New Book: Randall, Sufism and Jewish-Muslim Relations

Randall, Yafiah Katherine. Sufism and Jewish-Muslim Relations. The Derekh Avraham Order in Israel. New York: Routledge, 2016.

 

 

In Israel there are Jews and Muslims who practice Sufism together. The Sufi’ activities that they take part in together create pathways of engagement between two faith traditions in a geographical area beset by conflict.

Sufism and Jewish Muslim Relationsinvestigates this practice of Sufism among Jews and Muslims in Israel and examines their potential to contribute to peace in the area. It is an original approach to the study of reconciliation, situating the activities of groups that are not explicitly acting for peace within the wider context of grass-roots peace initiatives. The author conducted in-depth interviews with those practicing Sufism in Israel, and these are both collected in an appendix and used throughout the work to analyse the approaches of individuals to Sufism and the challenges they face. It finds that participants understand encounters between Muslim and Jewish mystics in the medieval Middle East as a common heritage to Jews and Muslims practising Sufism together today, and it explores how those of different faiths see no dissonance in the adoption of Sufi practices to pursue a path of spiritual progression.

The first examination of the Derekh Avraham Jewish-Sufi Order, this is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Sufi studies, as well as those interested in Jewish-Muslim relations.

 

Table of Contents

• Part 1: Procedure and Contexts of the Research
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Contexts of the Investigation
• 3 Historical Encounters of Jewish and Islamic Mysticism: precedents of Contemporary Practice in Israel
• Part 2: Reading the Field Narratives
• 4 The Derekh Avraham/Tariqat Ibrahimiyya and its Contemporary Re-emergence in Israel
• 5 Beshara: Lovers of Ibn Arabi
• 6 Embracing the Sufi Path and the Dissemination of Knowledge
• 7 Jewish and Muslim Peacemakers
• Part 3: Conclusion
• 8 The Other Voice
• Appendices

 

YAFIAH KATHERINE RANDALL received her PhD at the University of Winchester. She combines academic research into Jewish-Muslim relations focusing on Sufism with grass-roots action for interreligious understanding and conflict transformation.

New Article: Marshall, Love Stories of the Occupation

Marshall, David Jones. “Love Stories of the Occupation: Storytelling and the Counter-Geopolitics of Intimacy.” Area 46.4 (2014): 349-51.

 

URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/area.12138_3/abstract

 

Abstract

Though research on Israel/Palestine often privileges the macro-geopolitical perspective, a growing body of work has begun to catalogue the ways in which the violence of occupation is carried out through intimate spaces and practices. However, often missing from such accounts is an understanding of intimacy as a counter-veiling political force. Looking at the ‘Love Under Apartheid’ project in Palestine, and queer anti-occupation organising in Israel, this paper considers how storytelling can serve as both a research methodology and political intervention, changing the way geopolitical stories are told and unfold.

Cite: Kuntsman and Raji. “Love, Hate, and Transnational Politics from the ‘Israel Loves Iran’ and ‘Iran Loves Israel’ Facebook Campaigns

Kuntsman, Adi and Sanaz Raji. “‘Israelis and Iranians, Get A Room!’: Love, Hate, and Transnational Politics from the ‘Israel Loves Iran’ and ‘Iran Loves Israel’ Facebook Campaigns.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 8.3 (2012): 143-154.

 

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_middle_east_womens_studies/v008/8.3.kuntsman.html

 

Abstract

So is there a room for Israelis and Iranians to inhabit, in cyberspace and beyond? Can they get a (“fucking”) room, and what would happen, if they do? The message of love sent by both sides seems to be strikingly powerful, when politicians—as well as ordinary citizens—speak the language of war. Yet, as our brief description of the Israel Loves Iran and Iran Loves Israel campaign suggests, “get a room” signals proximity that is not possible if political violence—inside each of the countries and elsewhere in the region—is not addressed.