{"id":680,"date":"2006-02-17T14:24:03","date_gmt":"2006-02-17T14:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2006\/02\/17\/sufis_vs_shiahs\/"},"modified":"2013-05-07T18:41:44","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T23:41:44","slug":"sufis_vs_shiahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2006\/02\/sufis_vs_shiahs\/","title":{"rendered":"Sufis vs. Shiahs in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Police, Sufis clash in Iran<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 Sufi Muslim spirituality is tolerated under mainly Shia Iran\u2019s strict Islamic laws, although some senior religious figures occasionally call for a clampdown on its rites.
Foreign plot<\/span>
\u00a0 \u00a0 Abbas Mohtaj, the governor-general of Qom, accused the dervishes of being part of a foreign plot, but he did not explain this.
[\u2026]\u00a0 \u00a0
\u00a0 \u00a0 The Sufis\u2019 mystical path to God through dance and music does not go down well with some of the most senior religious figures in the country.\u00a0 \u00a0
\u00a0 \u00a0 Ayat Allah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani in September called for a clampdown on dervish groups in the holy city of Qom, which he called a \"danger to Islam\".<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019d be interested in learning more about the doctrinal objections to Sufism that are put forward by conservatives in Iran, and comparing them against those of Salafis and other critics of Sufism.<\/p>\n

I find this dynamic particularly intriguing given how much Sunni Sufism and orthodox Shiahism seem to have in common in terms of devotional practice and mystical discourse, at least compared to Salafism and many other contemporary Islamic movements.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

In fact, Zahir makes the interesting argument that Shiahs don\u2019t need to become Sufi to be mystical, as mysticism is woven into their tradition.\u00a0 If that\u2019s true, I wonder what doctrinal issues the clerical establishment has with Sufism (other than the fact that most Sufis are Sunni).<\/p>\n

[HT: Anas, who emailed me this last week; Shabana, for reminding me of my forgotten draft by posting <\/a>on the topic.]<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police, Sufis clash in Iran \u00a0 \u00a0 Sufi Muslim spirituality is tolerated under mainly Shia Iran\u2019s strict Islamic laws, although some senior religious figures occasionally call for a clampdown on its rites.Foreign plot\u00a0 \u00a0 Abbas Mohtaj, the governor-general of Qom, accused the dervishes of being part of a foreign plot, but he did not explain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":357,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamic-thought"],"yoast_head":"\nSufis vs. Shiahs in Iran - Akram's Razor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Police, Sufis clash in Iran     Sufi Muslim spirituality is tolerated under mainly Shia Iran's strict Islamic laws, although some senior\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2006\/02\/sufis_vs_shiahs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sufis vs. Shiahs in Iran - 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