Growing up as a Sufi

Since the Second World War the general movement of migration from Muslim countries to Western Europe has included the translocation of Sufi orders, which, being in the shape of movements, stand in contrast to earlier receptions of Sufism in Europe that were primarily individually based. In recent years these Sufi movements have been the topic of several academic studies that corroborate the contention that the orders in the West take various forms in terms of membership and recruitment. A rough categorization could be the following:

Some orders are ‘diaspora phenomena’ in that they mainly attract migrants from Asian or African countries who are Muslims by birth. Many of these migrants actually carry the order’s practice with them to their new country of residence, or they may be drawn into the organization as it offers a kind of attachment to their homeland. ¹ One could say that such orders basically expand their sphere of activity in accordance with the movements of their adherents. As the disciples move to the West, so does the Sufi environment.

Another type is orders that have more success in attracting converts to

Islam, to the extent that some of them mainly consist of converts. These can in turn be labelled ‘convert phenomena’. This somewhat rigid classification says nothing about the respective orders’ degree of ‘orthodoxy’, or whether orders that primarily attract converts are more or less orthodox. ²

A third group is formed by movements that have been awkwardly labelled ‘new age Sufis’, i.e. groups that do not insist on the disciples’ affiliation to Islam and typically attract spiritual seekers looking for personal religious experience from across several traditions. Among such groups, both members and leaders may be non-Muslims by birth.