The doctrines and the activities of Sufi orders analyzed share common trends across Europe and in North Africa. How to label these trends is not an easy task. The label “liberal” would only fit partially, because, as I have showed, in these Sufi orders conservative and liberal positions coexist, and in any case, the word “liberal” is semantically overcharged. The label “progressive” used by Omid Safi would only describe a tiny portion of intellectuals. That is why I propose the concept of “Islamic humanism”.
Compared to the liberal and progressive categories, the concept of Islamic humanism is more malleable, capable of embracing different aspects of a heterogenous phenomenon. The main characteristics are: the centrality and intrinsic worth of every human being, beyond religious, ethnic, and gender differences; and a pluralistic conception of knowledge and epistemologies. The importance of the Other, stressed by these Sufis, resonates with the definition of humanism used by Edward Said that focuses on self-knowledge and self-critique.
How far the religious pluralism and universalism should be taken is an open debate among these Sufis. Should plurality concern also atheism, gender, and sexual orientation? As I showed, if the question of religious pluralism is central, many of these Sufis have enlarged the scope of pluralism, engaging also in debates about gender and some of them even in LGBTQ issues. In the Sufi orders described in this research the border between secular and religious narratives are blurred. For example, many Sufi intellectuals use social and human sciences in dialogue with Islamic and Sufi hermeneutics. Furthermore, there are several open and heated discussions about religious norms (on gender, family regulation, sexual orientation). The discussions on politics draw both on civil law and citizenship narratives and on classical interpretations of Maliki fiqh. What is fundamental to stress is that the antinomies crucial in the secular religion such as Islam/modernity, norm/freedom, tradition/reform, are not employed by these Sufis.
As regards the relation to power, these Sufi orders embody both hegemonic and subaltern narratives, according to each specific context. Sufism participates in hegemonic discourse when it is co-opted by nation state powers and invalidates protests against social injustices, reducing them to an issue of extremism. On the other hand, the promotion of gender equality in Algeria could be read as an anti-hegemonic narrative in opposition to a patriarchal society, characterized by violence and discrimination. Similarly, the political engagement in fighting Islamophobia in Europe could be understood as anti-hegemonic, as could the promotion of citizenship among Muslims in Parisian suburban. Similarly, secular narratives about religious freedom and the promotion of religious pluralism could be used to defend religious minorities in North Africa or Muslims in Europe, or to impose a secular normativity.
