I have my doubts about the Sufis being benign exponents of Islam. Some may be. Most will support the jihadists, I think, like other Muslims. The Janisseries were the cutting edge of the jihad for centuries under the Ottoman Sultans, spearheading the conquest of much of Christian Europe. The Bektashi order of Sufis had great influence among them. The Janissaries’ uniform had a long flap on its hat, supposedly reflecting the sleeve of a Bektashi imam blessing them as they went into battle early in their history.
A lot of Muslims dislike and fear the Wahhabis, and think of them as heretics. But the Saudis have been more or less buying up world Islam for the last three decades, and money talks. Islam is becoming more Wahhabi, and less local, every year. The spread of Wahhabi Islam is a greater triumph of globalization than the spread of McDonalds, as Mark Steyn pointed out.
