Re: Islamic Sufism -- Issues and Incidents

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When they think that a murid has been sufficiently entangled in their emotional ties, that he has reached the level where the sheikh is not seen any more through Islam, but Islam through the sheikh - remember here that most of them had very little previous knowledge, if any in the case of converts - they start disclosing beliefs which this person would have been unable to accept before. At that moment, it makes him feel special, as if he was progressing spiritually. The final stage of conditioning is when the murid judges his or her progress by the distance with official belief and law. The further they are, the higher they think to have ascended. This delusion is reinforced among some by hallucinations, self-hypnosis and unusual phenomena which they are unable to interpret correctly, such as contacts with jinns who let them believe what is useful for them. The person who has reached that stage has fallen in complete zandaqah, outside the fold of Islam. Reports we have from former Nazimites show that there is quite a number of them.

Followers are encouraged to take part in the cover up. Hisham Kabbani wrote[28]: “He must not mention from the speeches of his shaikh what listeners cannot understand. This might harm the shaikh in a way of which the disciple is unaware. Ali (^alayhi ssalâm) said in a tradition narrated in Bukhari, “Speak to people at a level they can understand, because you do not want them to deny God and His Prophet (salla-llâhu ^alayhi wasallam)”.” The last quote is correct, but it was not meant to hide secrets which contradict Islam.

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Nazim al-Qubrusi did not write books himself. This fact is used by his followers to protect him from blame. In order to deflect harm they even explain how such book was actually written by a Jew who used to be a murîd or by somebody else. The reality is that the publications we quote from were used among them up to 1995 at least.

Everything we report has come to us through five channels:
1: Nazim’s followers and disciples, whom we call ‘Nazimites’,
2: People who have left the movement, sometimes called ‘ex-Nazimites’.
3: Direct or indirect reports from people who have met them or gone to their places and meetings.
4: Publications commonly used by his followers, distributed by them inside or outside their ranks. They have altered at least one[2] and I have a feeling many of Nazim’s lectures are being phased out, if only to reflect H. Kabbani’s takeover
5: Tapes of some of his sessions, which we obtained mainly through a former disciple. You will notice a difference between the quality of Nazim’s English in books and that of the tapes. This is probably due to the corrections made by the disciples when they put his teaching in writing. Nevertheless, what is heard on the tapes (I have tried to transcribe them as faithfully as possible as the quality of the sound allowed me to) shows that his English is good enough to understand what is going on around him and to know what is in the publications of his followers.
Hisham Kabbani is doing his best to erase the many traces of Nazim’s blunders (especially the dated predictions of the coming of the Mehdi). It was reported to me how he confiscated Zero Thyra Quensel’s tapes and was forced to return them by the lady’s obstinate persistence.
6: Their sites on the Internet and their friends’.
Ambiguity is raised to the level of an art in sects, especially in fake Sufi orders such as Nazim’s, so we have tried to restrict ourselves to the clearest statements available. On the other hand, when they feel safe, they do express their real ideas openly. One just needs to wait and search.

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10
THEIR EVADING PLOYS


When faced with questions or accusations, the first aim of Nazimites is to protect their sheikh. Al-Qubrusi is the base of the whole system, on him it stands and without him it might crumble down. If he shook, their whole universe would quake, so anything unfriendly is warded off by all possible means. For this reason, the transition to Hisham Kabbani is being prepared long in advance.

The first reaction of Nazimites, when their sheikh stands accused, is often to deny anything happened or was said. If they cannot do that they will point to other people as guilty of the fault, claiming even that there are some very strange people around their sheikh who are hypocrites working against him, or that those who wrote his words misinterpreted them. Yet, the controversial books and tapes which shock Muslims have not stopped being used and spread openly among them for years. Why did Nazim not do anything against them, for it is established that he can read English[17].

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I have noticed since 1995 a more organised approach to propaganda, less blunders and embarrassing disclosures by ill-disciplined followers.

Back in 1995 and the following years, we strongly suspected that things were hidden from us because of the strange reactions and contradictions encountered among Nazimites. Each time we thought we had discovered evidence of heresies in their books we were told that such publication was not authorised any more, that another was about to be revised, that the author was somebody who had left Nazim since, etc. They had a very evasive strategy which delayed our gathering of information. They also constantly dodged our attempts to have an encounter in a neutral place.

Our suspicions were confirmed eventually by an important murid of the inner circles who decided to leave them and explicitly described a system in which very different things are said to various audiences. The stories told to non Muslims are very different indeed from those given to Muslims, and inside the organisation, the teaching imparted to established members is shockingly at odds with what is granted to common followers. Even old murids are at different levels.