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The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony (Hardcover)

by Stephen Schwartz (Author)
Key Phrases: Ibn Arabi, Saudi Arabia, Crisis States (more...)
3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Schwartz, a journalist and convert to Islam, offers Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, as an aid to the United States' efforts to fight extremism. He provides an incomparable history of Sufism, covering in one short book all the major Sufi saints, schools, and the persecution of Sufis by Wahhabis. Deeply anti-Wahhabi, Schwartz encourages U.S. policymakers to ally with Sufis to undermine the Wahhabi influence. Schwartz believes the Wahhabi philosophy, which is literal and extreme in its interpretation of the Islamic faith, to be the motivation behind Muslim terrorism, with Wahhabi Saudis providing the financing. Wahhabis abhor Sufis for centuries-old traditions they label as idolatrous. Schwartz critiques the Western media for inaccurately dismissing Wahhabi attacks on Sufis, including the insurgency in Iraq, as Sunni-Shia disputes. In reality, Schwartz argues, they are part of the centuries-long Wahhabi campaign to destroy Sufism and moderate Islam. Schwartz's opinion—that Sufis are the natural allies of the U.S. in the ongoing war on terror—is well presented and worth considering. (Sept. 16) ""
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved."

Review
Advance Praise for The Other Islam

Stephen Schwartz is internationally known as a serious student of Islam and its mysticism and as a special friend of the Bektashi Sufi order. The Other Islam is an important work that will, I sincerely hope, open the minds of non-Muslims as well as Muslims to the heritage and present reality of spiritual Islam. Let this book help spread the message and enlightenment of Hajji Bektash Veli throughout the world. —H.E. Hajji Dedebaba Reshat Bardhi, World Supreme Head of the Bektashi community

The Other Islam is more than an engaging introduction to Sufism in full. Stephen Schwartz has also sketched a suggestive roadmap for the kind of inter-religious dialogue that can move the world beyond the clash of civilizations to a mutually enriching encounter of noble religious traditions. Schwartz's Sufi-inspired conviction that it is, finally, God's world, not one in which nihilism married to distorted monotheism will have the final word, can and should be embraced by serious Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. —George S. Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, and biographer of Pope John Paul II

The Other Islam presents a different side of the Muslim world and Islam, at a time when Islam is identified in the West with militancy, violence, radicalism, and terrorism. Stephen Schwartz gives readers a good picture of how we should look at Islam's full spectrum of doctrines and interpretations, and understand that Jihad can be interpreted and implemented by peaceful and spiritual ways. His contribution to the understanding of the other dimensions of this worldwide religion and culture, especially now, is very significant. We should all wish for a greater role for the various Sufi orders in the socio-political culture of the Muslim world. —Reuven Paz, Director, Project for the Research of Islamist Movements (PRISM) of The Interdisciplinary Cent... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday Religion (September 16, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385518196
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385518192
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #554,882 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Omitted or Ignored, or is There Another Agenda?, October 8, 2008
By Cliffu (Virginia) - See all my reviews
This book will have some value to people who know nothing about Sufism, and also for those who want to get some sense of what is happening in modern Sufism. But there are are better books out there for the former purpose, and for the latter, five minutes of googling will put you in touch with many book's worth of Sufi groups than you would have any idea existed if you relied on this book alone. This book seems especially weak in providing at least a minimally complete account of historical and modern Sufism, yet the publisher hypes this book as "an incomparable history of Sufism, covering in one short book all the major Sufi saints, schools." I don't think so. How could a book for which such grandiose claims be made completely omit any mention, for example, of the contemporary sheik, Ahmad al-Alawi, from Algeria, who died in 1934, and whose life is chronicled in Martin Lings' lovely book, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi (Golden Palm Series)? This particular Sufi master had hundreds of thousands of followers, and he spawned various Alawiyya tariqas whose followers trace their lineage back to him to this day? Anyone can find many other significant omissions by checking out this site: http://www.haqq.com.au/~salam/sufilinks/ or Professor Alan Godlas' very nice site: http://www.uga.edu/islam/Sufism.html.

Another irritant in this book is the unending, vehement denunciation of Wahabi Islam. This highly literalist-fundamentalist form of Islam indeed has persecuted Sufis, and the Wahabis are indeed awful for various reasons, but does the reader have to be constantly reminded of this? Real Sufism is mostly about love and spiritual gnosis, yet the author's anti-Wahabi agenda seems to at times position Sufism as a Western-approved Islamic proxy movement to be launched against the hated Darth Vader-like Wahabis, as if implying that the need for fighting against the latter is the real point of this book. It is not that of Sufism, from what I have read and seen. Compulsively focusing with fear and loathing on something as negative as some form of extreme religious fundamentalism is an obsession no form of even a halfway-sincere mysticism and spirituality would encourage or approve of that I have ever witnessed, and I have seen quite a few.

The sense that Schwartz is on a jihad against Wahabis much more than he is in favor of mystical transcendence via the Sufi path is reinforced from some research on his background. According to conservative-libertarian author Justin Raimondo, for example, Schwartz is a rank neoconservative, "who still defends the "glorious" heritage of Leon Trotsky, and in the pages of National Review, yet!" He has been known also by the names "Suleyman Ahmad, aka "Comrade Sandalio," according to Raimondo. http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=5226 Schwartz's writing has appeared on the web site of David Horowitz, another rank or ranking neocon. Noticing this makes one wonder if Schwartz still is a follower of the loathsome communist founder of the Red Army, Trotsky, in spirit, if not obvious expression, and ultimately, with this book, if he is covertly offering another agenda with goals at the opposite end of that of Sufism.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars good Survey of Sufism in Islam, January 4, 2009
By P. Nagy "revreader" (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Book reviews should be about what a book actually says, not what the reviewer wishes the book was about. Schwartz has written an illuminating survey of some modern trends in Sufism in the Balkans, central Asia and how it stands up to the notorious developments of radical Islam.

It is apparent that Schwartz decided not to address trends in Sufism in the west that are non-Islamic and also not to bring up the so-called "Traditionalist" conceit of a universalist core of esoteric and elitist doctrines in all religions. Cliffu rankles on publicist hyperbole that The Other Islam is "an incomparable history of Sufism, covering in one short book all the major Sufi saints, schools." Because it does not mention Ahmad al-Alawi, of Algeria, whose life was handsomely chronicled in Martin Lings' classic, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi . I agree that al-Alawi was an interesting Sufi but Cliffu exaggerates his importance and the actual number of his followers.

Likewise by characterizing Sufism as "mostly about love and spiritual gnosis," Cliffu succumbs to normalizing western Traditionalist representations of Sufism as true Sufism. Schwartz at least allows for a wider scope to ethnic Sufisms than reducing it to elitist posturing.

Schwartz's book could in no way cover the intricate and complex histories of all Sufi schools. But many that he does chronicle are little mentioned in the common books about Sufism. The Other Islam is a popular contribution to how Sufism functions within Islamic societies and its social and political consequences. The Other Islam also is explicit about the systemic assault on indigenous ethnic Islams by Wahhabis and other militant fundamentalisms.

Cliffu does not deny this threat but seems disturbed that Schwartz shows just how besieged many indigenous Sufis are. Ordinary, mainstream Muslims would side with Schwartz. Perhaps we in the west could maintain a quietist and passive stance to such pervasive evil because if it did not fit into our out-of-context and over-idealized view of Sufism. Unfortunately this smugness is an obscenity in the experience of Balkan Sufis, Sufis in Iraq, Iran; Afghanistan and China. This discomfiture moves Cliffu into rank personal abuse of Schwartz. If real Sufism is as Cliffu claims about love such scurrilous attacks are unseemly. It is certainly strange that Cliffu accuses Schwartz of harboring as "hidden agenda" when Cliffu apparently wants to smuggle so-called "Traditionalism" into the mix. And by the way, Schwartz was fired from the Voice of America for his anti-Saudi stance so is hardly a tool of the State Department.

Mr. Schwartz views on a variety of issues are freely available at www.islamicpluralism.org. They lack the rancor that Cliffu himself cannot resist.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Sufism, and its histories, November 23, 2008
Does sufism exist? I was assured, years ago, by a known sufi that it doesn't, and that there are no sufis.
This work is of use in trying to reconstruct the history of so-called 'sufism', which has more historical than cultic/organizational meaning. Many westerners proceed blind down the garden path, as it were, without knowing what they are dealing with, to discover the many frauds, occultists, fanatics, and others in sufistic colors claiming a legacy that is apparently mostly smoke and mirrors. One is thus driven to study sufism in its Islamic context to see if this is an aberration, or if Islamic sufism conceals the same, or if Islamic sufis actually grasp what they are dealing with.
The record is hard to set straight and a new generation should be warned of the corruption of the phenomenon of sufism, at least in the West, and grasp the issue that 'sufism' is a history of certain people, not a movement, or method, and that its great decline has spawned a kind of mafia of shadow devils, witness Gurdjieff who openly admitted to it. The crucial issue is to maintain one's autonomy and proceed beyond the spurious authority of shaykhs to a self-created way without the huckstered barakas of black magicians preying on the 'sufi' Faust.
This book, although it looks suspiciously like a crypto-political piece of some kind (maybe a State Department stealth op), is useful enough as a perspective on 'sufistic' history, but beyond that correct information about sufism does not exist. Therefore be wary until that information does exist.
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I began reading this book with great expectations, but my hopes were quickly dashed. Halfway through, the book descends into rank and screed. Read more
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