Yes, Not All Sufis are Peaceful--but Many Are

Submitted by Timothy Furnish (United States), Jul 4, 2013 at 09:53

Jaladhi,

I never said all Sufis were peaceful. In fact, as I've written about in my book Holiest Wars some of the worst jihads in history have been led and manned by Sufis. However, many tariqat also hold a non-literalist view of the Qur'an and Hadiths, practicing ta'wil instad of taqlid (blind imitation). In Somalia for several years the Sufis in the guise of Ahl al-Sunna wa-al-Jama'ah have been fighting al-Shabab.

In Libya and Mali and Egypt various Sufi orders (tariqat) have been fighting, both rhetorically and literally, against Salafis and al-Qa'idah-affiliated groups. So yes, Sufis are not always peaceful--but they are often non-fundamentalists, and they are often far more open to Christians than other Muslims because they also venerate Jesus.

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