VOA News: Drums pounded hard as a circle of men, their shoulder-length hair whirling through the air, spun their heads in a trance.
In the middle of the circle, other men pierced their heads with knives and drove skewers in their mouths as hundreds of others chanted, “Muhammad the savior will wash off the heart’s stain and show the righteous path.”
They were members of the Sufi branch of Islam, celebrating their return to the Iraqi city of Mosul after the overthrow of Islamic State. They were performing their rituals in Ali Kasnazani Takya — a new convent to hold Sufi ceremonies after most of their places of worship were destroyed during the brutal 6-month-old campaign to oust IS from Mosul.
Sufism is a mystical strain of Islam characterized by an inward search for God and the rejection of materialism. The group is divided into many different orders and has followers around the world.
In Iraq, followers of the Kasnazani order believe they have established a spiritual lineage through their leader and founder, Shaikh Muhammad Abdul Kareem al-Kasnazani al-Qadiri al-Hussaini, to the prophet of Islam.