About TheReligionofPeace.com

[Mr.Fitnah]

Sufis are not peaceful, they are just as of killers like sunnis, shias, and other followers of Islam!

Eye On Islam: The "Peaceful Tableau" of Sufism?

Daniel Pipes and two blogs. This is what I'm referring to when I say that you're unwilling to engage in intelligent discussion. Anyone who finds himself needing to rely on information so blatantly biased in his favor to make an argument is a fool.

Biographical Sketch of Daniel Pipes

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. His bi-weekly column appears regularly in the National Review and in newspapers around the globe, including the Jerusalem Post and Ysirael ha-Yom (Israel), Al-Akhbar (Iraq), Die Welt (Germany), La Razón (Spain), Liberal (Italy), National Post (Canada), and the Australian..

His website, DanielPipes.org, offers an archive of his work and an opportunity to sign up to receive e-mails of his current writings. With 58 million page visits, it is of the Internet's most accessed sources of specialized information on the Middle East and Islam.

CBS Sunday Morning says Daniel Pipes was "years ahead of the curve in identifying the threat of radical Islam." "Unnoticed by most Westerners," he wrote, for example, in 1995, "war has been unilaterally declared on Europe and the United States." The Boston Globe states that "If Pipes's admonitions had been heeded, there might never have been a 9/11." The Wall Street Journal calls Mr. Pipes "an authoritative commentator on the Middle East" and the Washington Post deems him "perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam."

He received his A.B. (1971) and Ph.D. (1978) from Harvard University, both in history, and spent six years studying abroad, including three years in Egypt. Mr. Pipes speaks French, and reads Arabic and German. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, the U.S. Naval War College, and Pepperdine University. He served in various capacities in the U.S. government, including two presidentially-appointed positions, vice chairman of the Fulbright Board of Foreign Scholarships and board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace. He was director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in 1986-93.

Mr. Pipes discusses current issues on television on such U.S. programs as ABC World News, Crossfire, Good Morning America, News-Hour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, O'Reilly Factor, and The Today Show. He has appeared on leading television networks around the globe, including the BBC and Al-Jazeera, and has lectured in twenty-five countries. He has publicly debated leading figures, including Noam Chomsky and Ken Livingstone.

Mr. Pipes has published in such magazines as the Atlantic Monthly, Commentary, Foreign Affairs, Harper's, National Review, New Republic, Time, and The Weekly Standard. More than a hundred American newspapers have carried his articles, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. His writings have been translated into thirty-six languages and have appeared in such newspapers as ABC, Corriere della Sera, The Daily Telegraph, Le Figaro, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr. Pipes has written twelve books.

Four deal with Islam: Militant Islam Reaches America (2002), The Rushdie Affair (Birch Lane, 1990), In the Path of God (Basic Books, 1983), and Slave Soldiers and Islam (Yale University Press, 1981).

Three books concern Syria: Syria Beyond the Peace Process (1996), Damascus Courts the West (Washington Institute, 1991), and Greater Syria (Oxford University Press, 1990).

Four deal with other Middle Eastern topics: The Hidden Hand (St. Martin's, 1996) analyzes conspiracy theories among Arabs and Iranians. An Arabist's Guide to Colloquial Egyptian (Foreign Service Institute, 1983) systematizes the grammar of Arabic as spoken in Egypt. The Long Shadow (Transaction, 1989) and Miniatures (2003) contain some of his best essays.

Conspiracy (Free Press 1997) establishes the importance of conspiracy theories in modern Europe and America.

Mr. Pipes edited two collections of essays, Sandstorm (UPA, 1993) and Friendly Tyrants (St. Martin's, 1991). He has edited two journals, Orbis (1986-90) and the Middle East Quarterly (1994-2001).

Mr. Pipes sits on five editorial boards, has testified before many congressional committees, and worked on five presidential campaigns. Universities in the United States and Switzerland have conferred honorary degrees on him.

Mr. Pipes takes pride in having been Borked by Edward Kennedy, called an "Orientalist" by Edward Said, deemed the neo-conservative movement's "leading thinker" by Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper, and publicly invited to convert by a leading Al-Qaeda figure. He has also been recognized as one of Harvard University's 100 most influential living graduates and is listed in Marquis Who's Who in the World.

Mr. Pipes founded the Middle East Forum (MEForum.org), an independent 501(c)3 organization, in 1994. The Forum's mission is "promoting American interests" through publications, research, media outreach, and public education. With a US$1.5 million budget, it publishes the Middle East Quarterly and sponsors Campus Watch, Islamist Watch, the Legal Project, and the Washington Project.

(Click here for a Word document with talking points to introduce Daniel Pipes.)

Updated December 2010

Biography of Daniel Pipes

Oh yeah dont listen to him.

 

[Kalam]

Hi Ropey,

How are you today? Looks like you're busy trying to get me to hate Sufi Muslim and all Muslims as much as you do.

I'm reading your sources. None of it takes away from my experience with the Sufi's I've met and loved. I'm drinking hate koolaid. The Sufi's I met were like this:

"Sufism is an attitude of inner sympathy towards all beliefs. All religions are Sufi religions as long as they recognize the limits inherent in any speculative interpretation of Truth. One might say that Sufism is a process leading to the widening of the horizon of the heart, so that Truth may shine within as a brilliant sun, illuminating all that is receptive of its rays of light.

Through the ages there has been one religion after another, but each one came as a confirmation of the previous one. Now, in our century and with the development of science and communication, it has become clear that each religion had a special purpose to fulfill at a particular period of human evolution. For the wise, one can only be really attuned to any religion if one's heart is open to all religious beliefs with the same love and understanding for each.

A Sufi is a religious soul whose nature is to refuse to submit to imposed beliefs, and who is conscious that life is not necessarily just what one might think it to be, nor what one is told it to be. Life is not only lived at the level of physical experience, nor only at the level of thought, nor only at the level of feeling, but also, and most importantly, at a still higher level of consciousness, where the self is no more the barrier separating reality from illusion."
Sufism - Religion of the Heart

I should point out that Universal Sufism is sort of its own religious movement and isn't recognized as part of Islam or Tasawwuf (nor do followers of Universal Sufism want it to be, seemingly.) Tasawwuf is the quest for ihsan -- the utmost degree of understanding and sincerity in worship that a person can attain -- and it requires iman (belief) and islam (observance of basic 'pillars' such as prayer, fasting, etc.) Tasawwuf does have a very universal outlook in certain respects, but the people on the Sufi path as it has traditionally been understood recognize that ihsan is only a possibility for those who fulfill the aforementioned prerequisites.

 

[Kalam]

Oh yeah dont listen to him.

Reliance on blatantly biased information is a hallmark of idiocy. Pipes writes for people who want their preconceptions confirmed; not people who are genuinely interested in studying the subjects in which he purports to be an expert lol:.)

If a Muslim-hating muppet like Christopher Hitchens believes that your 'criticism' of Islam is worthless propaganda, it most likely is:

Daniel Pipes is not a man of peace. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

 

[High_Gravity]

I don't know much about Sufi'sm but I have had Muslims tell me Sufis are not legit Muslims.

 

[Kalam]

Obama doesn't consider himself Muslim and he was not raised as one, however if you live in a Muslim country and your father is a Muslim, you are automatically considered a Muslim whether he is in your life or not.

I've already explained the invalidity of this position from a Shari'i perspective so I don't know why you continue to post it.

What I meant was you can be whatever you want religiously, what your fathers religion is has no bearing on you if you want to change it.

See above.

 

[High_Gravity]

Obama doesn't consider himself Muslim and he was not raised as one, however if you live in a Muslim country and your father is a Muslim, you are automatically considered a Muslim whether he is in your life or not.

I've already explained the invalidity of this position from a Shari'i perspective so I don't know why you continue to post it.

What I meant was you can be whatever you want religiously, what your fathers religion is has no bearing on you if you want to change it.

See above.

Are you trying to tell me in a Muslim country if your father is a Muslim, you are not automatically not considered one? sorry I have been to too many Muslim countries to know that is not true, if your father is Muslim you are Muslim period.

 

[Sunni Man]

I don't know much about Sufi'sm but I have had Muslims tell me Sufis are not legit Muslims.

There are dozens of Sufi sects.

Some drink, womanize, and do all kinds of things.

But some are very pious, kind of like christian monks, and follow the Islamic religion.

Thus they are a very mixed bag.

And it's kind of hard to sort out who is who.

 

[Kalam]

I don't know much about Sufi'sm but I have had Muslims tell me Sufis are not legit Muslims.

The Wahhabis who make this claim are hilariously ignorant of the fact that their favorite scholar and the man they call "Shaykh ul-Islam" was himself a mutasawwuf. Ibn Taymiyyah was a Qadiri.

An individual mutasawwuf or a wayward group can be viewed as deviant by some people, but anyone who attempts to claim that Tasawwuf itself is not Islam will find no factual basis for their argument.

 

[Kalam]

Are you trying to tell me in a Muslim country if your father is a Muslim, you are not automatically not considered one?

I'm telling you that whatever the case may be, this has no basis in Shari'ah.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Kalam,

Are you living in a western country? How do you relate to the fears that Americans have about Shar'iah Law and Islam?

 

[Sky Dancer]

The Sufi's I know and love belong to the folklorist tradition.

This is an interesting article about Sufism:

The problem with understanding Sufism, is thus illustrated by the diversity of possible derivations of the word itself. There are many different Sufi movements, and many dimensions of Sufism. Although frequently characterized as the mystical component of Islam, there are also "Folklorist" Sufis, and the "Traditional" Sufis.

Sufis are "movements", within, and in a few extreme cases outside of mainstream Islam. Sufis in general, are complex, and cover many different "stripes" of Islam. Sufism started out as a Shia movement, but over the past several hundred years, has almost disappeared from Shia Islam, and is now, mainly a Sunni movement. Hanbalis, Shafis, Malikis and Hanafis can all belong to different Sufi "tariqas" or "brotherhoods, as they are called. In fact, the Islamic brotherhood in Egypt, and Al Qaeda, are both Sufi based movements.

The Traditional Sufis, are actually people like the Wahhabiyyah and Al Qaeda, who eschew that type of thing as apostasy, and instead, insist that Sufism is all an Internal (internal to an individual) movement/spiritualism, that should never adopt external/folkloric elements, like the Dervishes, etc.

Sufism has come to mean those who are interested in finding a way or practice toward inner awakening and enlightenment. This movement developed as a protest against corrupt rulers who did not embody Islam and against the legalism and formalism of worship which paid more attention to the form rather than content of the faith. Many of the sufis became ascetics, began to gather disciples around themselves and developed into religious orders, known as dervishers. Others forsook the orders and became mendicants, traveling around the country side, living off the charity of others. Many sufis were outstanding men of saintly stature. Not all sufis were accepted by the more conservative elements of Islam due to their unorthodox habits and beliefs. Sufi influence has grown over the centuries and today there are literally hundreds of mystic orders with millions of adherents. They are most prevalent in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Arabia.

Islam’s mystical tradition emphasizes the direct knowledge, personal experience, and spiritual sovereignty of God, is at odds with the official Sunni establishment and its dedication to enforcing the legal and political sovereignty of Allah. Sufism, which makes use of paradigms and concepts derived from Greek, Hindu, and other non-Islamic sources, is generally less concerned with reinforcing and defending religious boundaries. The Sufi doctrine of “the unity of being,” moreover, has inclined Sufis to emphasize interiority and the oneness of humanity, often at the expense of militant Islam’s insistence on the conformity of the external world of state and society to Shari‘a.

To the Sufi, perhaps the greatest absurdity in life is the way in which people strive for things — such as knowledge — without the basic equipment for acquiring them. They have assumed that all they need is “two eyes and a mouth,” as Nasrudin says. In Sufism, a person cannot learn until he is in a state in which he can perceive what he is learning, and what it means ... This is why Sufis do not speak about profound things to people who are not prepared to cultivate the power of learning—something which can only be taught by a teacher to someone who is sufficiently enlightened to say: “Teach me how to learn.” There is a Sufi saying: “Ignorance is pride, and pride is ignorance. The man who says ‘I don’t have to be taught how to learn’ is proud and ignorant.”

Sufi Syncretism - Folklorist Sufis
Sufism follows the basic tenets of Islam but does not follow all of the orthodox practices of Sunni or Shi'ah Islam. In many Muslim areas, a mystical version of Hanafi Sunnism provided the means by which pagan and Christian practices were accommodated within Islam. Sufism centers on orders or brotherhoods that follow charismatic religious leaders.

There is a distinction between official and folk religion. Official religion stresses religious texts, the sharia (Islamic law), the literal interpretation of religious teachings, and worship at mosques. Folk religion, reflecting Arabic and Kurdish nomadic heritages, emphasizes sacred forces, the symbolic interpretation of texts, and worship at shrines. Folk religion continues to flourish in rural areas. Sufi orders, like folk religion, focus on the allegorical interpretation of texts and have historically been organized around a pious founder or saint.

The Folklorist Sufis, have been under attack, and discriminated against, for centuries. The Folklorists Sufis, have incorporated "un-Islamic" beliefs into their practices, such as celebrating the Birthday of Mohammed, visiting the shrines of "Islamic saints", dancing during prayer (the whirling dervishes), etc.

Sufi Islam

 

[Ropey]

Kalams Islamic principles are all in his head. Of the 57 Muslim countries worldwide there are NONE that ascribe to Kalam's Islamic principles.

So, another philosopher discounting the acts on the ground with minimization and words of what should be, not what is happening on the ground.

Nice words he spouts off, but on the ground? War...

Islamic war all over the world in 21 border altercations.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Kalams Islamic principles are all in his head. Of the 57 Muslim countries worldwide there are NONE that ascribe to Kalam's Islamic principles.

So, another philosopher discounting the acts on the ground with minimization and words of what should be, not what is happening on the ground.

Nice words he spouts off, but on the ground? War...

Islamic war all over the world in 21 border altercations.

Kalam is not your enemy and neither am I.

 

[Intense]

Keep trying to shut up the opposition. It shows your own desire for totalitarianism on this thread. Only one view is acceptable here. YOURS. TOTAL ANTI-ISLAMIC PROPAGANDA OR NOTHING.

No one is trying to shut you up. You post more than any other single person in this thread Sky Dancer.

How about you quit whining about being shut out when you talk the most. I mean seriously. Don't you see that crazy thinking?

She is beyond reason, grandstanding while unknowingly in agreement with the premise of the OP. There is nothing you can tell her that she will not spin into something Imaginary, and proclaim to the 4 winds, as shaky as her soap box is. She would have to find herself already Checkmated before she could grasp the true meaning of Sharia.

 

[Intense]

Keep trying to shut up the opposition. It shows your own desire for totalitarianism on this thread. Only one view is acceptable here. YOURS. TOTAL ANTI-ISLAMIC PROPAGANDA OR NOTHING.

No one is trying to shut you up. You post more than any other single person in this thread Sky Dancer.

How about you quit whining about being shut out when you talk the most. I mean seriously. Don't you see that crazy thinking?

Intense is trying to get me to shut up.

What's crazy is thinking there is only one way to view Muslims. YOUR way.

Ignore this link. It contradicts your view. Wouldn't want you to think of any Muslim kindly.
Muslims against Terrorism

Funny, without false claims, you would have none at all. Babble on all you want, don't confuse me telling you that I have nothing new to add on a matter with me telling you to shut up. Go on, keep repeating yourself, for all of the good it does you. I'm not telling you to shut up, I'm telling you that your premise is flawed. Keep compounding your error by building on false truth, that is your business. I just ain't buying what you are peddling.

 

[Kalam]

Kalam,

Are you living in a western country? How do you relate to the fears that Americans have about Shar'iah Law and Islam?

Yes, I live here in the U.S. To be honest, I rarely hear people express concern over Islam like this in my day-to-day life -- I usually have to turn on the news or go on the internet to see people foaming at the mouth over the "ground zero mosque" and "Shari'ah encroachment" and whatnot.

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

Oh yeah dont listen to him.

Reliance on blatantly biased information is a hallmark of idiocy. Pipes writes for people who want their preconceptions confirmed; not people who are genuinely interested in studying the subjects in which he purports to be an expert lol:.)

If a Muslim-hating muppet like Christopher Hitchens believes that your 'criticism' of Islam is worthless propaganda, it most likely is:

Daniel Pipes is not a man of peace. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

Live links here
Shocking bias .

Jaw-dropping court testimony by Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, singlehandedly undermines Obama administration efforts to ignore the dangers of Islamism and jihad.

Shahzad's forthright statement of purpose stands out because jihadis, when facing legal charges, typically save their skin by pleading not guilty or plea bargaining. Consider a few examples:

Naveed Haq, who assaulted the Jewish Federation building in Seattle, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Lee Malvo, one of the Beltway Snipers, explained that "one reason for the shootings was that white people had tried to harm Louis Farrakhan." His partner John Allen Muhammad claimed his innocence to the death chamber.
Hasan Akbar killed two fellow American soldiers as they slept in a military compound, then told the court ""I want to apologize for the attack that occurred. I felt that my life was in jeopardy, and I had no other options. I also want to ask you for forgiveness."
Mohammed Taheri-azar, who tried to kill students on the University of North Carolina by running over them in a car and issued a series of jihadi rants against the United States, later experienced a change of heart, announced himself "very sorry" for the crimes he committed, and asked for release so that he can "re-establish myself as a good, caring and productive member of society" in California.
These efforts fit a broader pattern of Islamist mendacity; rarely does a jihadi stand on principle. Zacarias Moussaoui, 9/11's would-be twentieth hijacker, came close: his court proceedings began with his refusing to enter a plea (which the presiding judge translated into "not guilty") and then, one fine day, pleading guilty to all charges.

Shahzad, 30, acted in an exceptional manner during his appearance in a New York City federal court on June 21. His answers to Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum's many inquisitive questions ("And where was the bomb?" "What did you do with the gun?") offered a dizzying mix of deference and contempt. On the one hand, he politely, calmly, patiently, fully, and informatively answered about his actions. On the other, he in the same voice justified his attempt at cold-blooded mass murder.

The judge asked Shahzad after he announced an intent to plead guilty to all ten counts of his indictment, "Why do you want to plead guilty?" a reasonable question given the near certainty that guilty pleas will keep him in for long years in jail. He replied:

I want to plead guilty and I'm going to plead guilty a hundred times forward because – until the hour the U.S. pulls it forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in Pakistan and stops the occupation of Muslim lands and stops killing the Muslims and stops reporting the Muslims to its government – we will be attacking [the] U.S., and I plead guilty to that.

Shahzad insisted on portraying himself as replying to American actions: "I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing [of] the Muslim nations and the Muslim people, and on behalf of that, I'm avenging the attacks," adding that "We Muslims are one community." Nor was that all; he flatly asserted that his goal had been to damage buildings and "injure people or kill people" because "one has to understand where I'm coming from, because … I consider myself a mujahid, a Muslim soldier."

When Cedarbaum pointed out that pedestrians in Times Square during the early evening of May first were not attacking Muslims, Shahzad replied: "Well, the [American] people select the government. We consider them all the same." His comment reflects not just that American citizens are responsible for their democratically elected government but also the Islamist view that, by definition, infidels cannot be innocents.

However abhorrent, this tirade does have the virtue of truthfulness. Shahzad's willingness to name his Islamic purposes and spend long years in jail for them flies in the face of Obama administration efforts not to name Islamism as the enemy, preferring such lame formulations as "overseas contingency operations" and "man-caused disasters."

Americans – as well as Westerners generally, all non-Muslims, and anti-Islamist Muslims – should listen to the bald declaration by Faisal Shahzad and accept the painful fact that Islamist anger and aspirations truly do motivate their terrorist enemies. Ignoring this fact will not make it disappear.

 

[Ropey]

But she is unwilling to stick her toes in the true waters of Islam.

I find it funny that you believe you've done so.

Ah, but one does not need to stick their toes in the true waters of Islam when one has lived around the true Islam. The Islam when the country is in a majority of Muslims.

I have seen it Kalam. I have helped move Jews from it and this was in the early eighties.

The waters are clear when Islam is in a minority. Once Islam becomes a majority, the waters are blooded.

 

[Kalam]

Ah, but one does not need to stick their toes in the true waters of Islam when one has lived around the true Islam. The Islam when the country is in a majority of Muslims.

"If the majority of people in an area self-identify as Muslims, everything they do must be considered 'true Islam.'"

 

[Ropey]

Better than your philosophical view of Islam that has no countries showing us what 'your' true waters are Kalam.

Show us the proof of those waters Kalam.