Sufism, Pakistan, and the Battle for the Future of Islam
DEVELOPMENTS
The killing of Osama bin Laden last month highlighted the fight underway over the direction of Islam in Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world. Militant Islamists who share views commonly associated with bin Laden, and who represent a minority of Muslims, are attempting to impose their puritanical version of Islam on the moderate Muslim majority. In Pakistan, this has led to an increase in violence against Sufis–adherents of a form of Islamic mysticism. Since 2005, militant Islamists have directed more than seventy-two attacks at Sufi sites in Pakistan, killing hundreds and injuring thousands. These acts of terrorism have taken place throughout the country and in major cities, including Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, and Karachi. As recently as April of this year, a suicide attack on an annual Sufi festival in Punjab left forty-one dead and over one hundred wounded.
The offensive against Sufis is being carried out as militant Islamists seek to silence Muslims with different points of view. While militant Islamists are relatively small in number, their organization, networks, resource base, and willingness to use violence have provided them with disproportionately large influence in shaping Islamic identity. Based on its openness and popularity, many Islamic scholars consider Sufism to be the “most powerful antidote to religious radicalism.”
BACKGROUND
“Sufism” is most accurately defined as a way of practicing Islam. Generally, Sufis believe individuals can have personal experiences with God and achieve an understanding of the divine through mystical rites. Sufis helped spread Islam to South Asia and today Sufism and elements derived from it dominate in Pakistan; most Pakistani Muslims belong to the Sufi-inspired Barelvi movement. Sufism is often described as being tolerant, moderate, accessible, and pluralistic. And, it is known for incorporating local traditions and worship styles, including music, dance, and the veneration of saints and shrines. While typically peaceable, Sufis are not pacifist. Sufi groups have, for example, engaged coalition forces in Iraq and militant Islamists in Somalia.
As al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban members have shifted their base of operations to Pakistan, and connected with other militant Islamist organizations there – namely the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi – Sufis in the country have suffered attacks with increased frequency and of a greater magnitude. Notably, militant Islamists have carried out a string of devastating attacks since mid 2010. In addition to the April 2011 attack mentioned above, an action against a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in March killed ten people and injured forty, the bombing of a shrine in Punjab left three dead and twenty-seven injured in February, an October 2010 attack on a tomb in Pakpattan caused six deaths and maimed fifteen, and the suicide bombing of a shrine in Lahore in July killed forty-five and wounded 175.
Militant Islamists share a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that deems Sufism to be heretical. Militant Islamists are generally affiliated with Salafism, Wahhabism, or Deobandism – strict variants of Sunni Islam that promote similar understandings and views. Wahhabism, now arguably the most significant fundamentalist sect in Pakistan, calls for a literal application of the Quran and hadith, the sayings of the Prophet and his companions, and a return to the “pure” practice of Islam embodied in the life of Muhammad. Wahhabism originated on the Arabian Peninsula and has been exported with Saudi support, which has included generous funding for Wahhabi non-governmental organizations, mosques, and schools abroad.
Responding to militant Islamists’ attacks and ideology, Sufis are creating and strengthening their own organizations and institutions in Pakistan and around the globe, both independently and in conjunction with government bodies. Pakistani Barelvis formed the Sunni Ittehad Council in 2009; the Council comprises sixty organizations and endeavors to counter the influence of fundamentalist sects. The Sufi-inspired Gulen Movement has opened schools throughout Asia and Africa, including in seven Pakistani cities, to provide children an education combining the secular sciences with a moderate form of Islam. The Algerian government is championing Sufism in the media in an attempt to halt Salafism’s advance. And, Chechnya’s governing administration has engaged in a mosque-building campaign designed to promote Sufism as an alternative to Wahhabism.
ANALYSIS
Given the current security environment in Pakistan and the danger the continued spread of militant Islamism poses, the Obama Administration may give more thought to assisting Sufi elements in order to provide a moderate alternative to Islamic fundamentalism. A few prominent think-tanks have already voiced support for such an effort. The RAND Corporation, for one, acknowledging Sufism’s unique attributes and victimization by militant Islamists, has called the Sufis the “natural allies of the West” and advocated the formation of U.S.-Sufi partnerships.
One option for the U.S. government would be to support the Sufis using a foundation-like approach: assessing whether projects further U.S. goals; funding them if they do; and then pulling back, creating distance. Establishing distance between the U.S. and any project it sponsors is vital to the project’s credibility, particularly in Muslim-majority countries, where the U.S. is viewed with suspicion. The U.S. must also take great care in determining which Sufi groups to support. Sufism is incredibly diverse and doubtlessly includes adherents hostile to the U.S.
But there are other options for the U.S. to promote a moderate version of Islam. The U.S. might, for instance: work to reconstruct sacred Sufi sites militant Islamists have damaged or destroyed and secure those they may target; encourage contemporary Sufi scholarship and invest in preserving, translating, and disseminating Sufi manuscripts; and fund the creation and maintenance of educational centers and schools that emphasize tolerance.
Whether or not the U.S. decides to support Sufism in Pakistan, developments concerning the Sufi situation there should continue to be monitored closely. How a population that has long embraced aspects of Sufism responds to increasing violence by militant Islamists against Sufis and whether Sufism can successfully present a moderate alternative to bin Laden-style extremism will have important implications for Pakistan, South Asia, and the world beyond.
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Jason Fisher is an attorney living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He holds graduate and law degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and his professional interests include foreign affairs, national security, and international law.
