CAIRO - Egypt's Sufis (mystics) seem to be making the best of the sweeping changes the country has been witnessing since the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in February. Although there are differences among the sheikhs of the nation's Sufi orders and a dispute over the post of ‘Sheikh of the Sheikhs', the chief head of Sufi orders, this hasn't prevented them from forming political entities, as the past few weeks have seen the emergence of two Sufi political parties. The first is ‘Al-Tahrir Al-Masri' (the Egyptian Liberation), announced by Sheikh Alaa-Eddin Madi Abul Azayem, head of the Azaymiya Order, and the second the ‘Voice of Freedom', announced by Sheikh of the Rifai Sufi Order, Tareq el-Rifai. Sheikh Abul Azayem has recently been on a European tour, learning about the successful Sufi political experience, especially in Turkey. By the same token, Sheikh el-Rifai is planning a Gulf tour to “unite the followers of the Sufi order abroad”, according to the Arabic-language independent newspaper el-Shorouk. Despite their differences of opinion, there seems to be an indirect consensus among the Sufi chieftains to make the best use of what they call ‘the Turkish experiment'. The subject of the PhD of Mahmoud Abul Faidh, a member of the Supreme Council of Sufi Orders, was ‘how to benefit from the political success of the Sufis in Turkey'. Abul Faidh told el-Shorouk that research made by European and American think-tanks suggested that the future of the Muslim world lay ‘inevitably' in the Sufis. “They consider mysticism the core of Islam,” he said, adding that the modern Sufi movements in Turkey had set up many schools and universities worldwide, offering wide-ranging social activities. For Ammar Ali Hassan, a senior researcher at Egypt's Middle East Studies and Research Centre the Sufis' political ascent in Turkey “has inspired the Sufi orders in Egypt”, adding that Sufism will have an impact on political developments in Egypt and its future. As for political parties as a channel for Sufis to creep into the political arena in Egypt, Hassan said that the Sufis discovered that their “will had been suppressed by the authorities”. He added that the Sufi orders resorted to politics last year in self-defence. “We saw Abul Azayem running in the parliamentary elections against former Speaker of Parliament Ahmed Fathi Sorour. He knew he wouldn't win, but he only wanted to tell the regime that he was angry at the marginalisation and negligence of the Sufi orders,” said Hassan. According to him, this attempt has encouraged Sufis to consider forming political parties, two of which have been declared in the wake of the successful revolution. Hassan spoke highly of the Turkish experiment, describing it as springing from the ‘womb of Sufism'. “It is therefore only natural that the Turkish ruling party, Justice and Development, should be a magnet for [Egypt's] Sufi orders, if they want to enter politics,” he said. Another researcher into Sufi orders, el-Taher el-Hashemi, said that politics was nothing new for the Sufis, although many people might not realise this, as they were pushed into politics by Salah Eddin (Saladin), a Middle Ages Muslim warrior. “In the past, they were followers, receiving orders from the regime. The Sufis helped the defunct Mubarak regime a lot,” he added. “They belonged to the regime and, except for a minority, carried out its political directives. This minority, which managed to maintain the identity of Sufism, was not polluted by politics.” El-Hashemi urged Sufis, before they enter politics, to get together to repair and purify Sufism “They should benefit from the greatest political experiment with a religious reference in modern times.”
