Attacks on Sufi Mystics Warn of Wider Islamist Carnage

[Valin]

The Weekly Standard:

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ

Jan 31, 2013

 

In nearly all the Arab revolutions in North Africa and the jihadist offensives that followed them, incursions against Sufi shrines have preceded the onset of wide-scale radical aggression. As they initiate their invasive strategies, terrorists linked to al Qaeda and inspired by Saudi-financed Wahhabism (alias “Salafism”) start by targeting the spiritual Sufis and their ancient tombs and monuments for murder and destruction. This devastation has several motives.

 

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Egyptians, nevertheless, are not uniformly passive in dealing with Wahhabi/”Salafi” belligerence. In the Nile Delta governorate of Al-Qalyubya, townspeople fought the radicals in 2011, and again in November 2012, residents organized a “human shield” to protect the Sufi shrine of sheikh Muhammad Al-Nabarawy.

 

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But one thing seems certain: Where the Sufis are victimized, ordinary Muslims and non-Muslims will soon come under attack. Confrontations between Sufis and their enemies are not a minor detail of Islamic life. The atrocities against Sufis in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Mali, and other countries should be recognized by foreign observers as reliable warning signs of approaching homicidal jihadism against foreigners, modernists, and moderate Muslims.