Varieties of American Sufism

<p><b>Participant-observation-based studies that explore a range of Sufi movements operating across the contemporary American religious landscape.</b></p><p>From Rumi poetry and Sufi dancing or whirling to expressions of Africanicity and the forging of transnational bonds to remote locations in Senegal Sri Lanka and Turkey <i>Varieties of American Sufism</i> immerses the reader in diverse expressions of contemporary Sufi religiosity in the United States. It spans more than a century of political cultural and embodied relationships with Islam and Muslims. American encounters with mystical Islam were initiated by a romantic quest for Oriental wisdom flourished in the embrace of Eastern teachings during the countercultural era of New Age religion were concretized due to late twentieth-century possibilities of travel and immigration to and from Muslim societies and are now diffused through an explosion of cyber religion in an age of globalization. This collection of in-depth participant-observation-based studies challenges expectations of uniformity and continuity while provoking stimulating reflection on a range of issues relevant to contemporary Islamic Studies American religions multireligious belonging and new religious movements.</p>