IRAQ: " DERVISH" MEVLEVI SUFI SECT IS TRYING TO BRING TOGETHER SUNNI AND SHI'ITE MOSLEMS TOGETHER IN THEIR RELIGIOUS RITUALS
Record ID:
647030
IRAQ: " DERVISH" MEVLEVI SUFI SECT IS TRYING TO BRING TOGETHER SUNNI AND SHI'ITE MOSLEMS TOGETHER IN THEIR RELIGIOUS RITUALS
- Title: IRAQ: " DERVISH" MEVLEVI SUFI SECT IS TRYING TO BRING TOGETHER SUNNI AND SHI'ITE MOSLEMS TOGETHER IN THEIR RELIGIOUS RITUALS
- Date: 24th August 2005
- Summary: (MER-1) SULAIMANIYA, IRAQ (RECENT 2005)(REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF DERVISHES SITTING FOR SUFI SEANCE 'DHIKR' AT KASNAZANI FRIARY IN SULAIMANIYA 0.05 2. PAN OF DERVISHES CHANTING "GOD LIVES" AGAIN AND AGAIN AS THEY SIT IN A CIRCLE 0.21 3. MORE OF THE DERVISHES CHANTING "GOD LIVES" IN TIME TO THE DRUM 0.34 4. CLOSE OF THE LEADER OR THE KHALIFA, YOUSUF HASSAN SALEH, LEADING THE GROUP CHANTING "GOD LIVES" 0.39 5. MORE OF KHALIFA LEADING THE ADHERENTS OR 'MIRIDANS' 0.44 6. CLOSE OF THE KASNAZANI ORDER FLAG / AUDIO OF VOICES CHANTING "OH, MERCIFUL" 0.50 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) THE KHALIFA YOUSUF HASSAN SALEH, SAYING: "The tariqa (order) is a spiritual connection with the Prophet (God bless him and grant him salvation). The tariqa is not something new but it was there since the time of the prophet (God bless him and grant him salvation)." 1.05 8. WIDE OF DERVISHES SITTING ON THE GROUND CHANTING AND BOWING THEIR HEADS IN TIME TO THE MUSIC 1.10 9. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) THE KHALIFHA YOUSUF HASSAN SALEH, SAYING: "Our tariqa (order) includes all the sects and all the groups and from all the nationalities. Therefore, there is the Shi'ite, in our order, there is the Sunni, and in our order there is the Arab, the Kurd, the Indian, the Chinese, and the Pakistani. All the sects and all the groups join our tariqa." 1.33 10. WIDE OF SHEIKH AND OTHERS CHANTING AND MOVING THEIR HEADS 1.39 11. VARIOUS OF DERVISHES PRACTICING "DHIKR" CHANTING AND BOWING THEIR HEADS 1.50 12. VARIOUS OF DERVISHES STANDING IN BIG CIRCLE WITH THE SHEIKH IN THE CENTRE OF THE CIRCLE CHANTING IN TIME TO THE DRUM, THROWING THEMSELVES FORWARD IN A DEEP BOW AND THEN BACKWARDS 1.59 13. SLV DERVISHES WITH LONG HAIR THROWING THEMSELVES FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS 2.06 14. VARIOUS OF MORE OF THE DERVISHES WITH LONG HAIR SWINGING THEIR HEADS IN A LARGE CIRCLE 2.18 15. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) SHEIKH AHMED JASSIM IBRAHIM, SAYING: "The Kasnazani Tariqa (order) makes no difference between Shi'ite and the Sunni. We have a large number of Shi'ite dervishes in Kerbala who came here to me in the Takya (friary) together with the Sunni dervishes, Kurdish dervishes and dervishes from Iran. There are Kasnazani dervishes all over the world. As I mentioned to you, the Kasnazani Tariqa makes no difference between Shi'ite and Sunni." 2.46 16. VARIOUS OF ONE OF THE DERVISHES STICKING KNIVES IN HIS HEAD AND FOREHEAD AND THEN WALKING ROUND THE CIRCLE 3.04 17. VARIOUS OF YOUNG MAN DERVISH HOLDING A STICK WITH FIRE ON THE END LYING ON HIS BACK ON THE GROUND AND PUTTING THE FIRE END OF THE STICK IN HIS MOUTH 3.25 18. CLOSE VIEW OF DERVISH PUTTING STICK WITH FIRE IN HIS MOUTH 3.41 19. VARIOUS OF SHEIKH MOTIONING TO DERVISH TO STOP PUTTING THE FIRE IN HIS MOUTH/ DERVISH TAKING IT OUT AND WALKING AWAY 3.51 20. SLV SHEIKH STANDING WITH SKEWER 3.56 21. SLV SHEIKH PUTTING A SKEWER THROUGH THE CHEEK OF A BOY/ BOY WALKING AROUND ROOM 4.13 22. SLV ANOTHER DERVISH LASHING HIS BACK WITH SWORD TO THE BEATING OF THE DRUMS AND TAMBOURINES 4.19 23. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) A DOCTOR FROM BASRA, QUSAY ABDEL-LATIF, SAYING: "For example I brought neurologists and a Miridi (adherent) was sticking poniards into his head and the poniards were going deep in his brain so that it was difficult to pull them out and when they came out they (the doctors) saw how deep they had gone into the brain. But why didn't he die or hurt? As you know, in such a case, one either becomes paralysed, dies or loses consciousness because of the depth of the thrust. But this does not happen and when I asked the doctors about it, they said that the answer is that there is a divine power." 5.06 23. WIDE OF DHIKIR CEREMONY 5.15 24. VARIOUS OF MORE OF DERVISHES PERFORMING DHIKR 5.30 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 8th September 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SULAIMANIYA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA6FYS6APTVWAVOS28UP7TCV2T4
- Story Text: A branch of Sunni Islam which promotes physical ritual is bringing
together Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurd in strife-torn Iraq.
On a warm night in Sulaimaniya, in northern Iraq, dozens of
Iraqi men gather to take part in a ritual which would appear bizarre to most
people.
The men chant and spin their heads in circles to the beat of pounding
drums. As the drum beats quicken the men spin their heads ever more rapidly,
their shoulder length hair waving wildly through the air. Then one man sticks
knives in his head, but appears to feel no pain. Another man eats fire but
appears to not be burned.
The men, members of the Mevlevi brotherhood of Sufism, are famously
known as whirling dervishes.
They believe that the chanting, dancing, head twirling and other
physical rituals will help them transcend worldly existence and see the face
of the divine.
Sheikh Ahmed Jassem, a Shi'ite from the holy city of Kerbala, sticks
knives and skewers into the heads and bodies of his willing followers. But the
followers, who are mostly Sunnis, say they feel no pain.
While sectarian strife threatens to tear Iraq apart, Sufi orders like
the one that recently got together in Sulaimaniya still manage to do what
might seem the impossible in today's Iraq, bring Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims,
as well as Arabs and Kurds, together.
Sunni insurgents are fighting a relentless battle against the
Shi'ite-led government that came to power after the U.S. invasion of 2003, but
within the confines of Sufi gatherings the Islamic sects happily mutilate each
other in order to get closer to God.
"The tariqa (order) is a spiritual connection with the
Prophet (God bless him and grant him salvation). The tariqa is not
something new but it has existed since the time of the prophet (God bless him
and grant him salvation)," says Khalifa Yousuf Hassan Saleh at the weekly
Sufi seance of the Kasnazani order in Sulaimaniya in north Iraq.
"Our tariqa (order) includes all the sects and all the
groups. and from all nationalities. Therefore, there is the Shi'ite, in our
order, there is the Sunni. and in our order there is Arab, the Kurd, the
Indian, the Chinese, and the Pakistani. All the sects and all the groups join
our tariqa," the Khalifa said.
Sufism appeals to Shi'ites because of its veneration of members of the
Prophet Mohammed's family. The founders of many Sufi orders, including the
Kasnazani, Iraq's largest, trace a bloodline that goes back to the Prophet
himself.
Shi'ites, like Sufis, engage in flagellation ceremonies. And the
Kasnazani, the Iraqi branch of the Qadiriyya Sufi order which is spread around
the Islamic world, stands out for the gusto with which it goes about them.
"The Kasnazani Tariqa (order) makes no difference between
Shi'ite and the Sunni. We have a large number of Shi'ite dervishes in Kerbala
who came here to me in the Takya (friary) together with the Sunni
dervishes, Kurdish dervishes and dervishes from Iran. There are Kasnazani
dervishes all over the world. As I mentioned to you, the Kasnazani
Tariqa makes no difference between Shi'ite and Sunni," says
Jassem, the man whose job it is to mortify the flesh of other Muslims seeking
oneness with the divinity.
As the night progresses, there are a number of willing participants.
One man proudly displays three large kitchen knives lodged into his scalp.
Another man lies on the ground and puts a flaming stick into his mouth, but
doesn't appear to be burned. The Sheikh shoves a skewer through the cheek of a
small boy, but the boy doesn't appear to bleed.
All around people sway in a hynoptic daze to the Sufi music, detached
from this world.
Jassem said that when the knives come out, the dervishes are healed
straight away with the blessing of God and the power of the order.
Each apprentice, or dervish, goes through spiritual and physical
training that allows him to withstand what would otherwise be considered forms
of torture.
Qusay Abdel-Latif, a doctor from Basra in south Iraq, said this divine
intervention has tempered his belief in science.
"I brought neurologists and a Miridi (adherent) was
sticking daggers in his head and the daggers were going deep into his brain so
that it was difficult to pull them out and when they came out they (the
doctors) saw how deep they were into the brain. But why he didn't he die or
get hurt? As you know in such a case, one either gets paralysed, dies or
loses consciousness because of the deepness of the thrust. But this did not
happen and when I asked the doctors they said that the answer is that there is
a divine power," he said.
Abdul-Latif said once they they wrapped an electric wire around his
body and ran electricity through it, but he didn't feel anything, saying that
he got closer to God through this.
But the order has been forced to take a low profile in recent years.
Its leader, Sheikh Mohammed al-Kasnazani, left Baghdad for Iraqi Kurdistan in
1999 after the government of Saddam Hussein became suspicious of his
popularity.
Islamist radicals among the insurgency frown on Sufism as emotional
superstition, similar to their view of Shi'ite Islam. Ten people died in a
suicide attack on a Kasnazani gathering in Balad, north of Baghdad, in June.
The Sheikh's sons are also active in politics, running a political
party and a national newspaper which tries to walk a fine line through the
country's sectarian minefield.
"The Islamist extremists like al Qaeda, Ansar al-Sunna and the
Wahhabis are against Sufism, and since Kasnazani is the main
order they are against us," said Abdel-Salam al-Hadithi, spokesman of
the Central Council for Sufi Orders in Baghdad.
The Kasnazani order has been forced to roll back their activities in
Sunni-dominated west Iraq, Hadithi said. In normal times, hundreds of
thousands of Iraqis would participate.
"Iraq is sinking in a sea of blood right now and no one is safe,
whatever their sect or ethnic background," he said.
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