The Promotion of Sufism in the West: Britain and the United States

Abstract

While much of this book has focused on the role of Sufism and its relation to politics in Muslim-majority states, this chapter will examine the relationship between governments and Sufi groups as it relates to politics in non-Muslim majority states in the West. The primary focus of this chapter will be examining Sufism in Britain, but I will also spend discuss how nongovernmental actors have advocated Sufism in the United States. In terms of the presence of Sufism in the “West,” there is no monolith that exists within Sufi communities. For example, while various Sufi groups have been in the United States for decades, we find that, at least one part of “Sufism resembled more a freelance New Age movement than the kind of teaching and training represented by the more traditional Sufi orders of other parts of the Islamic world” (Smith, 2002: 13). Nevertheless, there has also been an increase in Sufi groups that have ties to “the traditional orders and organizations” (Smith, 2002: 13). This seems to be the case in Britain, for example, in which we see the Sufi structure “centered on local khalifas or saints (pirs) which recognize sacred genealogical links to different orders and saints located in different parts of Pakistan” (Werbner, 2006: 128). Marcia Hermansen (2006) categorized the Sufi groups into what she labels “hybrid” groups, “perennial” groups, and “transplant” groups.