Who is the Infidel? Religious boundaries and social change in the Shadhiliyya Darqawiyya Alawiyya

In this chapter I will analyse the relation with the ‘Other’ in the one of the most important global Sufi order of the twentieth and twemty-first centuries, the Shadhiliyya Darqawiyya Alawiyya. This Sufi order has been transcultural and transnational since its origins in the Algerian city of Mostaganem, when the charismatic Shaykh Ahmad Ibn Mustafa Al-Alawi attracted European, Arabic, and Amazigh disciples. Nowadays this Sufi order is present worldwide, in Europe (France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom), in the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco), in Africa (Senegal), in the Middle East (Palestine, Saudi Arabia) and in Asia (Japan). Its theological approach to the ‘Other’ is both highly unusual and grounded in the Sufi tradition. The Alawi theological approach to Alterity arises from the tension between the universal and the particular dimensions that could be summarized through the following questions: How is a Muslim defined? Who is the infidel? Is this the one who has submitted to the will of God, or the one who follows the indications of the Sunna? The answer oscillates between these two poles. There is no common definition of kāfir–unbeliever–in Islamic communities. The relation with the Other strongly changes according to the political and social context. In some contexts, Christians, Jewish, and even Hindus are considered believers , in others, every religion and even the majority of Muslims are not considered true believers . Sufi theological and social boundaries have always been at the centre of the debates about orthodoxy and deviance. Sufism has been both at the centre of Islamic religious powers and authorities, and at its margins . Therefore, there cannot be a monolithic definition of the infidel in the Sufi frame, nevertheless, the concept of infidel has been used as a pedagogic instrument by many Sufis in order to challenge ego’s presumption and arrogance. For example, Shaykh Ahmad Al-Tijani used to say ‘God loves the infidel’ . Furthermore, the fluidity and porosity of Sufi practices, theologies and organisational structures, which favoured the expansion of Islamic civilisation in different geographical contexts, blur the theological boundaries about the definition of the infidel. Sufi orders often encountered and mixed with local religious and cultural trends, which implied reciprocal influences: on the one hand the Islamization of new cultures, on the other the acculturalisation of Islam. This continuous and dialectic negotiation of boundaries is central to understanding our global and multicultural societies. The Shadhiliyya Darqawiyya Alawiyya represents a transcultural religious movement rooted in the Islamic tradition, but also a reaction to the challenges of contemporary societies.