Peaceful Mysticism vs. Religious Fanaticism

I've always found Sufism quite interesting and am a fan of the great Sufi teachers/poets like Hafez, Rumi, and Saadi. The South Asian Sufi traditions in particular, with their Qawwali performances and veneration of dargahs are fascinating to me. With this in mind, I'd like to share a recent article from Smithsonian Magazine about the status of Sufi practioners in Pakistan. It's called "Pakistan's Sufis Preach Faith and Ecstasy" and looks at the challenges posed to this centuries old tradition by recent, religious fanatics. As the article explains:

...Sufism is not a sect, like Shiism or Sunnism, but rather the mystical side of Islam—a personal, experiential approach to Allah, which contrasts with the prescriptive, doctrinal approach of fundamentalists like the Taliban. It exists throughout the Muslim world (perhaps most visibly in Turkey, where whirling dervishes represent a strain of Sufism), and its millions of followers generally embrace Islam as a religious experience, not a social or political one. Sufis represent the strongest indigenous force against Islamic fundamentalism. Yet Western countries have tended to underestimate their importance even as the West has spent, since 2001, millions of dollars on interfaith dialogues, public diplomacy campaigns and other initiatives to counter extremism. Sufis are particularly significant in Pakistan, where Taliban-inspired gangs threaten the prevailing social, political and religious order...

In times of such great religious and cultural conflict, we should do our best to support and encourage those who choose peace, love, and tolerance over violence, hatred, and intolerance. In the words of Rumi:

Though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream, and
that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are.

Let's get a moving!