Encyclopedia of Islam

Sufi Order International

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developing an institute designed to promote and 

implement its vision of a humanity that is tolerant, 

just, and unified in spirit, if not in the particulars of 

traditional beliefs and practices.

The Sufi Order International is not recognized 

as a traditional Islamic Sufi order, because its 

membership is open to people of all faiths and it 

does not promote traditional Islam. Most of its 

members are white, middle-class Europeans and 

Americans, many of whom have been affiliated 

with the order since the 1970s. The order is a 

prototypical New Age religion, with its eclectic 

embrace of traditional religious practices, its desire 

to synthesize science and religion, its expectation 

of a dawning New Age of spiritual unity, and its 

interest in both Eastern and Western methods of 

psychological, physical, and spiritual healing.

J. Gordon Melton