Soon after watching “A Thousand and One Voices,” Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud’s absorbing if somewhat somber documentary on Sufi music, I came upon this Foreign Policy piece by Ali Eteraz, on Pakistan’s effort to promote Sufism as a counterweight to Talibanism. (Hat tip Adam LeBor.) Eteraz hates the idea:
It signals an increase in the politicization of Islam in Pakistan — if a higher level is even possible. Now, even the pietist and welfare-oriented groups that have traditionally abstained from overindulging in government affairs will be tempted to become mouthpieces for corrupt political actors.
[…]
Minimizing the role of all religion in government would be a better idea. Only then could people begin to speak about rights and liberty.
I like the sound of that.
One of the delights of Mahmoud’s film was an all-too-brief segment on pot-smoking qawwali dervishes in Rajasthan who aren’t even allowed into the main shrine. Have to admit, they do look a little insane. What’s their deal? Mahmoud doesn’t tell us enough. But his treatment of the Mevlevi convent in Istanbul — just a few yards down Istiklal from where I stayed in 2006 — was far more complete. And his footage, though far more professional of course, was somewhat similar to my own:
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