Sufi Politics in Sudan…

Whenever I’m in Sudan doing archaeology, studying Sufism, or following in the footsteps of Malcolm X for my research, I try to meet up with as many Sufi sheikhs as I can in the Saharan sands. So I was intrigued this week-end when a presidential aide in Sudan called for the promotion of Sufism to combat “religious extremism.” Mohamed Al-Hassan Al-Mirghani, the First Assistant of the President and son of the leader of the Khatmiyya Sufi order, said in his Sunday press statement that Sufi orders in Sudan should serve as the “spearhead in defending Islam against any attempts to misinterpret it or use it as a tool to serve other purposes and agendas.”