. Very informative. I much prefer to talk about the good in religions. Which is why I became interested in Comparative Religion in the first place. My favorite verse in the Bible is Malachi 1 : 11 "From furthest east to furthest west my name is great among the nations. Everywhere fragrant sacrifice and pure gifts are offered in my name; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of Hosts." The tense is present tense, "IS," not "will be," as some translations incorrectly say. In other words, speaking of that time in history, about 2 or 3 hundred years before Christ, all over the world there were good religions who believed in good things which were acceptable to the Lord of the whole world. At a minimum this means , besides Judaism --Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Jainism, Shinto, and still more, all ( or almost all ) that existed at the time. Including Jainism even if I am not attracted to it because it is so pacifistic I wonder how anyone actually believes in it. You're not even supposed to swat a fly ? Not for me, I will swat any fly that bothers me. But anyway, you get the idea. There is great good in 90% of all religions. I try to make the good in other religions my good, also. I get the idea you share this view. Billy In a message dated 12/13/2009 10:53:23 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 12:40 PM, <[email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) > wrote: I can now understand your position MUCH better. Maybe you can understand my position better, too. It looks like we reached a kind of understanding that is more important than any other kinds of agreement. I would like to know your opinion about Islamic Sufism. Do you think it is the same as those in Jewish Kabbalah, Hindu mytism, philosophical Taoism and maybe other mystic faith. I realize that many religions today have a mystic variant that are similar to one another in a way or other. If traditional Islam is false completely, at least I can only say that Sufism is an attempt Islamic thinkers take to explain themselves towards true wisdom. _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
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