Wait , the Imam of the Islamic center in NYC is Sufi ?

[UndertheOcean]

Aren't Sufis the peaceful Muslims ? Are Americans sending a message that even peaceful tolerant Islam is not welcome in America ?


Not smart , not smart at all.

With all the hate I got the impression it was a Salafi Jihadi Wahabbi Suadian Arabian sect that was behind this center.

Get a grip people.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. My brother and sister-in-law are Sufis.

I've been to some of their ceremonies, met their sheik, etc.

They ARE peaceful and spiritual. The antithesis of Wahabis.

[philly_bob]

2. Same here. One American Sufi I met was strong but peaceful.

If "Ground Zero Mosque" is Sufi, this is right up there in American ignorance sweepstakes with Bush not knowing of hostility between secular Iraq and religious Taliban.

The equivalent of not knowing there's a difference between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. No serious analyst would ignore that distinction.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. All Muslims are the same

just like there's no difference between Quakers and Opus Dei and that atheistic Buddhist Jews are just the same as Ashkenazim Orthodox Jews...

to the ignorant.

[socialist_n_TN]

4. If this is true, then there should be NO problem

with the mosque from ANYBODY. Sufis are mystics. As mystics they have more in common with mystics of other faiths than they do with their more dogmatic religious brethren in Islam.

If mystics ruled religions, you would never have religious wars.

[hootinholler]

5. Wait! It doesn't fucking matter

When the AFA calls for the rejection of all mosque building permits across the US, there is something seriously wrong in this country. When will the SPLC identify them as a hate group?

-Hoot

[Douglas Carpenter]

6. that is quite correct. he is

“ As a Sufi, Imam Feisal follows a path of Islam focused more on spiritual wisdom than on strict ritual, and as a bridge builder, he is sometimes focused more on cultivating relations with those outside his faith than within it.

snip:

Those who have worked with him say if anyone could pull off what many regard to be a delicate project, it would be Imam Feisal, whom they described as having built a career preaching tolerance and interfaith understanding.

“He subscribes to my credo: ‘Live and let live,’ ” said Rabbi Arthur Schneier, spiritual leader of Park East Synagogue on East 67th Street.

snip:

“ Building so close is owning the tragedy. It’s a way of saying: ‘This is something done by people who call themselves Muslims. We want to be here to repair the breach, as the Bible says.’ ”

The F.B.I. said Imam Feisal had helped agents reach out to the Muslim population after Sept. 11. “We’ve had positive interactions with him in the past,” said an agency spokesman, Richard Kolk. Alice Hoagland of Las Gatos, Calif., whose son, Mark Bingham, was killed in the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, said, “It’s quite a bold step buying a piece of land adjacent to ground zero,” but she said she considered plans for the site “a noble effort.”

snip:

Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center, said the group would be proud to be a model for Imam Feisal at ground zero. “For the J.C.C. to have partners in the Muslim community that share our vision of pluralism and tolerance would be great,” she said.

Mr. El-Gamal agreed. “What happened that day,” he said, “was not Islam.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/nyregion/09mosque.html

link to the cordoba intiative:

http://www.cordobainitiative.org /

link to Imam Feisal Press Conference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfIPO7CVflA


.

[annabanana]

7. Does anyone here are ANY DOUBTS about the role of the media

in this hate fest? They are just reporting the info they are getting? Clearly not. They are just stoking their bottom line? I don't think so...

They are willfully complicit.

[NC_Nurse]

16. +1

I agree completely.

[JHB]

8. Yup. You know, one of the sects persecuted by Khomeini's Iran and...

...considered by wahabbis (bin Laden and al Qaeda) to be heretics who should be put to death.

We really need a "shake your head in dismay" emoticon.

[G_j]

14. good point

they have been very much persecuted.
I guess Republicans & the media would like to continue that.

[Posteritatis]

9. Yep! And people *here* keep claiming or implying he's a wahabbist. (nt)

[annabanana]

10. Kicking because this little detail is important . .n/t

[UndertheOcean]

11. Thanks , I agree that this is an important detail .

Not all Muslims are the same, like any complex social entity.

[arbusto_baboso]

12. It's important to those of us who actually know something about Islam.

To the majority of Americans, therefore, it will be meaningless.

[librechik]

13. the people who object could not care less about those distinctions

In fact, hyperbole and vague generalization are their main weapon.

[Fleshdancer]

15. I had no idea

This is good to know since I'm sure some ignorant idiot will attempt to debate this topic with me IRL.

[Curmudgeoness]

21. I had already heard this, and already had a debate with coworker

who is close very very RW. She says that all Muslims are the same, and they do not belong there.

So....good luck to you IRL. I hope it works for you. But at least if we continue to talk about this, some may get the message. Sigh, I doubt it.

[philly_bob]

17. I'm getting Wikipedia and small source confirmation, but when will mainstream media report

that Imam of Cordoba Initative is a Sufi and a peacemaker?

I'm close to despair about American ignorance of the world.

[JHB]

18. NY Times article on the two small mosques already in the area

One mosque is conservative, and the other is reputed to be among the most progressive in the city — making the downtown Muslim community a quintessentially New York combination of immigrants and native New Yorkers, traditionalists and spiritual seekers.

But what the two mosques have in common — besides the sense of celebration and camaraderie that comes at the beginning of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, in which Muslims fast from sunup to sundown, give alms and focus on self-improvement — is that both have existed for decades, largely unnoticed, blocks from the World Trade Center site.

****

Masjid Manhattan, on Warren Street, four blocks from ground zero, was founded in 1970. Masjid al-Farah, formerly on Mercer Street, moved to its present location on West Broadway, about 12 blocks from ground zero, in 1985. Both mosques — essentially one-room operations — routinely turn people away for lack of space.

****

At Masjid al-Farah, Ali Mansour told of how he had drifted away from Islam as a young man in Egypt, but found it again through Sufism when the mosque started ordering from his deli down the block. He liked its “progressivism,” he said, adding that friends in Egypt sometimes tease him that American Muslims are “out of your mind” because of their nontraditional approach.

“Because this is a new country, it rejuvenates and revolutionizes everything,” he said. “Food, industry, philosophy and even religion.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/nyregion/14mosque.html?src=mv

Feisal Abdul al-Rauf was a longtime prayer leader at Masjid al-Farah.
http://www.salatomatic.com/d/New-York+2855+Masjid-al-Farah/

[G_j]

19. kick for truth

[rucky]

20. Here's a conceptual picture of proposed building:

Stolded from another DU-er

[cascadiance]

22. Yep, Sufis follow Rumi... Definitely voices of peace!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BrntFFiXN8U/RmOulg0rDdI/AAAAAAAAALY/SgVZzPqBYsY/s400/Whirling+dervish.gif



They definitely worship the power of music in their lives. Which is quite different than other Muslim sects.

[McCamy Taylor]

23. So maybe the Saudi Sunnis are behind the move to ban the mosque.

Sunnis kill Sufis in Africa.

[Ignis]

24. YES! And you might enjoy this subthread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4494970&mesg_id=4495833

Rumi is definitely a blueprint for terrorism. :eyes: