Abstract
This chapter analyses the correlation between Muslim majority states ranked higher on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2017 and the activism of Sufi citizens. The higher ranked states have a substantial or significant Sufi presence while those ranked lowest discourage or officially restrict Sufism. This chapter resists arguing for an automatic correlation between Sufism and democracy. Sufis have supported and cooperated with authoritarian regimes including colonial rulers against whom they have also rebelled to protect their own interests. Nor is there a rigid boundary between Salafism and Sufism. The chapter tentatively suggests that Sufi political activism can help to nurture democracy given the presence of other factors such as an historical tolerance of minorities and relative lack of regional or ethnic rivalries. Given a global retreat from democracy, any resource that can be used to nurture, promote and protect democratic pluralism is worth serious consideration and scrutiny.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Democracy Index 2017: Free Speech Under Attack (London: EIU, 2018).
- 2.
Freedom in the World 2018: Democracy in Crisis (Washington, DC: Freedom House, 2018).
- 3.
Democracy Index 2007, 3.
- 4.
The top five Muslim states on the 2019 index are Malaysia, Tunisia, Indonesia, Albania, Bangladesh.
- 5.
M.A. Muqtedar Khan, “Islamic Governance and Democracy,” in Islam and Democratization in Asia, ed. Shiping Hua, 13–27 (Amherst, NY: Cambria, 2009) 16.
- 6.
For a more detailed analysis of Sufi political engagement see Sufism, Pluralism and Democracy, eds. Clinton Bennett and Sarwar Alam (Sheffield: Equinox, 2017), chapter one, “Sufis, Saints and Politics in Islam: An Historical Survey,” 25–49.
- 7.
On Sufis and Salafists, see Lloyd Ridgeon, ed., Sufis and Salafists in the Contemporary Age (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).
- 8.
For example, the Muslim Brotherhood borrowed from Sufi organizational structure and perpetuated the Sufi tradition of social welfare provision.
- 9.
Statistics on the number of people who declare an affiliation with a Sufi order in this chapter are from Pew Research, Religious Identity Among Muslims, Q32, http://www.pewforum.org/2012/08/09/the-worlds-muslims-unity-and-diversity-1-religious-affiliation/; accessed October 30, 2018.
- 10.
Paulo G. Pinto, “Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria,” Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 115–116, 2006, 155–171.
- 11.
Human Rights Watch, Tajikistan country report, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2010/country-chapters/Tajikistan; accessed October 30, 2018.
- 12.
Benjamin Clark Gatling, Post-Soviet Sufism: Texts and the Performance of Tradition in Tajikistan, Unpublished PhD dissertation, Ohio State University, 2012; https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1345143093&disposition=inline; accessed October 30, 2018
- 13.
Reuters World News, “Malaysia’s Royals Call for Religious Tolerance in Rare Pubic Intervention, October 10, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics/malaysias-royals-call-for-religious-tolerance-in-rare-public-intervention-idUSKBN1CF272; accessed October 30, 2018.
- 14.
See Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, “The Challenge of Religious Pluralism in Malaysia with Special Reference to the Sufi Thought of Ustaz Ashaari Muhammad, Comparative Islamic Studies, 9: 1, 2013, 9–40.
- 15.
On Islam’s spread by Sufis in South East Asia, see Clinton Bennett, “Syncretistic Sufi Gnosticism in South and South East Asia,” in The Gnostic World, ed. Garry W. Trompf, Gunner B. Mikkelsen, and Jay Johnston (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), 595–602.
- 16.
Christina Uguccioni, “Tunisia, Christians and Muslims Live in Peace in Ain Draham,“Vatican Insider World News, May 31, 2018, https://www.lastampa.it/2018/05/31/vaticaninsider/tunisia-christians-and-muslims-live-in-peace-in-ain-draham-6StbXKqF8xaUXOscZZHyAJ/pagina.html accessed October 30 2018.
- 17.
“Reuters, “Jews and Muslims Celebrate Unusual Coexistence in Tunisia’s Djerba,” May 16, 2018, https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/MAGAZINE-jews-and-muslims-celebrate-unusual-coexistence-in-tunisia-s-djerba-1.6094484 accessed October 30 2018.
- 18.
Mohamed Elhachmi Hamdi, “Islam and Liberal Democracy: The Limits of the Western Model,” Journal of Democracy, 7: 2 (1996), 81–5, 83–4; see Clinton Bennett, Muslims and Modernity: An Introduction to the issues and debates (London: Continuum, 2005), 41.
- 19.
Lamine Ghamni, “In Tunisia, Sufism is Here to Stay,” Arab Weekly, December 02, 2016, https://thearabweekly.com/tunisia-sufism-here-stay; accessed October 30, 2018.
- 20.
Taylor Luck, “How Tunisia’s Resilient Sufis have Withstood Hardline Islamist attack,” Christian Science Monitor, March 11, 2018, https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2018/0307/How-Tunisia-s-resilient-Sufis-have-withstood-hard-line-Islamist-attack; accessed October 30, 2018.
- 21.
Iman Zayat, “Tunisia tops Arab women’s representation in Parliament,” Arab Weekly, September 25, 2016, https://thearabweekly.com/tunisia-tops-arab-womens-representation-parliament, accessed October 30, 2018.
- 22.
Mamadou Diouf, “Introduction: The Public Role of ‘The Good’: Sufi Islam and the Administration of Pluralism,” in Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senega l, ed. Mamadou Diouf (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), 2.
- 23.
Ofeiba Quist-Arcton, “In Conflict Torn Africa, Senegal Shows a Way to Religious Harmony,” NPR Africa, December 28, 2013 https://www.npr.org/2013/12/28/257822199/in-conflict-torn-africa-senegal-shows-a-way-to-religious-harmony; accessed October 30, 2018.
- 24.
Diouf, “Introduction,” 8.
- 25.
For a detailed analyses of Bangladesh, see Bennett, “Sufis as Shapers of Pluralist Political Cultures: The Examples of Bangladesh and Indonesia,” in Sufism, Pluralism and Democracy, eds. Bennett and Alam, op. cit., 121–146.
- 26.
The principle of secularism was removed from the original 1972 constitution in 1988 under a military regime but was restored by the 15th Amendment in 2011, although Islam remains the “state religion” which some see as paradoxixal.
- 27.
EIU Democracy Index 2019, p. 16.
- 28.
Lindita Arapi, “Interfaith Dialogue in Albania,” translated by Jennifer Taylor, Welle/Qantara.de 2017, https://en.qantara.de/content/interfaith-dialogue-in-albania-loving-their-neighbours, accessed October 30, 2018.
- 29.
“Leonie Vrugtman, “Albania’s religious harmony endures in the face of new challenges,” Global Risks Insiight, May 11, 2018 https://globalriskinsights.com/2018/05/interfaith-co-existence-albania-remains-strong-face-new-challenges/, accessed October 30, 2018.
- 30.
Declaration of Religious Communities in Albania, March 05, 2018, http://orthodoxalbania.org/alb/index.php/en-us/lajme-3/blog/4717-declaration-of-religious-communities-in-albania-joint-engagement-for-interfaith-dialogue-3-5-2018#, accessed October 30, 2018.
- 31.
Svante E. Cornell describes AKP as “with only slight exaggeration… a coalition of religious orders” “The Naqshbandi Khalidi Order and Political Islam in Turkey,” The HudsonI Institute, September 3, 2015, https://www.hudson.org/research/11601-the-naqshbandi-khalidi-order-and-political-islam-in-turkey, accessed October 30, 2018.
- 32.
Democracy Index 2017, 45.
- 33.
Walid Shoebat, “Shocking: How Muslims are Now Declaring Erdogan as a God,” Shoebat.com, 2015, available at http://shoebat.org/2015/03/30/shocking-muslims-are-now-declaring-erdogan-as-god/, accessed October 30, 2018.
- 34.
On these parties, see Clinton Bennett, “Sufis, Saints and Politics in Islam: An Historical Survey,” 53–70, in Sufism, Pluralism and Democracy, eds. Clinton Bennett and Sarwar Alam (Sheffield: Equinox, 2017), 32–33.
- 35.
An Egyptian Christian recently told me that al-Sisi is a wonderful man, how much he is doing to rebuild Egypt’s infrastructure and how much the Christian community appreciates his presidency.
- 36.
See “Pakistan’s living saints flex their political muscle,” Financial Times, April 13, 2018, at https://www.ft.com/content/b7503f38-358e-11e8-8eee-e06bde01c544, accessed July 25, 2020.
- 37.
Clifford Geertz, Islam Observed: Religious Developments in Morocco and Indonesia (New haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1968).
References
Abdul Hamid, Ahmad Fauzi. 2013. The Challenge of Religious Pluralism in Malaysia with Special Reference to the Sufi Thought of Ustaz Ashaari Muhammad. Comparative Islamic Studies 9 (1): 9–40.
Arapi, Lindita. 2017. Interfaith Dialogue in Albania. Trans. Jennifer Taylor. Welle/Qantara.de. https://en.qantara.de/content/interfaith-dialogue-in-albania-loving-their-neighbours. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Bennett, Clinton. 2005. Muslims and Modernity: An Introduction to the issues and debates. London: Continuum.
———. 2018. Syncretistic Sufi Gnosticism in South and South East Asia. In The Gnostic World, ed. Garry W. Trompf, Gunner B. Mikkelsen, and Jay Johnston, 595–602. Abingdon: Routledge.
———. Sufis, Saints and Politics in Islam: An Historical Survey. In Sufism, Pluralism and Democracy, ed. Clinton Bennett and Sarwar Alam, 53–70. Sheffield: Equinox.
Declaration of Religious Communities in Albania. 2018. March 05. http://orthodoxalbania.org/alb/index.php/en-us/lajme-3/blog/4717-declaration-of-religious-communities-in-albania-joint-engagement-for-interfaith-dialogue-3-5-2018#. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Democracy Index 2017. 2018. Free Speech Under Attack. London, EIU.
Diouf, Mamadou. 2013. Introduction: The Public Role of ‘The Good: Sufi Islam and the Administration of Pluralism. In Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal, ed. Mamadou Diouf, 1–35. New York: Columbia University Press.
Elhachmi Hamdi, Mohamed. 1996. Islam and Liberal Democracy: The Limits of the Western Model. Journal of Democracy 7 (2): 81–85.
Freedom in the World 2018. 2018. Democracy in Crisis. Washington, DC: Freedom House.
Gatling, Benjamin Clark. 2012. Post-Soviet Sufism: Texts and the Performance of Tradition in Tajikistan. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Ohio State University. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1345143093&disposition=inline. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Geertz, Clifford. 1968. Islam Observed: Religious Developments in Morocco and Indonesia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ghamni, Lamine. 2016. In Tunisia, Sufism is Here to Stay. Arab Weekly. December 02. https://thearabweekly.com/tunisia-sufism-here-stay. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Human Rights Watch. 2018. Tajikistan country report. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2010/country-chapters/Tajikistan. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Khan, Muqtedar M.A. 2009. Islamic Governance and Democracy. In Islam and Democratization in Asia, ed. Shiping Hua, 13–27. Amherst: Cambria.
Luck, Taylor. 2018. How Tunisia’s Resilient Sufis have Withstood Hardline Islamist Attack. Christian Science Monitor. March 11. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2018/0307/How-Tunisia-s-resilient-Sufis-have-withstood-hard-line-Islamist-attack. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Pew Research. 2018. Religious Identity Among Muslims, Q32. http://www.pewforum.org/2012/08/09/the-worlds-muslims-unity-and-diversity-1-religious-affiliation/. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Pinto, Paulo G. 2006. Sufism, Moral Performance and the Public Sphere in Syria. Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée 115–116: 155–171.
Quist-Arcton, Ofeiba. 2013. In Conflict Torn Africa, Senegal Shows a Way to Religious Harmony. NPR Africa, December 28. https://www.npr.org/2013/12/28/257822199/in-conflict-torn-africa-senegal-shows-a-way-to-religious-harmony. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Reuters World News. 2017. Malaysia’s Royals Call for Religious Tolerance in Rare Pubic Intervention. October 10. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics/malaysias-royals-call-for-religious-tolerance-in-rare-public-intervention-idUSKBN1CF272. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Reuters. 2018. Jews and Muslims Celebrate Unusual Coexistence in Tunisia’s Djerba. May 16. https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/MAGAZINE-jews-and-muslims-celebrate-unusual-coexistence-in-tunisia-s-djerba-1.6094484. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Ridgeon, Lloyd, ed. 2015. Sufis and Salafists in the Contemporary Age. London: Bloomsbury.
Shoebat, Walid. 2015. Shocking: How Muslims are Now Declaring Erdogan as a God. Shoebat.com. http://shoebat.org/2015/03/30/shocking-muslims-are-now-declaring-erdogan-as-god/. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Svante, Cornell E. 2016. The Naqshbandi Khalidi Order and Political Islam in Turkey. The Hudson Institut. September 3. https://www.hudson.org/research/11601-the-naqshbandi-khalidi-order-and-political-islam-in-turkey. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Uguccioni, Christina. 2018. Tunisia, Christians and Muslims Live in Peace in Ain Draham. Vatican Insider World News. May 31. https://www.lastampa.it/2018/05/31/vaticaninsider/tunisia-christians-and-muslims-live-in-peace-in-ain-draham-6StbXKqF8xaUXOscZZHyAJ/pagina.html. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Vrugtman, Leonie. 2018. Albania’s religious harmony endures in the face of new challenges. Global Risks Insiight. May 11. https://globalriskinsights.com/2018/05/interfaith-co-existence-albania-remains-strong-face-new-challenges/ Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Zayat, Iman. 2016. Tunisia tops Arab women’s representation in Parliament. Arab Weekly. September 25. https://thearabweekly.com/tunisia-tops-arab-womens-representation-parliament. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bennett, C. (2021). Sufism and Politics. In: Hashas, M. (eds) Pluralism in Islamic Contexts - Ethics, Politics and Modern Challenges. Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66089-5_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66089-5_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-66088-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-66089-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)