Sufism vs. Traditional Islam in The Huffington Post

As a teenager, the only Sufi order I knew of lived in a communal trailer park in western Kansas. When I moved to Boston in the early 90s, I encountered the American version of Sufism through dance mentors and poetry and used copy of Sa'adi's Rose Garden I found in a used bookstore in Davis Square. I still remember a memorable lecture on Sufism at Harvard Divinity School presented by a Sufi scholar from the American southwest. Unfortunately, his name escapes me. His main focus was that American Sufis avoid the connection between Sufism and Islam. I'd always associated both together and was surprised by this, but soon became aware of this sticky topic. Since then, I've also encountered doubt from those who follow traditional Islam toward contemporary Sufis in the US. This topic continues to interest me. Today's appearance of this column by Omid Safi "Is Islamic Mysticism Really Mysticism" showed up in The Huffington Post's Religion section. ..." The second half of the essay interests me most: So what we have had for the last few decades is a situation of Orientalists and Salafi Muslims seeking to construct a "real Islam" that is untainted by Sufi dimensions, and many new agers seek to extract a mysticism that stands above and disconnected from wider, broader and deeper aspects of Islam."

Montreal in June with SLS

I just received a fellowship to study in Montreal for two weeks this June at Concordia University with Summer Literary Seminars. This news was timed perfectly. I'm returning full attention to my novel now that I finished my yoga teacher training last weekend at YogaWorks. Yoga? Orientalism? Yes. Even more of an Orientalist than before.

Level 1: Desire and Pursuit of the Roll

I'm reposting a few belly roll posts I made for a workshop in 2009. We won't go so in depth in this class, but these sources are still valid. I've learned a few new things in my current Yoga teacher training but will have to add those here when I'm done with my yoga finals. Bring your quarters and try to take a look if you can: At this description of the Triple Axis Belly Roll; explanation of quarter rolls and clip of a Nine Quarter Roll, and yoga links for desiring belly rollers I put together for the previous workshop. Bring quarters to class if you remember...

Level 2 Class: Entrances with Veils

In last Friday's class, I mentioned both the famous dancer Dina (the music we were using for an exercise was named for her) and also the use of the veil as an entrance prop more than a dance prop. YouTube has a great video of Dina demonstrating this technique. This is an older video, but Dina was still in amazing shape when I last saw her, and in this clip, she dances beautifully. The music is live and worth the watch.

Enjoy! Bring your veils on Friday!

Nawaal El Saadawi Speaks on Thursday at NYU

Thank you to Jasmine Perryman for sending this information about feminist writer Dr. Nawal El Saadawi. Since it's publication in the 70s, this writer's seminal novel Woman at Point Zero continues to be a staple on many Women's Studies rosters in the West. I remember well my first reading of it in the early, early 90s.

Dr. El Saadawi was also vocal in January's revolution in Tahrir Square. Her comments on this week's events are awaited. NYU people: she's reading at the NYU bookstore tonight. Click here for information on Thursday's event.

Orientalish Lit Hit: The Sacred Night

After a first read of This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun a few years ago, I have wanted to read this earlier work. The book is part of a trilogy that begins with The Sand Child. The Sacred Night picks up themes that run the other work I've read: injustice, the individual's ultimate "aloneness" in the face of the world, and the act of storytelling.

Best in The Sacred Night is the presence of storytelling as a life force. Here, the continued story of a girl raised as a boy to overcome the Islamic tradition of allowing only men to inherit a family's wealth hinges around the act of storytelling. A storyteller opens the novel with a dreamlike sequence where we see this woman, who appears as a man, uses her stories to make a living.

As the book steps farther back, a clearer storyline emerges. After her father's death, the narrator south where she loses her virginity in a confusing rape scene and then joins the house where she falls in love and learns from a blind man the art of writing and the raw value of holding onto memory. The blind man leads her into his dreams where there are factories of words. Sensual scenes where women exist as forgotten, discarded words seem to illustrate the beauty of forgotten stories, which are ultimately all stories.

The culmination of the novel shows her falling in and out of madness in prison, which reminds me of the power of Ben Jelloun's This Blinding Absence of Light. For me, the downfall of this novel is the storyline of the demoralized Muslim woman. While reality might fuel the original stereotype, the overuse of this as a plot line (and in a bigger sense to justify other acts of aggression) makes the storyline itself feel formulaic. That said, the ornate writing style and successful dream-making made The Sacred Night an evocative read.

Orientalish Lit Hits

I’m starting a new blog category of book reviews, mostly fiction, that relate to my interests in Arab culture. They may or may not relate directly to dance, but I will keep dance interests in mind as well as those relating to the theme of this blog, Orientalish. My inspiration is from M. Lynx Qualey's "One Minute Review" on her blog: Arabic Literature (in English).

So much material awaits...
(Photo: Toth at Philae (the Temple of Isis) in Luxor, 2007.)