had this conversation at a meeting where we were supposed to band together and organize workshops that educate our respective congregations about racism. i ended up at a table with people whose congregations were either missing from the meeting or non-existent. we all introduced ourselves and our religious/activist affiliations.
one lovely gentleman said that he belonged to a sufi order but followed up immediately with the qualifying statement that he was not a muslim. he said to me, “u are a muslim, but we are non-muslims.” i smiled and said, “sufism is very much rooted in islam.” he said we could argue all night about that but he had been taught by an indian man and what he believed in had nothing to do with islam.
of course, people are free to identify as they like but this strong renunciation of islam accompanied by explanations of how to practice zikr (a devotional act in islam in which short phrases or prayers are repeatedly recited, to remember god or allah) was a bit dissonant.
also, mentioning an indian guru in order to distance oneself from islam is a tad misguided, on account of the long history of sufism in south asia and its evolution into a particular strain of islam which is still practiced in that region. it ties in with the american wish to popularize rumi by de-muslimizing him and his work. when people cringe at the very idea that sufism is the mystical dimension of islam, then perhaps it is time to explore the overlap between racism and islamophobia.