Hybrid Formations in Muslim America:: Identity
Hybrid Formations in Muslim America:: Identity
Hybrid Formations in Muslim America:: Identity
Hybrid Identity
Formations in
Muslim America:
The Case of American
Sufi Movements’
Marcia Hermansen
Loyola University
Chicago, Illinois
groups active in the U S . and Canada in various ways. Gisela Webb suggests
a chronological framework of three phases: one, the early 1900s, in which
Americans and Europeans first took an interest in “Oriental”wisdom; two,
“the sixties” counter cultural movement, in which large numbers of (mostly)
young middle-class Americans located the cause of racism, the Vietnam
Mar, and the evils of technocracy in a spiritual sickness that establishment
religions in America had not only failed to solve but had fostered; and third,
the continuation of these groups coupled with the phenomenon of increas-
ing numbers of immigrants arriving from traditional Muslim societies.‘ Jay
Kinney also developed a chronological schema of four periods: 1910-1959,
1960-1969, 1970-1989,and post-1990 developments.’ William Chittick, as
part of an encyclopedia article on “Sufism,”*characterized some aspects of
prominent American movements. He says, for example, that Inayat Khan
had taught a form of “drunken”Sufism, while other more sober teachings
were disseminated by groups such as the followers of Frithjof Schuon. This
typology has the advantage of using terminology drawn from within the
Sufi tradition. At the same time, it carries the author’s evaluation that intel-
lectual discernment, Shari‘a-based practice, and a sober outlook are the
superior forms of Sufi practice, thereby attempting to establish standards by
which Western Sufi movements may be evaluated.’
Andrew Rawlinson has studied the impact of Eastern inspired reli-
gious and spiritual movements in the 20th century West.” Rawlinson is par-
ticularly interested in the phenomenon of Westerners becoming recognized
spiritual teachers in the esoteric traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and
Islam. He elaborates a developmental paradigm for the emergence of these
movements in the West under the rubrics “sowing the seed” (1875-1916),
“consolidation” (1917-1945), “propagation” (1946-1962), and “full bloom”
(1963-present).”
In an earlier paper on American Sufi movements, I pursued a gar-
den metaphor of “hybrid” and “perennial” movements.” My contention was
that while “hybrids” melded the practice of Islam with at least some conces-
sions to the American context, the “perennial” movements stressed the unity
of religions and consequently did not generally require the formal practice
of Islam by members. While “hybrid”seemed a generally acceptable image
for groups that combined elements of traditional Islamic practice with adap-
tations to the American context, the category of the “perennial” was more
often contested by some of my readers, since it engaged a more complex
history. The Sufi-influenced intellectual movement that deliberately espous-
es the “perennialist” title,I3as articulated by Rene Guenon’*and later Frithjof
Schuon and his intellectual circle, seems to have advocated adherence to
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sored by Shah we are told that this is a universality of Sufi activity, “whether
it is carried out in Afghanistan or the Shetland Islands,” and that this does
not involve adopting specifically Islamic or Eastern cultural practices.”
The appeal of Sufism to Americans usually occurs before formal
acceptance of Islam, and many persons involved in Sufi movements never
come to formally practice Islam. This initial appeal seems to take place
largely through an attraction to certain cultural elements influenced by
Sufism, such as poetry or music, or through the writings of Western-based
Sufis such as Idries Shah. Shah’s early work, The SUBS,is often cited by
Americans as that which first interested them in Sufism.zo
For Americans, belonging to some sort of Sufi organization provides
fellowship and a support system of like-minded spiritual seekers. In many
American Sufi orders, Islamic traditions such as demonstrating respect for
the teacher by standing when he enters, sitting erect during lectures, defer-
ring to others, and separating males and females are experienced as posi-
tive factors. Most orders offer some form of personal instruction in spiritual
practices such as meditation, and recognize the rather “elusive” quality of
spiritual progress through conferring ranks or acknowledging heightened
responsibilities in certain followers who are advancing on the path. The
intensity of this training varies with the type of order, its leadership, and the
size of its organization.
Finally, over the past several years, a burgeoning cyber community
has made information about Sufi groups in the West much more accessible.
Even the smaller movements are now able to make their publications and
their ideas public. Several general sites exist that maintain links to Sufi
resources. Among them is , with a list of Sufi related resources on the
Internet.
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Chishti Order 22
This order was founded by Hazrat Inayat Khan (1880-1927), a
Chishti Sufi and musician from India who first came to the West in 1912.23
His son, Pir Vilayat Khan (b. 19161, is the current leader of this Sufi Order in
the West. Vilayat reads widely and was raised and educated in Europe. His
teachings embrace an interest in contemporary science and psychology. He
is also eclectic in his Sufi practices, continuing his father’s teachings such as
the “universal worship,” a service where selections are read from all of the
world scriptures, and leading his disciples in chants and meditation prac-
tices based on various traditions including alchemy and other hermetic sci-
ences. His meditations resemble Jungian-inspired or psycho-synthesis
“wakeful dreaming,” where the listeners go into a trace-like state and Pir
Vilayat talks them through various images and
Practices of the Sufi Order members include Islamic dhi kd5but not
necessarily the five daily prayers. Pir Vilayat Khan’s knowledge of Sufi
thought and practice is based on his work with masters in India as well as
on interpretations of Sufism by Western scholars such as Henry Corbin.
Disciples take initiation from Pir Vilayat or from his deputies and are often
given a new spiritual name that may be Islamic, Hindu, mythological, etc.
They do personal practices such as the dhikr and w a ~ i j & In . ~areas
~ where
there is sufficient membership, higher level initiates may gather to read cer-
tain unpublished writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan called Gathas, Githas,
Sangathas, and Sangithas. Currently there are different concentrations with-
in this Sufi Order, including the universal worship and healing order; an
individual may be an initiate in one or more of these. It is estimated that
some 10,000 people in North America have become initiated into this order,
although perhaps only 2,000 are currently participating in regular Sufi Order
activities.*’In February, 2000, Pir Vilayat officially passed the leadership of
the Sufi Oder to his son, Zia Inayat Khan.
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DZUd-Ihsan
This movement is based in Bristol, Connecticut, and currently oper-
ates out of a small strip mall center, A deputy (kbalga) of the late Pakistani
Sufi Barakat Ali heads the group, which holds weekly dhikrmeetings and
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has attracted a number of American followers. Plans for a larger center are
in the making. The group has a website and publishes a monthly newslet-
ter.
Chishti Foundation
This is primarily a South Asian group of followers of the Sufi Shaykh
Afzal al-Din Nizami of Chicago (formerly of Hyderabad, India). The group
is Chishtiyya-Nizamiyya and holds bi-monthly dhikr sessions and, when
musicians are available, has sponsored quwwulis.
Helveti-Jerrahi
The Helveti-Jerrahi, a Turkish order known for its robust dhikr, was
brought to America by Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak (1916-1986) of Istanbul who
first came to the U S . in 1980, although many Western students of Sufism
had previously visited his bookshop in I~tanbul.~’ In 1980, Shaykh Muzaffar
toured a number of American cities performing an elaborate Helveti-Jerrahi
dhikr with his disciple^.^^
The strongest base of the order is the New York City area. The main
representatives have been Tosun Bayrak4’and Shaykh Nur (Lex Hixon,
1941-1995). In the San Francisco Bay area, the main leader is psychologist
Ragip Frager, who runs a transpersonal institute in Redwood City,
California. Shaykh Nur was in charge of Masjid al-Farah on Mercer Street
until his death. This property had been presented by a disciple, Fariha
Friedrich du Menil, in 1980.41Another branch of the order, characterized as
“more orthodox,” meets in Spring Valley, NY,under the Turkish-American
Shaykh, Tosun Baba. Rocher and Charqaoui assess the current wave of con-
versions of Westerners to Islam. They describe activities of the turiqu in the
early 1980s, including the Helveti-Jerrahi mosque, a dhikr ceremony and
dinner, and a public performance of the dhikr in New York at the cathedral
of Saint John the Divine.42
Shaykh Nur (Hixon) is a prominent figure in a number of American
spiritual movements. He has a Ph.D. in religion from Columbia, where he
specialized in comparative mysticism. He met Shaykh Muzaffer while the
latter was a guest on a radio program h e hosted in New York on which a
number of spiritual leaders were featured. Nur eventually became his disci-
ple and accepted Islam while maintaining his universalist orientation.
Rocher and Charqaoui comment, “This gentle and affable man is an ortho-
dox priest on Monday, a Buddhist lama on Tuesday, a Khalifa on Thursday
‘Christian among the Christians, Muslim among the This orienta-
tion seems to have led to some friction among members of the tariqa that
became more evident after the death of Muzaffer Effendi, whose successor
T H E M U S L I MW O R L D . VOLUME 90 . SPRING, 2000
Naqshbandi Order
Naqshbandi-Haqqani
The Naqshbandi-Haqqani order is headed by Shaykh Nazim al-
Kibrisi (b. 1922), and is probably the most popular and fastest growing of
the hybrid or Islamically-oriented movement^.^^ Unlike many other Sufi
teachers, Shaykh Nazim is well known in his native Cyprus,46in Turkey, and
in other parts of the Muslim world, where he has a number of prominent
dis~iples.~’ Since the late 1970s, Shaykh Nazim has initiated an increasing
number of European and American d i s ~ i p l e sOf .~~
all the Sufi movements,
Shaykh Nazim’s seems to have the greatest appeal to Muslims, both in
immigrant communities and in Muslim societies. Each Ramadan he holds a
special retreat in a mosque in Peckham in London, England, which is
attended by hundreds of European and American followers. His movement
acquired a priory in London, reportedly bought for Shaykh Nazim by his
disciple, the Sultan of Brunei. In America, the success of his movement is
attested to by the opening in August, 1993 of a “Da‘wa Convention Center”
in Fenton, Michigan, which was attended by hundreds of guests and disci-
ples. The order is active in the Bay Area of California, Chicago and
Montreal. The Shaykh’s deputy in America is his son-in-law, Shaykh Hisham
Kabbani, who settled in Los Altos Hills near San Francisco in 1991.49 Shaykh
Hisham presently resides at the Fenton, Michigan center.
Male followers of Shaykh Nazim often wear distinctive traditional
dress including green robes and large turbans. The turbans are often color-
coded to signify the ethnic origin of those wearing them. For example,
African Americans wear red-wrapped turbans while those of Latino origin
may wear gold-wrapped ones5’ While Naqshbandis traditionally practice
only the silent dhikr, this branch of the order teaches that a vocalized group
practice is also suitable for the current spiritual and cultural environment.
A significant development involving the relationship between Sufi
movements and the growing Muslim community in North America was the
major dispute between Shaykh Hisham Kabbani of the Naqshbandi-
Haqqani and the leadership of many mainstream Sunni Muslim organiza-
tions, for example, ISNA and the American Muslim Council. Shaykh Hisham
made a public statement in which he denounced American Islamic centers
as being controlled by extremists. This naturally offended many Muslims
associated with these centers, in particular because such accusations rein-
forced negative perceptions held by the American public. A joint statement
signed by the leadership of most major American Muslim organizations on
February 25, 1999 condemned statements made by the Shaykh before an
H Y B R I DI D E N T I T Y FORMATIONS I N M U S L I MA M E R I C A
American State Department forum. While a long standing debate has been
carried on between Hisham’s followers and the “Wahhabi”opponents of
Sufism over the Internet, this expansion of the conflict to a broader
American public represented an escalation of tensions which could not be
ignored. Normally, groups such as ISNA have resisted participation by
avowed supporters of Sufi interpretations. As the head of the highest profile
Sufi group in the immigrant Muslim community, Shaykh Hisham’s conflict
with the mainstream leadership may signal a new trend in which American
Sufi movements with a significant membership of Muslim immigrants com-
pete for recognition, leadership, and resources with established associations
of Muslims who are anti-Sufi or neutral to Sufism.51
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tion, which claims that Sufism is universal and can be analyzed in the fol-
lowing five steps: (1) The potential Sufi first hears about Sufism. (2) The
aspirant makes contact with Sufis. If he makes the right contact, he will be
given further guidance, an interview, a reading or an assignment of some
kind. (3) People meet regularly and may be grouped in enterprises that
bear no resemblance to spiritual activities known elsewhere. (4) People
from the groups are carefully selected with the leader’s approval and
assigned to carry out specific tasks and certain exercises. (5) The individual
may be sent on a journey and given opportunities to develop his or her
“inner life.” “At any one of the five stages anyone may withdraw or be dis-
missed as unsuitable.”60 While the study-group meetings seem to have been
discontinued by Idries Shah followers in America, pre-existing groups con-
tinue to meet to carry on the “work”through fund-raising activities such as
promoting books sponsored by ISHK book services. At one time, this fund-
raising was done for Afghanistan relief, but now it seems to be more orient-
ed to getting the group’s message out. At present, since the group meetings
seem to have been annulled, members respond to periodically mailed Sufi
stories by writing to a post officer box in the Bay Area.
Omar Ali-Shah terms his teaching “The Tradition” and explains that
Sufism is “Neither a cult nor a religion: it is a practical philosophy.”“ He has
followers in the greater Los Angeles area. Meetings are an important part of
his teaching, which stresses “harmonious group energy.”62
Rifa iOrder
Al-Hawati ar-Rifa‘i al-Hussaini
A Rifa‘i branch in New York is connected to the Rifa‘is of Kosovo
and Bosnia. The work entitled The Writing on the Watee Chronicles of a
Seeker on the Islamic Sufi Path by Muhyiuddin S h a k ~ r ,a‘ ~followers of this
order, describes some of the activities and teachings of this order but does
not provide historical details or the name of the Shaykh.
Oadiri-Rifa‘i (Ansari)
The Qafiriyya-Rifa‘i of the San Francisco Bay Area, led by Shaykh
Taner Vergonen, originated in Tarsus, Turkey.” Shaykh Taner first came to
the United States to study at Western Michigan University in the 1970s. He
returned to Turkey from 1977 to 1992, and then came back to the United
States. He is currently Pir (leader) of the Qadiri-mfa‘i tariqa of the Americas.
There are centers of this order in Berkeley, Marin County, Santa Fe, and Los
Angeles. At present, some 400 persons comprise the mailing list. Activities
of Shaykh Taner include dbikr circles, public lectures, and intensive person-
al instruction of murids.
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Shadhili Order
Shadhiliwa-Miriamiwa
This group was headed by Frithjof Schuon until his death in 1998.
Schuon, more privately known as Shaykh Isa Nur al-Din,76was originally
from Switzerland and moved to Bloomington, Indiana in the 1970s. He was
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Habibiwa
The Darqawiyya-Habibiyya movement is led by ‘Abd al-Qadir al-
Murabit, formerly Ian Dallas. Dallas, a scriptwriter who played the part of
the magician in Fellini’s movie “8 1/2,” was initiated by Moroccan Sufi
Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib al-Darqawi in 1967.” By 1976, he had
enough followers to establish a Sufi community in Norwich, England. After
a period of promoting Maliki fiqh as the ideal legal system, he adopted a
more strict and militant Islamic position. This development can be traced in
his writings, which move from 7be Book of Strangers by Ian Dallas, a mysti-
cal quest n0ve1,’~to The Sign of the Sword by ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Sufi,*Oto
Jihad: A Growzdplan,” and then to 7be Sign of the Sword by Shaykh ‘Abd
al-Qadir al-Murabit.**He first brought the movement to the U.S. in 1973 and
his followers established a center in Berkeley in 1977. His next venture was
a community in Spain,83which was initially part of a broader movement to
restore Islam to Andalusia. The group became increasingly rigid and cult-
like, adopting the name “the Murabitun,” and minting their own gold coins
to try to avoid the contamination of the interest-based international banking
system. The community convulsed during the late 1980s amid hints of
financial scandal and abuses of polygamy.’* A strongly Islamically-oriented
international community of less than 100 persons near Granada maintains
links to ‘Abd al-Qadir. They interact with immigrant Muslims in the area and
visiting Sufi Shaykhs from Morocco. ‘Abd al-Qadir continues to have follow-
ers active in Spain, South Africa, England, Holland, and Germany, and in
the U S . in North Carolina and Los Angeles.
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Shadhiliwa Center
This movement focuses on the teachings of Shaykh Muhammad
Jamal al-Rifa‘ias-Shadhili, a Palestinian from Jerusalem. A small group of
Sufi Order in the West members who were inclined to Islam came to
Jerusalem to study with “Sidi” in 1974. In 1992, the Shaykh began to visit the
U.S. in person. He now has clusters of followers in Santa Fe, Philadelphia
and the Bay Area. While as many as 300 people have taken initiation at his
hand, a much smaller number, perhaps 20, are following a specifically
Islamic Sufi path under his teachingss5
Mevlevi Order
The Beshara Foundation
This is a Sufi-inspired movement based in Roxburghshire, U.K.,
which is characterized as primarily gnostic rather than devotional. This
organization was founded in England by a Turkish teacher, Bulent Rauf.
About 30 graduates of the Beshara School live in the U.S.
Mevlana Foundation
Another Sufi teacher who studied with Bulent Rauf is Reshad Feild.
Feild was raised in London where he studied in the Gurdjieff-Ouspensky
tradition, including Druids and other occult movements. In the 1960s he
was initiated in the Sufi Order by Pir Vilayat Khan. He seems to be describ-
ing his Sufi training of the late 1960s and early 1970s with Bulent Rauf and
in the Mevlevi order of Turkey in his book The Last He founded
the Mevlana Foundation in 1976. At present, Feild has a training institute in
Switzerland, although he was for a time teaching disciples in the American
Southwest and has been influential in other American Sufi movement^.^'
Threshold Society
Kabir Helminski is a teacher in the Mevlevi Order who studied with
Samuel Lewis, Ram Das, Reshad Feild, Tosun Bayrak, and Murat Yagan,
among Kabir and his wife Camille have received recognition as
HYBRID IDENTITY F O R M A T I O N SI N M U S L I M A M E R I C A
teachers of the Mevlevi way from Jelaluddin Celebi, the leader of the
Mevlevi Order in Turkey. A small Sufi circle has met in Vermont for the past
twenty years. Since the publication of Kabir’s book, world-wide demand for
spiritual instruction has led him to design a 99-day correspondence course,
which is currently being followed by several hundred persons.
Tijani Order
Membership in the American branch of the Tijaniyya Order is about
80% African immigrant Muslims and 20% African American
Branches operate in cities such as New York, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Oakland. Shaykh
Ahmed Tijani ben-Omar, who is originally from Ghana, is the Chicago
muqaddum (section head).9’ In Chicago, a weekly dbikr is held at the
Nigerian Islamic Mosque under the direction of Imam Shakir al-Nasir. The
majority of African American members of this order follow Shaykh Hassan
Cisse, who is based in Senegal but began missionary work in the U S . in the
late 1970s. In this order, contacts are maintained with the African centers
and some American members support and send their children to Qur’anic
school in Senegal. Activities of the order in the U.S. are not coordinated,
since many of the African immigrants owe their primary allegiance to lead-
ers in various African countries. African Americans who become involved in
Sufism seem to be drawn to the Islamically-oriented rather than the univer-
sal Sufi orders, and generally come into the orders after participation in
non-Sufi Islamic activities.
Bektashi Order
In some instances, traditional Sufi teachers from Muslim societies
residing in the U.S. have developed circles of disciples almost exclusively
within immigrant communities. A notable example is Baba Rexheb (d.
1999, an Albanian Bektashi master who established a small Sufi lodge
(tekke) near Detroit in the 1 9 5 0 ~ . ~ ’
Qadiri Order
While the Qadiri order has been one of the most widely dispersed
world-wide, in the United States it is not that well known. Some of the
Shaykhs living in the U.S. have Qadiri affiliations along with a primary one,
such as Taner Ansari of the Qadari-Rifa‘iand Shaykh Muhammad Ma‘sum
Naqshbandi. Here, one could also include the eclectic lineage of Adnan
Sarhan. Sarhan, originally from Iraq, claims initiation in the Naqshbandi,
Rifa‘i, Qadiri and Mevlevi 0rders.d His teaching combines body work, yoga,
dance, fellowship and dbikr.” He also calls his teaching “Shattari”because it
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Nimatullahi-Gunabadi
The Nimatullahi-Gunabadi Sufi order under Sultan Husayn
Tabandah, Rida Ali Shah (b. 1914) has branches in Orange County and
Toronto. The current leader succeeded his father and was appointed khalz-
f a of the order in 1960.102
He normally resides in Iran; the followers in North
America are members of the Persian community.
Ja‘fari-Shadhili
Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri is an Iraqi engineer and a Shi‘i Muslim who
had been affiliated with ‘Abd al-Qadiri al-Sufi’s group, the Habibiyya, dur-
ing the 1970s. In 1980, he and a group of followers established a Sufi com-
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munity, the Zahra Trust, in Blanco, Texas, near San Antonio. In 1981 a
mosque and madrasa were begun as the nucleus of a community known as
the “Bayt al-Deen” (home of religion), to be modeled on the first Islamic
community at Medina. In winter 1981, the first “Bayt al-Deen Sufi
Gathering” was convened in this location. By the late 1980s, however, Haeri
had decided to move his organization to England.Io3
Oveyssi-Shahxnaghsoudi
Another Sufi movement of Iranian Shi‘a origin is the Oveyssi
order,Io4which has influenced two groups functioning in the U.S., both
descended from Shah Maghsoud Angha (d. 1980).’05The larger movement,
known as the Shah Maghsoudi Order, is headed by the son of Shah
Maghsoud Angha, Molana Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah Angha, known to his
followers as “Hazrat Pir.”lo6In the line of succession of this order, he is listed
as the 42nd teacher and an affiliation to the Kubrawiyya line is indicated.’”
The order, which is also known as Maktab Tarighat Oveysi, or the
School of Islamic Sufism, has many centers throughout the world, including
the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. There are at least 50
centers in California. While each center is somewhat autonomous, all activi-
ties are coordinated through the main office, which is located in San Rafael,
California. A number of the center directors are women, some are
American, and some are American women. Meetings held by Molana
Salaheddin Angha and his deputies often attract audiences, mainly Iranian,
of hundreds for dhikr and meditative practices. At centers in Burbank and
Concord, California, meetings are held on alternate evenings to accommo-
date the large crowds. In addition to weekly services, various educational
and community service programs, such as meditation classes, children’s
programs, and prison outreach, are offered through the centers.
Sufism in Canada
According to one source, Sufism was first brought to Canada by
Maulana Abdul Abeem Siddiqui, who in 1939 traveled and spoke in
Edmonton and Toronto.’” In Toronto, one of the early Sufi teachers was Dr.
Mirza Qadeer Baiq of Amjer, India, who was a professor in the Islamic
Studies Department of the University of Toronto from the late 1960s until
his death in the 1980s. He was the deputy of the Guderi Shahi branch of the
Chisti Order of Amjer in Toronto. He founded organizations such as the
Society for the Understanding of the Finite and Infinite (acronym SUFI),
later the Sufi Circle of Toronto. Among his followers were both South
Asians and Canadians who accepted Islam. There are also Alawiyya, Qadiri,
and Naqshbandi orders in Toronto. The Rifa‘i order was brought to Toronto
by Dr. Asaf Durakovic who later moved to the U S . but maintains followers
in Canada.”‘ Activities of the first Sufi Order in the West began in Toronto
in 1973.
In Montreal, one of the first Islamic turiqas to become established
was the Burhaniyya of Egypt and the Sudan after a number of followers
from those countries moved to the city. One of the leaders is a French-
Canadian Muslim. A center was established in 1987 where a hadra (dhikr
ceremony) is held on Saturday nights attended primarily by Egyptians,
Sudanese, Somalis and French-Canadians.”’ Followers of Pir Vilayat Khan’s
Sufi Order in the West, under the leadership of French-Canadian Jean-Pierre
(Junayd) Gallien, began holding public meetings and teaching sessions in
1974.
Since its introduction to Montreal in the early 1980s, the
Naqshbandi-Haqqani order has been growing most rapidly, holding dhikr
sessions at a mosque on St. Laurent Street. It has even been featured in arti-
cles in the most prominent English newspaper, The Gazette.’I3In 1991, the
Naqshbandi Sufi Center opened at 5405 Park Avenue; currently there are
over 300 followers in Montreal. The leader of activities is a bilingual
Tunisian; there is a strong outreach to the French Canadian community.
Public meetings are held at centers that feature a range of other activities
along New Age spirituality lines. Since contemporary Quebec society is still
in the throes of an anti-church, anti-religion reaction, the more formal
aspects of the tradition have been introduced gradually. At a meeting that I
attended in Montreal at Centre Castelnau, a crowd of over 400 persons,
mostly French-Canadians, assembled to hear a talk by Shaykh Nazim.
In western Canada, the Sufi teaching of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat
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Khan was first introduced by his friends and student, Shamcher Bryn Beorse
in the early 1970s. Shamcher was living near Seattle at the time, and made
contact through the mail with a seeker in Edmonton named Carol Sill. After
meeting Shamcher in person, and with his encouragement, Sill began to
hold meetings, and a number of mureeds were initiated. Centers were sub-
sequently started in Calgary and then in Banff.
The Sufi seekers in western Canada were for a time associated with
the Sufi Order, and had some contact with teachers Junayd Gallien, Anna
Paloheimo and Shahabuddin David Less. Pir Vilayat also visited Calgary in
those years. However, before his death in 1980, Shamcher introduced the
small group to Hazrat Inayat Khan’s younger son, Hidayat Inayat Khan, and
under his guidance they joined the International Sufi Movement in the early
1980s. Within the Sufi Movement, the first national representative for
Canada was Sufia Carol Sill.
The Sufi Movement in Canada now has centers in Edmonton,
Calgary, Banff, Salmon Arm, Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto, with a mem-
bership of approximately one hundred. The present national representative,
Nawab Pasnak, also edits the International Sufi Movement magazine,
Caravanserai, which is published twice yearly from Sufi Movement head-
quarters in The Hague. Apart from local Center activities, the Sufi
Movement in Canada also holds a yearly camp, under the direction of Pir-o-
Murshid Hidayat Inayat-Khan, in the Rocky Mountains near Banff. In
Vancouver, both the Sufi Order and the Sufi Movement are active.”*As pre-
viously mentioned, the Rafa‘i affiliated Association of Islamic Charitable
Projects has centers in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. The
Naqshbandi-Haqqani movement is represented in Victoria, B.C., by a
woman leader who conducts a regular dhikrfor some 25 female partici-
pants.
Murat Yagan is a teacher based in Vernon, British Columbia, who
claims both Bektashi and Caucasus Mountain origins for his teachings.’I5In
1978 a group of students who had begun as students of Mevlevis Reshad
Feild and Suleyman Dede went on to follow Yagan, who had moved to
Canada in the 1950s. While Yagan had studied with the Bektashis in
Istanbul, he gave more attention to a “pre-Islamic”Sufi teaching called
“Ahmusta Kebzeh,” which was said to originate in the Abkhazian region.”‘
This teaching seems to resemble Gurdeffian thought rather than traditional
Sufi attitudes, as in Yagan’s assertion that “Sufism is not a lifestyle, and it is
not a religion,” followed by his discussion of technical exercises “to activate
the responses of the nervous system to specific vibration^."^"
’77
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............. . .....................
......_ ...... . .,, ................., ...................................................... ....... ........................................................... .., .. ....,,..,............................... .. .... ..... ......
Areas of Intersection
I contend that there are two principal areas of intersection of
Muslim and American cultural styles and practices that are fostered by
American Sufi movements. (1) The sphere of translation; haafis, arts and
intellectual activities, including psychology, holistic health, dance, music,
literature, poetry and publishing. This sphere represents at least some influ-
ence of Islam via Sufism on American culture. (2) The sphere of sites and
ceremonies-space, including mosques, maqams, mazars, and khanqahs.
Age and Eastern spirituality, and humanistic science. Another Sufi order
which has as its goal an audience broader than immediate disciples, in this
case academic scholars of Sufism in the West and their readers, is the
Nimatullahi order led by Nurbakhsh. In the 1990s Nurbakhsh invited noted
professors of Islamic and Sufi studies to a series of conferences in
Washington D.C. and London.
The Muhyiuddin Ibn Arabi Society is yet another Sufi-inspired orga-
nization active in Great Britain and America. Among their activities in the
U.S. is the sponsorship of an annual academic conference held at the
University of California, Berkeley, to which academics in the field of Sufi
studies are invited to give learned papers. The purpose of these activities is
the dissemination of the work of Ibn ‘Arabi rather than recruiting or training
disciples.124
The perennialist school of Frithjof Schuon and his followers has had
a wide impact on both the academic study of religion in the West and
Muslim circles in the West and abroad. The studies of Schuon on
UnderstandingIslam and Islam and the Perennial Philosophy have inspired
many with an appreciation for the spiritual dimension of Islam. Martin Lings
and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, as has been noted, are two Schuon-influenced
scholars who exemplify the perennialist position and also address a Muslim
audience in their writings. Their impact on Islamically-inclined as
well as intellectuals in Muslim societies such as Turkey, Pakistan and
Malaysia has been significant. It is not an overstatement to call Nasr the
most prominent spokesperson of Islam to Western audiences.
Those in American Sufi movements who are spiritual seekers natu-
rally also take a strong interest in contemporary psychological approaches
to personal growth, especially those of humanistic and transpersonal psy-
chology. Idries Shah and Vilayat Khan are two perennialist Sufis who are
conversant with psychotherapeutic discourse and who contribute to it at
some leve1.lZ6In addition, attempts to bridge Islamic and contemporary psy-
chological models have been made by the Western-trained psychologists
Reza A. Arasteh,’” Muhammad Shafii,’” and more recently by Laleh
Bakhtair.”’ Bakhtiar, who is based in Chicago, pIans to expand her Institute
of Traditional Psycho-Ethics and Guidance into a training institute for
Muslim counselors using transpersonal perspective. Jungian psychology,
because it incorporates a spiritual dimension and involves dream work, has
been of particular interest in American Sufi movements. The Enneagram
movement,13oa form of spirituality assessment that is very popular in
transpersonal psychology circles well beyond the American Sufi move-
ments, is claimed by some to be based on the teachings of the Naqshbandi
Order.
F O R M A T I O NI NS M U S L I M A M E R I C A
H Y B R I DI D E N T I T Y
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Sufi Dancing
In contemporary America, most people know of Sufism by having
had some contact with “Sufi dancing,” whether in the form of spotting “I
love Sufi dancing” bumper stickers or seeing postings on church bulletin
boards or community newspapers. In traditional Islamic practice, music and
dancing are generally frowned upon. Classical Sufi texts often discuss the
permissibility of audition (sumu3, whether musical instruments can be used
for accompaniment, and so on. Among the classical Sufi orders, it is well-
known that the Naqashbandis advocate a society which militates against
music as part of ritual or spiritual practice, while the Indian Chishtis tend to
use music as a vehicle for “moving the heart” to more ecstatic and refined
states. Orchestrated dancing, as opposed to swaying or convulsing in ecsta-
sy, is relatively rare, a notable exception being the sema of the Mevlevi
order of dervishes which earned them the sobriquet of “Whirling dervish-
es.”
The Sufi dance movement was inspired by the American Chishti
Sufi, Samuel Lewis (d. 1971), based on “traditional practices of the Middle
although in its current form it seems more like folk or round danc-
ing. Unlike regular folk dances, Sufi dancing incorporates meditation, peri-
ods of focusing on sound or vibration, or “attuning” to one’s own center or
to the moods and symbols evoked in the chants and dances. According to
Samuel Lewis, the purposes of the dances are both “moral development”
and “psychic purifi~ation.”’~~ Most of the dances are performed in concentric
circles with musicians and a “caller”or leader standing in the middle. The
dancers perform simple movements, turning back and forth and expanding
and contracting the circles. The leader introduces the chants that accompa-
ny the dances, explaining how the symbolism of the movements corre-
sponds to the meaning of the chants, which may come from a variety of the
world’s religions. Some examples are, “La illaha illa Allah (there is no God
but God)” from Islam, “Hare Krishna Hare Rama” from Hinduism, “Kyrie
Eleison” from Christianity,” and “Shemd Yisrael” from Judaism. There are
supposed to have been 2000 dances, of which 200 are still commonly prac-
ticed.
The Sufi dance movement has spread far beyond the San Francisco
Bay area and the initial group of “Sufi”Sam’s disciples, most of whom are in
the Sufi Islamiyyat Ruhaniyyat Society (SIRS), a universal Sufi movement.’36
Sufi dance is now also popular with church groups and people who work
in therapeutic and other organizations. Dance workshops are held in a vari-
ety of locations. One can even receive a “mentor teacher” certificate.
Members of Pir Vilayat Khan’s organization, the Sufi Order, also practice
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H Y B R I DI D E N T I T Y F O R M A T I O N SI N MUSLIM AMERICA
these dances. The SIRS disciples of Sam Lewis were very active in the Sufi
Order in the early 1970s, when Lewis told his disciples to join Pir Vilayat’s
movement and accept his leadership, Sam himself having been a student of
Hazrat Inayat Khan.
The dances provide some opportunity of “attuning”to maleness and
femaleness as distinct q~a1ities.l~’
In some cases, the women chant different
choruses from the men or form separate circles, but in general there is no
segregation and participants of both sexes join hands or circle with each
other as in other folk dances. The Islamically-oriented Sufi orders in
America do not practice this type of dancing, although neither do they
explicitly condemn it.
Lewis also created a repertoire of “spiritual walks” that foster attune-
ment to the planets, prophets, elements, and so on, and involve imaginative
use of pacing, breath and movement in order to evoke a mood and instill
permanent qualities in the practitioner.
Publishing
The number of distributors and publishers of Sufi books is impres-
sive and still expanding. Among the well-known publishers specializing in
Sufi materials are Kazi Publications in Chicago, Threshold Books in
Vermont, Sufi Books/Pir Press in New York, Inner Traditions, the Islamic
Texts Society, Octagon Press, and the Foundation for Traditional Studies.
Some of these publishers are affiliated with specific Sufi orders. Some spe-
cialize in particular perspectives, for example perennialism. More and more
American Sufi groups disseminate information in Sufi cyberspace, including
maintaining Sufi Order web pages and discussion lists.
The S p h e r e of Institutions
Mosques, Mazars and Maqams
Each American Sufi movement has its own form of organization and
a different concept of hierarchy and leadership. In this section I will con-
centrate on articulations and transformations of traditional Sufi institutions
of the khanqah (khanegab),the mosque and the shrine.
According to Samuel Lewis, the first American Sufi khanqab was the
“Kaaba Allah” in San Rafael, California, established by disciples of Inayat
Khan in the 1 9 2 0 ~ .It’ seems
~~ to have been more a meeting place than a res-
idential teaching center. Disciples of Sam Lewis have often lived communal-
ly, as did those of Pir Vilayat in khankahs established in various cities. In
the mid-1970s, the Sufi Order purchased land at New Lebanon in upstate
New York for the site of “The Abode of the Message,” a seminar and retreat
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T H E M U S L I MW O R L D . VOLUME 90 . SPRING, 2000
center. Sufi summer camps had previously been held nearby. Today a com-
munity of some 50 adults and 15 children live and maintain a school at this
10cation.I~~ The Nimatullahi order also has established khunequhs in nine
American cities.
Islamic Sufi orders in some cases have established mosques of their
own. While the mosque of the Bektashis may be the first “Sufi”mosque, the
first built by a predominantly American Sufi community was probably that
of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in Philadelphia, built in 1984. This
institution is not restricted to members of the Fellowship and involves Sufis
in broader local and international Muslim networks. Webb mentions that
some of the newer members of the “mosque congregation” who have had
traditional Islamic training have become resources for those in the commu-
nity who wish to know more about the traditional Islamic sciences.’4oThe
Fellowship mosque leader participates in city-wide meetings of the Imams
of the Philadelphia mosques, and there have been visits from representa-
tives from Islamic countries and educational institutions who take an inter-
est in understanding the goals and work of the Fellowship. Other Muslim
Sufi orders who have established mosques are the Mevlevi in Fairfax,
Virginia; the Helveti Jerrahi in New York City, Newark and Palo Alto; and
the Naqshbandi-Haqqani of Shaykh Nazim.
Tomb shrines are typical of popular Sufism in the Middle East and
South Asia, These are also called turbe, muzuv, or dargah, depending on
the language. Perhaps the first indigenous American Sufi tomb is that of
Samuel Lewis, who died in 1971 in San Francisco at the age of 75. He is
buried at the Lama Foundation, a New Age retreat and conference center in
New Mexico. “The grave itself is a simple affair; a neat pile of stones and
simple markerl;-.Onthe grave there are many objects that have been left by
pilgrims. These include strings of beads, the remains of incense and candles
and pieces of thread or yarn tied around stones on the funeral mound.”141
Another ziarut, or place of visitation, is the tomb of Shah Maghsoud
Angha (d. 1980) in Novato, California. Members of the Oveysi Shah
Maghsoudi order organize weekly memorial visits to his shrine every
Sunday.I4’
Guru Bawa’s muzur (shrine) is located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania,
where the Fellowship community purchased land for a farm and a burial
ground. “The community has built a muzur reflecting traditional Islamic
architectural style. It is a simply white stucco room with a cupola and a
green marble floor. The specific area under which Bawa is buried is cov-
ered with a dark green cloth embroidered with golden calligraphy of
Quranic verses. An Urn ceremony is held at the inazur in the month of
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While Sufism is not stressed as part of the orientation of the Dar al-Islam
facility, many of the residents and leadership have been involved in Sufi
movements.
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TiiE M ~ J S L I MW O R L D . VOLUME 90 . SPRING, 2000
order and the Idries Shah movement. The Naqshbandi order has been
known historically to participate in political activities and have more intense
contact with rulers and those wielding influence. On the other hand, the
Chishti order is known in India for its openness to existing forms of musical
and poetic expression and, in some cases, its acceptance of non-Muslim fol-
lowers. Some Chishti-inspired movements such as the Sufi Order in the
West and SIRS can be seen as continuing this tradition in an even more
intense form in the American context.
How significant are the American Sufi movements? In terms of North
American membership, I would estimate at most a total of 25,000 persons
have been involved in all Sufi movements combined over the past two
decades. Perhaps 10,000,at most, are still involved. Overall, the perennial
Sufi movements have had more of an impact than the hybrids on artistic,
cultural, and intellectual trends in contemporary American religious thought
but less direct contact with the immigrant Muslim community in the U.S.
American Sufis who practice the Islamic religion are definitely a
minority. Shaykh Nazim’s group is probably the largest hybrid movement,
but only a few thousand members can be confirmed at this time. It has been
suggested that the total number of Anglo-American Muslims, Sufi or non-
Sufi, is around 80,000.’52My own estimate is that the number is less than
40,000. Among Euro-American Muslims, I estimate that more than 10% are
Sufi-~riented.’~~Euro-American females are more likely to become Muslim
through marriage to males from an Islamic background, since marriage with
“People of the Book” is permitted to Muslim males. Therefore, while more
Euro-American women than men are becoming Muslim, one would expect
that the percentage of Sufi-oriented women among Euro-American women
is lower than that of their male counterparts. Some Euro-American Sufi
males have intermarried with Muslim immigrant women, but this is still rela-
tively rare. The fact that Euro-Americans are coming to Islam through Sufi
movements does have the effect of somewhat legitimizing Sufism in the
eyes of certain immigrant Muslims. I further estimate that less than one in a
thousand of the two million African Americans who are Muslim are Sufi-
inclined, although that percentage is likely to increase.
Some observers have suggested that there is an “American” quality
to some Sufi activities taking place in the U.S., such as a fondness for public
performance, making use of the media and Sufi dancing. This is in contrast
to the more sober and retiring attitude of Sufi orders operating in Western
Europe. Hybridization, however, is not limited to the middle ground of a
mixture of Islamic and American elements, since the Perennialhniversal
movements may serve as a conduit for Islamization, while even the
H Y B R I D I D L N T I T Y F O R M A T I O NI NS M U S L I MA M E R I C A
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Endnotes
1. In an earlier paper, Marcia K. Hermansen, “In the Garden of American Sufi Movements:
Hybrids and Perennials”: New Trend and Developments in the World of Islam, ed. Peter B.
Clarke (London: Luzac, 1997), 155-78, I surveyed some of the same movements; therefore
certain information and bibliographical citations are duplicated in the current study.
2. Exceptions are the two articles which appeared in the collection Muslim Communities in
America (Albany: SUNY, 1994), ed. Yvonne Y. Haddad and Jane I. Smith: Gisela Webb,
“Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary American Islamic Spirituality: The Bawa
Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship,” 75-108 and Francis Trix, “Bektashi Tekke and the Sunni
Mosque of Albanian Muslims in America,” 359-80.
3. For example, Larry Poston, in his study of conversion to Islam in Islamic Daba in the
West:Muslim Missionary Activity and the Dynamics of Conversion to Islam (New York:
Oxford, 1992),pays little attention to the role of Sufism. He writes, “Sufism.. .has not (at
least in a direct sense) been a significant force in the establishment of a Muslim witness in
North America. I have found no allusions to any Sufi Order in any of my discussions with
Muslims or in the literature of the various organizations actively involved in da‘wa activi-
ty...”, 63.
4. Exceptions are the American Muslim Journal produced by American Muslims, and the
American Muslim Resource Directory.
5. David Nicolson Friedberg, “The Naqshbandis in America.” M.A. thesis, Religious
Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1994.
6 . “Sufism in America,” in Timothy Miller, ed., America?Alternative Religions. Albany:
SUNY, 1995, 107-8.
7. Jay Kinney, “Sufism Comes to America,” in Gnosis (Winter 1994): 18-23.
8. Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World IV, ed. John L. Esposito. New York: Oxford,
1995, 107-8.
9. Thus, according to Chittick, the Jerrahis are “more focused on love than intellectual dis-
cernment,” Shaykh Nazim’s works reflect “love and the shariati basis of Sufism,” and Guru
Bawa taught “a synthesis of Sufism and Hindu teachings that is recognizable as Islamic
only in its terminology.” Ibid, 108.
10. The Book of Enlightened Masters. Chicago: Open Court, 1997.
11. Ibid., 37-63.
12. “In the Garden of American Sufi Movements: Hybrids and Perennials,” in Peter Clarke,
ed., New Islamic Movements.
13. “The philosophia perennis has come to signify for those devoted to traditional studies
an eternal truth at the heart of all traditions.. .” “It has in fact been given its most profound
and genuine meaning.. .in the writings of Frithjof Schuon, which, following upon the work
H Y B R I DI D E N T I T Y F O R M A T I O NI SN M U S L I M A M E R I C A
initiated by Rene Guenon and then Ananda Coomeraswami, may be said to be the most
noble and complete expression of the philosophia perennis available in the contemporary
world.” Sayyed Hossein Nasr, preface to Frithjof Schuon, Islam and the Perennial Philosophy.
London: World of Islam Publishing, 1976, vii-viii.
14. A recent study on Guenon in English is Robin Waterfield, Rene Guenon and the Future
of the West. London: Crucible, 1987. See also M. Valsan, L‘islam et lafonction de Rene
Guenon. Paris: Editions de l’ouvre, 1984. Both Guenon and Idries Shah seem to have had
links with occult movements and freemasonry.
15. Brief bio-bibliographies of Guenon, Schuon and his circle may be found in Jean
Borella, “Rene Guenon and the Traditionalist School,” in Modern Esoteric Spirituality, ed.
Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needleman. New York: Crossroad, 1992,330-58.
16. Some perennialists, such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, while asserting the unitive essential
truth underlying all traditions, would counsel against attempting to mix or mingle their dis-
crete manifestations and spiritual practices. See Jane I. Smith, “Seyyed Hossein Nasr:
Defender of the Sacred and Islamic Traditionalism” in Muslims ofAmerica, ed. Yvonne Y.
Haddad. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, 87-88.
17. Andrew Rawlinson traces these two strands of perennialism back through the respective
Sufi lineages of Inayat Khan and the Shadhili-Akbaris which were, in fact, the first Sufi
movements to impact the West early in the 20th century.
18. Most, if not all, American Muslims have Islamic names, but many Euro-Americans do
not use them in mainstream American cultural contexts.
19. Arthur Butterfield, “The Pattern of the Sufis,” in The Difision of Suf; Ideas in the West,
ed. L. Lewin. Boulder: Keysign Press, 1972, 208-210.
20. Idries Shah, The Su$5. New York: Doubleday, 1964.
21. The Sufi Orders are initiatic lineages, which trace the transmission of spiritual practices
and transferred charisma back to the Prophet Muhammad. They are usually named after
prominent saints in the lineage and often are regionally dispersed in traditional Muslim
societies.
22. A Sufi order mainly found in the Indian Sub-continent, named after Abu Ishaq Chishti,
and a number of subsequent saints in the lineage affiliated with the same town in central
Afghanistan. This order permits listening to music as a spiritual practice, as well as the par-
ticipation of non-Muslims. The two major branches, the Sabriyya and the Nizarniyya, are
both represented in American Sufi movements.
23. James Jervis, “The Sufi Order in the West and Pir Vilayat Khan,” in Peter B. Clarke,
New Islamic Movements, 2 1 1-60.
24. A Jungian-inspired personal growth technique developed by Roberto Assagioli which
became popular in the 1970s. It has been reported that Assagioli studied under Hazrat
Inayat Khan at one point.
25. Repetitions of the pious litanies or the Names of God.
26. Individual Sufi practices involving repetition and concentration on pious phrases, the
divine names, etc.
27. The Sufi Order Secretariat in Seattle maintains a mailing list of some 8,000 names.
28. Fazal Inayat Khan, Old Thinking New Thinking. San Francisco: Harper and Row,
1979); James Jervis, “The Sufi Order in the West,” 218-19.
T H E M U S L I MW O R L D . V O L U M E9 0 . S P R I N G ,2 0 0 0
29. For a chronology of his life see S u j Vision and Initiation: Meetings with Remarkable
Beings. San Francisco: Sufi Islarnia, 1986, 35 1-60. Andrew Rawlinson dedicates a biographi-
cal article to him in “The Book of Enlightened Masters,” 396-403.
30. Koszegi, “The Sufi Order in the West,” 213-14.
3 1. Jay Kinney, “Sufism Comes to America,” 21.
32. The musical aspect of the dhikr of this center has been studied in a Ph.D. dissertation
in music completed at U.C.L.A. “Music and Meaning in American Sufism: The Ritual of
Dhikr at Sami Mahal, a Chishtiyya-derived Sufi Center” by Daniel Atesh Soneborn, 1995.
33. This is a branch of Chishti Sufis in the line of Ala al-Din ibn Ahmad Sabir (d. 1265), a
disciple of Baba Farid Shakar Ganj, who was also the teacher of Nizamuddin Auliya (d.
1236) of the Chishtiyya-Nizamiyya line of Chishtis.
34. Hakim Muinuddin Chishti, The Book of Suf; Healing. New York: Inner Traditions,
1985, 6-7.
35. Author of The Hob Biography of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti. Tucson: Chishti Sufi
Mission of America, 1977; and The Big Five of India in Sufism.Amjer, n.p., 1972.
36. Author of Islamic Sufism.Lahore: Sufi Foundatiojn, 1982; and Maqam-e-Ganjshakar.
Bahawalpur: Sufi Foundation, 1979.
37. W.B. Sial Rabbani, ed., The Suf Path. Rahirnyarkhan: Association of Spiritual Training,
1989.
38. An autobiographical statement is found at the beginning of The Unveiling of Love, tr.
Muhtar Holland. New York: Inner Traditions, 1981, 1-2.
39. This is available on audiocassette, as “Calling Out to Allah: Prayers and Chants in the
Sufi Tradition.” The Halveti-Jerrahi Dervishes. New York: Inner Traditions, 1981. For back-
ground on Turkish dhikr performances, see Walter Feldman, “Musical Genres and Dhikr of
the Sunni Tarikats of Istanbul,” in Raymond Lifchez, ed., The Dervish Lodge. Architecture,
Art and Sufsm in Ottoman Turkey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 187-202.
40. The Most Beaut@ Names. Putney, VT: Threshhold Books, 1985. Bayak has authored
commentaries on several Sufi classics as well.
41. Lisbeth Rocher and Fatirna Cherqaoui, D’unefoi lkutre: Les convefrsions a I’islam en
Occident. Paris: Seuil, 1986, 165.
42. Ibid., 165-74.
43. Ibid., 175.
44. Ibid., 174.
45. David Nicholson Friedberg has studied this order from the perspective of the teachings
and membership in “The Naqshbandis in America,” M.A. thesis in religious studies,
University of Colorado, Boulder 1994. See also Semra Galip, “Un Gourou Nakshbandi:
Sheyh Nazirn Kibrisi,” 437-440 and Daphne Habibis, “Mahdism in a Branch of a
Contemporary Naqshbandi Order in Lebanon,” 603-6 19 in Naqshbandis Chimenments et
situation actuelle d’un order mystique musulman. Actes de la table ronde de Sevres. 2-4 mia
1985, eds. Gaborieau, Popovic, and Zarcone. Istanbul: Isis, 1991. For a biography of
Nazim see Shaykh Muhammad Kabbani, The Naqshbandi Suf; Way. Chicago: Kazi, 1994,
374-408.
46. In 1995 Shaykh Nazim opposed local government efforts in Cyprus to turn mosques
into museums.
H Y B R I DI D E N T I T Y F O R M A T I O N SI N M U S L I M A M E R I C A
47. Disciples are said to include Malasian royalty and the Sultan of Brunei. Some have
claimed that Nazirn has an influence on the Prime Minister of Cyprus, Rauf Denktash. S.
Galip, “Un Gorou Naqshbandi,” 438.
48. A Naqshbandi publication mentions that 60 people became Muslim (took shahadz)
during a visit of Shaykh Hisham to Montreal, while over 300 became disciples of Shaykh
Nazim. An additional 40 became Muslim during Nazim’s visit to Chicago. Al-Naseeha:
Newsletterfor the Haqqani Islamic Trust ofNorthern Califarnia 2 (Dec. 1993): 11, 20.
49. Shaykh Hisham recently authored The Naqshbandi Way: History and Guidebook of the
Saints of the Golden Chain (Chicago: Kazi, 1995), which is a comprehensive history of the
order.
50. A Turkish magazine entitled its piece on Shaykh Nazirn “United Colors of Shaykh
Nazim,” a take-off on the ubiquitous Benetton advertisement. Tempo Magazine, reprinted
in al-Naseeha: Newsletterfor the Hagqani Islamic Trust ofNorthern California 2 (Dec.
1993):4.
5 1. Eresa Watanabe, “A Holy War of Words in Islamic U.S.” Los Angeles Times, April 15,
1999, A.
52. Ikbal Ali Shah’s book Islamic Sufim (New York: Weiser, 1971) shows a clear influence
of Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi teachings.
53. Peter Washington, Madnme Blavatskyj Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums and
Mi@ who Brought Spiritualism to America. New York: Schocken Books, 1995, 396.
54. Idris Shah essentially retired after an illness in the late 1980s. Omar Ali-Shah is the
author of Sujsmfor Gdny. Paris: Tractus, 1991, and Course of the Seeker, 15. See also his
latest work, The S u j Tradition in the West. Alif Publications, 1995.
55. For example, he refers to Sufism as developing “awareness of God” and signs himself
Ornar Ali-Shah “Naqshband in the forward to Course of the Seeker, 15.
56. Gurdjieff (d. 1949) was a popular esoteric teacher who operated primarily in Europe.
Many claim that his teachings were inspired by Sufi teachers whom he met in the Caucasus.
See George Barker and Walter Driscoll, “Gurdjieff in America: An Overview” in America:
Alternative Religions, ed. Timothy Miller. Albany: SUNY, 1995, 259-65.
57. The Dzfision of Su$ Ideas in the West: An Anthology of New Writzkgs by and about Idries
Shah. Boulder: Keysign Press, 1972.
58. They have their own publishing company, Octagon Press, which publishes translations
of Sufi classics as well as Shah‘s own works. In America, Robert Ornstein is the president of
ISHK Book Service, which distributes the works of Shah and his associates, together with
other titles that support their position such as the works of Desmond Morris.
59. A defector from the movement estimated U.S. membership at between 1,000 and
3,000.
60. Arthur C. Butterfield, “The Pattern of the Sufis,” in The Difision of Suji Ideas in the
West, ed. L. Lewin. Boulder: Keysign Press, 1972, 209-10.
6 1. The Course of the Seeker, 15.
62. Ibid, 46.
63. O n Tweedie and female leadership see Sara Sviri, “Documentation and Experiences of a
Modern Naqshbandi Sufi,” in Women as Teachers and Disciples in Traditional and New
Religions, ed. Elizabeth Puttick and Peter B. Clarke. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994,
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119. The Difision of Suf; Ideas in the West: An Anthology of New Writings by and about Idries
Shah (Boulder: Keysign, 1972) seems to be targeted to such an audience to convince them
of Shah’s claim to be head of all Sufis in the world.
120. For a highly critical expose of Shah and his intellectual spectrum, see L.P. Elwell-
Sutton, “Sufism and Pseudo-Sufism,” Encounter (May, 1975):9-17.
121. A remarkable collection of press clippings of reviews from around the world regarding
Shah and his writings was issued by his organization under the title Documentation (1973-
1979).
122. New York: Penguin, 1972.
123. New York: Putnam, 1995.
124. John Mercer, The Ibn Arabi Society, personal interview March 26, 1994. They publish
the academic Journal o f the Muhyiuddin Ibn Xrabi Society, and sponsored the volume
Muhyiddin Ibn 2rabi: A Commemorative Volume, ed. S. Hirtenstien and M. Tiernan.
Rockport, MA: Element, 1993.
125. See his A Young Muslim? Guide to the Modern World Chicago: Kazi, 1993.
126. Pir Vilayat Khan, Introducing Spirituality in Counseling and Therapy. Santa Fe: Omega
Press, 1982.
127. Growth to Selfhood (1980) and Rumi the Persian. London: Routledge, 1974. At some
point, Aresteh seems to have become associated with the Idries Shah movement. See Elwell-
Sutton, “Sufism and Pseudo-Sufism,” in Encounter (May, 1 9 7 9 , 16; Aresteh‘s “Psychology
of the Sufi Way to Individuation,” in Suf; Studies: East and West, ed. L.F. Rushbrook
Williams. New York: Dutton, 1973, 89- 113.
128. Freedom from the SeF Sufism,Meditation and Psychotherapy. New York: Human
Sciences Press, 1985.
129. Gods Will be Done I: TraditionalPsychoethics and its Personality Paradigm; IL Moral
Healer? Handbook: Centering the SeF Ill: Moral Healing Through the Most Beaut@ Names.
Chicago: Kazi, 1993.
130. The connection of this movement to Sufism in the West may be partially traced
through J.G. Bennett, Enneugram Studies. York Beach, MD: Weiser, 1983) and Claudio
Naranjo, Character and Neurosis: An Integrative View. Nevada City, CA: Gateways, 1994.
131 . Daniel Atesh Sonneborn, abstract published in Ethnomusicology Research Digest 6/29
(Oct. 12, 1995) for doctoral dissertation in music, University of CA, L.A., 1995.
132. Postmodernismfor Beginniners. Cambridge: IconBooks, 1995, 160.
133. Personal communication, Abd d-Hayy Moore, Nov. 10, 1995.
134. Lewis was assisted in the concept and choreography by the well-known American
dancer Ruth St. Denis (1880-1968). Lewis, Suf; Wsion andhitiation. Meetings with
Remarkable Beings. San Francisco:Sufi IslamialProphecy Publications, 1986, 320.
135. Ibid., 337.
136. Many membes in theSan Francisco Bay area arc jointly affiliated with the Mevlevi
Order of America.
137. The themes of distinctly “masculine” and “feminine” qualities is highlighted in a num-
ber of practices of the Sufi Order and SIRS. I believe that this is part of the appeal of
American Sufism to some members of a generation where gender identities have become
blurred, and who live in a society and age where there is a particular cultural antipathy to
THE M U S L I M WORLD . V O L U M E 90 . SPRING, 2000
the “feminine.”
138. Lewis, S u j ‘&ion, 24-27.
139. Webb, “Sufism in America,” 254.
140. Ibid, 83.
141. Friedberg, “An American Sufi,” 6.
142. Personal Communication, Director of the M T O Shahmaghsoudi Center, Washington,
D.C. Dec. 14, 1995.
143. Webb, “Tradition and Innovation,” 24-25.
144. Taher Siddiqui. Computer posting, “Tariqas list,” March 22, 1994.
145. Computer posting, “Tariqas list,” March 22, 1994.
146. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.
147. Alexandria: Dar al-Kutub, 1991.
148. Posting by Abdullah Nooradeen Durkee, Tariqas computer discussion group , Feb. 28,
1995.
149. The Naqshbandiyya Foundation of Peoria, IL, for example, an organization founded
by immigrant Muslims, included a number of American Sufi teachers in conferences they
sponsored in Chicago in 1994 and 1995 to commemorate the birthday of the Prophet.
150. Faridi was perhaps the earliest Westerner to become a Sufi master, successor to Dhauqi
Shah, an Indian Chisti Sufi. Among his English writings is Everyday Practice in Islam.
Karachi: Mahfil-e Dhauqiyya, 1979.
15 1. Teresa Watanabe, “Holy War of Words,” stated that in 1999 the Naqshbandi-
Haqqanis claimed 30,000 members in 23 North American cities, but that his phone checks
could confirm only a dozen groups serving a few thousand.
152. Fareed H. Nu’man, The Mudim Population in the United States. Washington: AMC,
1992, 163.
153. Sheila Musaji, who published The American Muslim Magazine, said in a private com-
munication that 20-50% would be an accurate estimate.
154. While Ah1 al-Sunna or people of the Sunna is a term that could be applied to all
Sunni Muslims, it has come among Indo-Pakistani Muslim to refer to those who advocate
the practice of Sufism whether of the Brelvi or Deobandi persuasion. There are mosques
and organizations sponsored by Muslims of this orientation in Toronto, Edmonton,
Houston, Jersey City, Los Angeles, etc.