Whereas for a believer God is a reality, a Sufi apprehends God as THE reality, and arrives at this through direct experience of God and nothing less. She has donned the mantle of many faiths through the ages, lending each its peculiar form and the scent of love, harmony and beauty. And whereas Sufism is immeasurably older than Islam, which to the uninitiated appears to claim it for itself, the fact is that Sufis alone have given Islam all that is of value in it. Sufism is free and the Sufi belongs to no religion, it is the essence of all faiths.
Sufis may traditionally be Muslims, but Muslims are no Sufis, rather they have persecuted Sufis for centuries into the present, and we will be seeing more of this.
The Sufi can coexist in real mutual appreciation with anyone, embracing all forms and requiring none, but the Sufi cannot coexist with bigotry, racism, all manner of hypocrisy, faking, mass manipulation, supremacism, slothful indifference. Having said that, I have to point out that the Sufi can coexist with every kind of ignorance, as she does this all the time.
The most profound expression in English of Sufism in our time, is in the following invocation, whose value is - as with all things given by Sufism - only in the practice and realization of it:
“Toward the one, the perfection of love, harmony and beauty, the only Being, united with all the illuminated souls who form the embodiment of the master, the spirit of guidance.“
Now the spirit of guidance which demonstrates Sufism as the Source and not the effect of any religion, not the “mystical side-show“ of any faith, as bookish academics so often portray it – this spirit of guidance is most beautifully expressed in the part of this Sufi prayer addressing it:
“. . . Thy light is in all forms, Thy love in all Beings: in a loving mother, a kind father, an innocent child, a helpful friend, an inspiring teacher. Allow us to recognize Thee in all of Thy holy names and forms: as Rama, as Krishna, as Shiva, as Buddha. Let us know Thee as Abraham, as Solomon, as Zarathustra, as Moses, as Jesus, as Muhammad – and in many other names and forms, known and unknown to the world. . . .“
It should be clear by what is happening in Mali, in Pakistan, and certainly elsewhere, that Sufism - which proposes an ever forward movement of conscious Human development, both embracing tradition and yet traditionally, even notoriously breaking with it, both disappearing into any surrounding culture it finds itself sharing a corner of the planet with and maintaining an unwavering position in deference to the truth, to the light, indifferent to and independent of dogmas, institutions and ideologies of every brand or intensity.
What shall be the difference between Islam and Sufism, then, when they both have a penetrating power? Where Islam penetrates with dogma, sectarian warfare, supremacist tendencies – the Sufi penetrates with light, and her interests lie in effacement in God over religion.
Multi-Kulti or officially dictated “multi-culturalism“ is the decades old project here in Doitch-Land, especially Berlin, which had had better prospects until it became so ideological (idiot-logical) that it proved to be a failure and continues proving itself to be a worn-out, outdated parody of itself – all the moreso when PC politicians parade their suspiciously banal agenda to sell the native citizenry on a scam-“tolerance“ which both defies democracy and good sense, and denies hard realities. It may seem to be a complicated subject to tackle, but there are certain factors which keep noticeably turning up – and turning one's stomach.
The elements of society here, as in other European countries and the UK, which are dead set against integrating, against the German, the European, the Western model of social-democracy and consitutional laws - most significantly Germany's own Basic Law (lesson learned after Hitler) making the dignity of every human being inalienable, against mixing with the real natives here and in fact demonizing them - these elements come out of the Arab and Turkish immigrant population – I say come out of, not represent all of them – and not from any Christian Arabs or Turks, no, but Muslim, exclusively Muslim.
Not the Africans as such, who had settled and remained, not the Asians who had settled and remained, not any other Europeans who immigrated and stayed. Jews are here in great number but you won't recognize them anywhere except at the corner of a synagogue where a congregation is inconspicuously flourishing or in bagel cafés safely near such corners. Jews are still unsure of where they stand in Germany, which makes me wonder why they stand here at all. I do not share this facade and have just clocked 24 years here. If something doesn't fit bring out the Holocaust, that'll work – an Israeli Minister so much as explained this tactic in an interview I watched, I didn't get her name.
So Muslims play both cards: the superiority of Islam/Qur'an/and Shari'a law over everybody else, and of course the victim card – and whose victim are they? Why the Germans' of course, and naturally those God-forsaken Jews'.
And the Muslims get their mosques built without a peep from the city, county or state, and they wear prayer caps, beards, robes, hijabs, even burqas openly on the streets. Entire districts have lost every recognizable Berlin-ness and have taken on the character of Berlistanbul or Berlankara. Everyone has to accept it because German politics has said so. Anyone who disagrees, much less criticizes this, is branded radical-right and neo-nazi and fascist – which simply isn't true, but the stigma works. The media peddles it and mouths what the naive (or worse) politic of the day dictates. And I stress the word dictate.
The Muslim world and the imams who are known to preach in mosques here want to gradually infiltrate with sheer numbers (which is working) and eventually impose Shari'a. I am not kidding nor making this up nor lapping up populist crap in pointing this out. This is all merely background for what I'm addressing here and I'll come to that very shortly.
Back in the States, at the end of the '70s, beginning of the '80s, I wore a full beard and a Sikh turban, going about my business, working two jobs in a boom town in northern New Mexico, and modeling my prayers after the Muslim custom. As Khomeini had just assumed power in Iran and commanded the news, I was occasionally accosted on the street as some “goddamn Muslim“ - which didn't bother me in the least, but I have never shied from wearing something which marked me as someone's public enemy. And I am no stranger to Islam or to Qur'an, nor its founder. Shari'a however, or identification with sects or branches of sects, has always been nothing but poison in my view.
As Reform-bred Colorado Jew, I have never worn a yarmulke (Kippa in Doitch) in public, and wear mine now only when I perform Friday evening Shabbos-Kiddush in my own kitchen here in largely Turkish Berlin-Wedding. Nor will you usually ever find me in a synogogue, although after 20 years here I did finally consent to becoming a dues-paying member of the Jewish Congregation of Berlin. A story in itself, and irrelevant here.
Now statistically speaking, apparently 90% of attacks on Jews over a studied period have been from right-extremists, that is, German Caucasians who generally like bomber jackets, jump boots, and very short hair or none on their knuckle-heads, and who identify strongly with Hitler's “Reich“ and its paraphernalia. However – they are not all over the place, and outside of their enclaves, which make things admittedly ugly enough, they are not actually particularly visible. Muslims however are, and these do not like Jews. I don't have a problem with that in itself, I do have a problem with their comparing themselves and thier lot with that of the Jews in the 1930s here – while also disdaining the Jews themselves – and while playing the victim card for their own purposes likewise using “victim“ as an epithet of contempt for, well, any or all non-Muslims.
Now an interesting thing just occurred this past week, and more interesting is how the prominent worthies of this fair city and the public and the media responded. A young rabbi was walking his 7-year-old daughter home one weekday afternoon, wearing a baseball cap to actually conceal his yarmulke (Kippa), in a still very decent neighborhood which exudes a gentrified Berlinerish atmosphere – or had back when I knew it – and he was accosted by four Arab youths. They came on to him, they asked him if he's Jewish, he answered in the affirmative. Therewith they roundly insulted him, shoved him and one broke his jaw, which got him hospitalized and some stitches. And for good measure, they verbally threatened to kill his daughter while he lay there. Nice kids.
So I learned through this, reading the local media blitz on it, of the curious fact that the reason why I think I almost never see Jews here is that they all conceal their yarmulkes (Kippas) under a baseball cap. Not out of fear of Germans, to be honest about it, but out of fear of Arabs, or of Turks, in any case radical-thinking, hyped-up Salafist-impressed “Muslims!“
Now the rabbi in question was actively one for dialogue between faiths. I would hope he has learned that you cannot have dialogue with punks and Salafist-influenced religio-fascists. He still did his daughter the disfavor (as I see it but he obviously doesn't) of already giving interviews saying he would “forgive them if they showed remorse.“ He is in Lala-land, and I will be writing him soon. The four by the way are still at large as of my writing this, and nice-notes placed on trees at the square where he and his daughter were attacked, repeating this desire for the four to come forth, had been torn down in short shrift. They may never be caught, but they certainly will not know remorse, as they obviously cannot feel another's pain. This die-hard-naive rabbi towed exactly the classic PC-government political line when he said in interview (and I am not making this up) that “we don't know if these Arab youths were Muslim, they may never have been in a mosque, they could have been Christian.“ So now we want to get real stupid here and paint some make-believe “Christians,“...hello?? Earth to rabbi, Earth to rabbi, we're having difficulties...! Excuse my ignorance, but no one has ever seen a Christian Arab here beating up Jews or anyone else for that matter. So what is the real agenda here?!
As I said, I've never wore a yarmulke (Kippa) in public, here or in the States, but this had nothing to do with fears, it had to do with not being a yarmulke-wearer, period. Evidently all these German Jews, citizens under a democratic state, and visitors from Ami-Land or Israel are careful not even to wear a six-pointed star around what once were alternative-scenes but now heavily Muslim, much less wear a Jewish head covering. NO ONE IS PREVENTED FROM WEARING A MUSLIM HEAD COVERING, EVEN A BURQA, ON THE STREETS OF BERLIN! BUT JEWS WEAR BASEBALL CAPS TO HIDE THEIR SIMPLE YARMULKES (KIPPAS)!
I don't care what Jews do or what they wear, and I don't care what Muslims wear or practice for themselves. I DO very much care that they have a take-over agenda (this is not a figment of my imagination, friends!) and that as long as the political and academic and literary class continue to sweet-mouth them and to drastically pervert what the alternative movement really once meant against racism and xenophobia, and as long as Jews and the official Jewish community continue to creep and grovel before this tyrannical mentality of exclusively Muslim character – then I will act according to what is in my power.
Now the public response to that attack last week was immediate: about a thousand turned out on the Saturday immediately following the incident, to demonstrate for (the usual platitudes of) tolerance and neighborliness and appreciation of diversity. One hardly dares mention openly that it is precisely and exclusively the Muslims who think, speak and act against diversity, against tolerance, against openness and mixing of cultures, except when it applies to them and their interests. When one does mention this, as did one or two Jewish spokespersons, the Muslim Central calls the Jewish Central on “unfairness“ and demands recognition for “doing lots“...
And the political class bends to every Muslim pressure, and the literary class and the academics and the media bend and tow the line dictated by a government under Merkel who has very nefarious aspirations ahead for Germany, and the worn-out parodied canards of sell-out “Greens“ and the “Left“ in general – the real antisemitism has always been as much from the Left as the Right, and while oozing oily words over our Jewish friends, it is the Muslim friends whom they really fear and whom they rise to every occasion to defend against the most intelligent criticism or confrontation.
These prominent persons present at that demo put on yarmulkes (Kippas) – how noble of them – to demonstrate before the cameras, the news, the world, their solidarity, by golly! The idiot mayor and other pious public figures, notably non-Jews of course, wore these with all seriousness. The Muslim Central was of course there condemning violence and such – but not one put on a yarmulke (Kippa) – THAT would have been asking too much. Good for them all that I was not there. I had shift, but wouldn't have gone anyway, except to disrupt and raise hell, probably getting myself kicked out – by both.
I want to kick some ass and rattle some cages in the Jewish Community, and I want to confront this very rabbi with some REAL questions: like, WHAT KIND OF IDEALIST (LIKE HIMSELF) SAYS TO THE WORLD “THEY BROKE MY JAW BUT NOT MY WILL TO FURTHER DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE FAITHS“ (AS HE DID) – AND STILL COVERS HIS YARMULKE (KIPPA) WITH A BASEBALL CAP!! This hypocrisy is unacceptable. Israelis visiting Berlin who speak English for fear of being overheard speaking Hebrew! If you are a yarmulke (Kippa) wearer then WEAR IT – or don't, I don't care. But I do care that you hide it under a baseball cap while grooming both your cowardly piety and your pious cowardice.
Our Freedom Riders in the 1960s rode into the South with a burning ideal and knew that baseball bats and two-by-fours awaited them, that murder and death awaited them, that cruelty and brutal contempt awaited them. And they went, they took a beating, they died, eventually they won – for all time, for America, for us.
In the Berlin of the '80s young Berliners, and not the state, not the officaldom, took to the streets and took their share of heavy bruises confronting and fighting neo-Nazis in defense of Berlin's Jews (who were not themselves by the way visibly present nor were any Muslims) - these Berliners understood what serious confrontation requires.
IF I were a yarmulke (Kippa) wearer, I'd rather take a slug to the chops for wearing it than slink in imaginary safety around my own resident – if not native to boot – city or neighborhood hiding what I am and being the good little citizen. Am I putting my money where my mouth is?
I've already long since begun wearng my T-shirt around with “shari'a“ in Arabic stricken through on the front side, and on the back, in German: “shari'a?...no thanks“. If this doesn't get me killed, the following might:
As of right now I go out in public, and will soon likewise in the much more Islamically populated districts, wearing my conspicuously blue yarmulke (Kippa) and let my little six-pointed star dangle merrily at my throat. From some reactions I've gotten I notice they already feel provoked. Good. It's not about the Germans, had it been that I wouldn't have waited 24 years...
So I want to see how "multi-kulti" Berlin really is, I want to test this out: if Berlin is really multi-cultural then I should have no problem wearing a star of David (Davidstern) or a yarmulke (Kippa) - not even a glance I should receive, let alone get hospitalized or receive Kaddish over my remains, for something so normal, you would think. If Berlin is the capital of a democratic western country with old Christian roots and old Jewish ones as well, then my T-shirt should not get me killed, although the mere thought of my wearing it has co-workers very concerned for my life.
I may have a new T-shirt made up, here are the runners-up:
front: VORSICHT: Jude ohne Basecap (Beware: Jew withot baseball cap)
back: Amok aber koscher (On the loose but kosher...which I'm not of course)
front: Krankenpfleger jüdischer Herkünft (Registered nurse of Jewish background)
back: Jude – und kein Opfer (Jew - and no victim)
front: Diese Jude ist kein Opfer (This Jew is no victim)
back: Na los – frag mich wo mein Basecap ist (Go ahead – ask me where my baseball cap is)
front: Jude mit (Herz) auch für Muslime (Jew with (heart) also for Muslims)
back: ...und ich bin Gott sehr dankbar für Schweinefleisch (...and I'm very grateful to God for pork)
If I'm sending any a message to Berliners themselves, to Germans in this, an unspoken statement through the glance, it's “Hey folks, you've been led gradually to take so much Islamic parading for granted over the past decade, until it so fills your view everywhere you look that you've gotten used to it. Okay, now get used to this. Here's a Jew among you. Yeah, your neighbor of how many years now.“
But to the Muslims I'm saying with a blatantly confident and friendly glance, “Right, believe it, we're here. And you will not take over and make us all “like you“ and run this place on shari'a like you wish.“
The source of that confidence is in remaining centered in my own Being, the source of that friendliness is in being united with all the illuminated souls who form the embodiment of the master, the spirit of guidance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YcOQY-n-EWs
