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Kurdish Sufis dance and chant in ceremony,
feeling safer from militants
24.4.2006
By YAHYA BARZANJI
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BARZANJA, Iraq - The dervishes swayed with
the drumbeat, flinging their long hair and chanting
"Allah, Allah." Nearby others were showing, as one
put it, their "passion for God": one drove a skewer
through his cheek, another chewed on a light bulb,
crunching the glass in his mouth.
The aim is for the Sufi - an adherent to Islam's
mystical branch - to show that in his enrapture with
God he's beyond pain.
They were among more than 1,000 men and women from
across northern Iraq's Kurdistan region and from
Kurdish towns in neighboring Iran who came for an
annual gathering in this town 15 miles east of
Sulaimaniyah. The gathering has grown since last
year, when several hundred showed up - a sign that
adherents are less afraid of Islamic militants who
have harassed Sufis in the past because they
consider their practices heretical.
"The growth has been continual since the acts of
violence have eased," Sheik Qader Kakhama al-Kasnazani,
the spiritual leader of the Kasnazaniyah Sufi order,
said at Friday's "hadra," a gathering to honor a
revered religious figure.
The autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq's north has
been largely spared from the violent insurgency that
has bloodied the rest of the country, although the
area has seen activity in the past by Islamic
militants, some with suspected al-Qaida links.
The Sufis also have encouragement from the Kurdistan
regional government, which supports Sufi groups
because they are apolitical and are seen as a
counterbalance to extremists. Among the populace,
the groups draw followers from educated upper
classes down to the impoverished.
"The soul always needs elevating," said Ahmed Rahman,
24, an engineering student. "So when I become an
engineer, I'll remain a dervish. Even if I became
president, I'd remain a dervish."
Hundreds of thousands of Sufis across the Islamic
world - both Sunnis and Shiites, since the mystical
trend crosses Islam's sectarian divide - adhere to
numerous orders and suborders, each following a
particular sheik or spiritual teacher.
Though each school has its own practices, most seek
a mystical closeness to God through meditative
chants and dancing.
Some, like the Kasnazaniyah, also pierce their
bodies with skewers, knives and glass. One man at
Friday's ceremony drove a skewer through the bottom
of his mouth and out his chin. Others had shirts
stained with their own blood from cuts on their
tongue.
The ceremony was held throughout the day in an
outdoor sports center near the tomb of the sheiks
Moussa and Eissa, a pair of 14th century holy men
revered by the Kasnazaniyah.
To the beat of drums, dervishes - some dressed in
traditional Kurdish garb - swayed to and fro,
repeating God's name, in a circle called a "halqa."
The 67-year-old Sheik Qader threw himself among
them, joining the chant. Nearby, several dozen women
were holding their own, separate halqa.
Ibrahim Por-Maliki, the youngest dervish at 16, had
come from the Iranian town of Marivan, about 30
miles away, to join the halqa - though he was
staying away from the knives. "I'd like to get to
that stage," he said. "But my mother let my come
only on condition I don't hit or cut myself."
AP
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