[ArrogantBustard]

Perhaps her studies of Sufism gave her an extraordinarily distorted view of what real, everyday Islam is like.

In many respects, mohammed's religion is a drastic Christian heresy (going all the way to apostasy), reduced to absurdity. "Sufi" is considered by many mohammedans to be heretical, bordering on apostasy. Perhaps that brings it back closer to the West ...

[Steve_Seattle]

Liberal Christianity has de-divinized Jesus, accepted modern science, and adopted feminism and multi-culturalism. I wonder why this woman felt that Islam was somehow more in tune with her basic beliefs and values than modern liberal Christianity.

As for Sufism, apart from its syncretistic, psychologized, and secularized Western forms (e.g., Idries Shah, Hazrat Inayat Khan), it is very non-Western, very Islamic, and places strong emphasis on the guru-like relationship between the teacher and student. (By "non-Western," I mean simply that it is anti-modernist.)