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Pastimes : Let’s Talk About Our Feelings about the Let’s Talk About Our -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yaacov who wrote (2102)	4/7/2005 9:32:35 AM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5290

Too many secret brotherhoods, but to their credit they deal with their own internal corruption a lot better than anybody else. "In their book Mystics and Commissars: Sufism in the Soviet Union, Alexandre Bennigsen and S. Enders Wimbush argue that Sufism is an important aspect of Islam throughout the world and is becoming increasingly important in what was the USSR when they wrote their book. In that study, they provide an introduction to Sufism, analyze the structure of Sufi brotherhoods, describe the recruitment of adepts, and examine the make-up of the brotherhoods and the inner life of those associations (ii). More recent studies have indicated that the revival of interest in Chechen culture has been accompanied by a conversion to the Sunni branch of Islam. Most adhere to the Sufi form of Islam and join together in brotherhoods of 10 to 40 disciples (or disciples). They believe that practitioners of the faith can achieve a mystical union with God through the zikr, a ceremony that consists of a recitation of prayers that may be accompanied by vigorous dancing that will induce an ecstatic state. Islam did not replace traditional Chechen culture but became a part of it, thus preserving the identity of the Chechen nation (iii). Sufism is significant because it is a popular rallying point and, to the external world, it is not obvious who is or is not a member of these clandestine brotherhoods. Sufism gives its adherents an organizational basis that is somewhat like that of the early communist party during its revolutionary stage of development. Sufism is the predominant form of Islam in Chechnya. During the Soviet era, authorities worked to control the formal religious structures seen as necessary for the practice and persistence of Islam. Consequently, there was an "official Islam," supported by the state but maintained at a clearly inadequate level of support. While Soviet officials believed that this condition would lead to a deterioration of Islamic religious life, the real impact was the nurturing of a system of "parallel Islam" totally beyond the reach of state control. This parallel system supported the de facto expansion of Islam during a time of anti-Islamic policy (iv)." jmu.edu