Sufis in Western Society Global Networking and Locality by Markus Dressler, Ron Geaves, and Gritt Klinkhammer, eds. (New York: Routledge, 2009. hbk. 207 pages)

Abstract

Contributors to the volume, Raudvere and Gaši, skillfully note that “cherished,
unfamiliar or rejected—attitudes of Sufism are seldom neutral”
(163). If one traces the evolution of Sufism to Western lands, this aneutrality
is accentuated. Thus, Sufism in the West is understandably a growing if
understudied field. There is a dearth of surveys on the topic, and this makes
additional attention to global networking and locality especially welcome.
The authors seek to challenge the romantic and literary biases of Orientalist
scholarship, and the eleven chapters rise to the occasion because most
focus on particular living Sufi communities.
The opening chapters set the methodological tone. In the Introduction,
the editors emphasize “Sufism as a lived religion” and they rightly acknowledge
that Sufism often acts “as a bridge between Eastern and Western
spiritual or mystical philosophy” (4). In Chapter 2, Peter Beyer uses
the term glocalization while arguing that “as globalized structures, religions
are no longer . . . regional affairs which can be understood primarily
with reference to a particular core region” (13). He narrates a story of two
Canadian Muslim women who might experience different kinds of belief
and practice on a spectrum of religiosity. Strangely, however, only once
in the article does he mention “Sufism,” and the false dichotomy “Sufi/
scriptural,” which contrasts with the major concepts in the book, such as
the primacy of the Qur’an for many Sufis ...