The Sunday New York Times recently ran a feature regarding a trend among New Yorkers converted to Sufism. Sufism is a strain of Islam that stresses an ecstatic, joyful experience of the Divine employing methods often condemned as sinful by fundamentalist Muslims, i.e. the use of music and dance. Men and women freely mingle during religious services. A few interesting points made of the faith include these:
“’Sufism has never been embraced by mainstream Islam,’ said Daisy Khan, founder of the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality and one-half of the couple who in 2010 sought to open a community center in Lower Manhattan, mislabeled the ‘ground zero mosque.’
“For Ms. Khan, the ethereal buzz of Sufism is its great appeal, a faith that is ‘beyond the realm of this world,’ dealing with the “supernatural, the magical and love.”
read the article here:
