After the exposures

So I have been following the exposure of the tariqa on the blog I mentioned, as well as the other blog. Emails are flying back and forth between people, also ims and phone calls.



I am giddy in a way. I told you a little tiny bit about what I learned in Jordan - men who were blackballed for their questioning the tariqa. Or really for questioning Um Sahl or NK. Or Um Sahl just didn't like them. Whatever it is.



I told you about the life for women there. About women that everyone knew was being abused and no one did anything. Did I tell you how UK, US, and NK used to share their emails and letters with people? They would tell you what transpired between them and the seeker when the person came for help? And of course that stuff would make its way around the neighborhood, which is likely what was intended.



I'm told they're very angry in Jordan, wanting to know who that blogger is and the people commenting. Just like they were about the other guy's blog a few months ago. Does it matter? It is all of us, none of us. Truth will find a way, Noah.



So what comes now? I mean, is it just to say "Look at this freak show?" and that's it?



I can see where some people - Salafi and the ikhwani types - will use this to say, "See, sufism is totally wrong and misguided," and basically for their propaganda purposes. To get people to attend their programs or give them money.



We need people who really care, without regard to the manhaj. I think at this point, it can only be those who were there or who are tariqa in some way (any tariqa). Look before you go laughing at those crazy sufis and telling us how the Maghrib Institute is superior, you should realize that these Muslims in Kharabsheh are real people with parents, siblings, spouses, and children and they are being severely damaged, emotionally, financially, spiritually. There are families whose hearts are broken because their son or daughter ran off to Kharabsheh and breaks off contact because the father doesn't approve of the shaykh.



There has to be something for those people, as well as people who are leaving or escaping from Kharabsheh, to come together and share their experiences and also (this is going to sound so corny) the path to healing. There isn't anything much written about Islamic cults out there. Muslims deny that cults can exist or they will prescribe their version of Islam as the cure, without regard to the damage that you have already suffered. Non-Muslims don't understand us.



I think a private message board, email group, or some sort of blog or website where it's controlled by trusted people to avoid spying and spamming and flaming is the best thing right now. The conversation forums at the two blogs got very quickly out of control, which shows that we (the people who left and our families) can't really be safe or secure posting our stories there. People will flame us, tell us we're going to hell, try to intimidate us (which is happening to some of the former murids) or use us for their own ends.



I know some of you are out there reading. I leave it up to you to be the ones to create this safe haven. I know most of us need it. My cousin, who had been in Damascus studying with that fraud, said "Only people who were there can understand what we have been through," and I think the same is true for those of us who were in Ktown.



Make sure you make it easy to find - put keywords on the site, give it an easy title, link it where you can in Islamic forums before they inevitably remove your link claming it is "fitnah" (as if NK isn't the big fitnah, but they will link to him!) Make sure that members' identities, ip address, even the posts are protected from search engines and curious drive bys. That the spies can't find them and use it against them. I can't wait to see it.