Islam Awareness Week - Sufism and Rumi

Leading Sufi spokesman Nihat Tsolak visits the studio for a demystifying session about Sufism at host Fari Bradley’s request. As 2007 Islam Awareness Week falls on sufi poet Rumi’s 800th Birthday, events around London have stirred new interest in this rebel mystic. Along with excerpts from the play “Rumi, Unveil the Sun” and interview with a leading actor and the director, Fari discusses what the ins and outs of Sufism in 2007 might mean, as well what the Sufi top ten tunes for getting high might be.

With so much bad press recently, Sufism is the best PR flag Islam could have. Where Islam is perceived as rigid and intolerant, Sufism is flexible and accepting. Where Islam has a fixed set of rituals, Sufism is instinctive and driven by the individuals own relationship with the divine, a self empowering concept for which many Sufis were originally martyred.

Fari puts it to Nihat whether one might be a Christian or gay Sufi and they also discuss which historical figures display Sufi characteristics without possibly ever having heard of this wayward branch of Islam.

~ by sixpillarstopersia on December 14, 2007.