ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the phenomenon of Sufi Islam in South and South East Asia as a type of Gnostic religion chiefly characterized by eclecticism and fusion with endogenous mystical religions. Historically this expression of Islam, taking root in indigenous cultures, peacefully spread Islamic belief and practice along the spice trade routes from the Arab world and the East African coast across the Indian Ocean and beyond into South and South East Asia. This followed in the wake of earlier Indian cultural and religious dissemination, especially by Buddhists. South East Asia was in fact formerly more commonly called Indochina, which describes the region as one where Indic and Chinese influences converge. Indic influence stretched as far as the Philippines, where it was especially strong in the coastal area of Mindanao and Luzon (McAmis 2002: 8). Today, the Sufi version of Islam across the region tends to inform religious openness and tolerance. Two South Asian states, Bangladesh and Pakistan, are majority Muslim, while India has the world’s third largest Muslim population. In South East Asia, Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia are Muslim-majority states while several Filipino provinces form the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. There are also Muslim communities in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. In total, over 60% of the world’s Muslim population live in Asia. In many of these states, tension currently exists between popular, localized Islam and what some see as more Arab-influenced revivalist tendencies, which, claiming to be normative, condemn Sufism as heretical and deviant. However, rejection of much of the tolerance that Sufism traditionally represents is also rooted in rival views of ethnic and national identities. Demands for Islam’s revival focus on privileging Islam in the legal sphere. This is also referred to as the Islamist agenda. After identifying and describing some important studies relevant to the development of Sufi “Gnosticism” in the region, this chapter traces Sufism’s spread across South and South East Asia, drawing out Gnostic aspects in Sufism’s ability to fuse with pre-existing mystical traditions. It then analyses contemporary tensions and dynamics in the social-political arena across the region. Yet despite the rival epistemologies, with gnosticizing ideas about the universality of truth in different traditions as against the claim of one religion being exclusively true or one ethnicity ultra-special, some Sufis support the Islamist agenda. Sufi opposition 596to this is not automatic, although strong evidence can be cited to indicate that most Sufi-inclined Muslims do not (see Kahn, 2014, p. 189).
