Sufism in the modern world

When UNESCO declared 2007 the International Year of Rumi and celebrated the 800th anniversary of the Persian Sufi scholar's birth on September 6 of that year, few outside the Muslim world were aware of the problematic status of Islam's Sufi heritage throughout much of the last century. In the Western world, new translations of the poetry of Mawlana Jalal-ud-Din Balkhi-Rumi, sprung from his intense spiritual devotions and rapturous love of God, had topped the poetry best-seller charts. And while George W. Bush pursued his second term in office as president of the United States, White House photographers even posed his wife, Laura, with a book of Rumi's Sufi poetry on her lap.