Sufism and the Hippie Movement

Sufism and the Hippie Movement

This article relates to Hideous Kinky

In the novel Hideous Kinky, a young mother living in Morocco becomes interested in Sufism and takes her daughter with her to study at a zaouia, or Sufi mosque. Sufism is a form of Islamic mysticism or asceticism popular in some African countries, including Morocco and Senegal, where it is seen as a mystical form of Sunni Islam.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, from the 1950s through the 1970s, many young people from the United States and Britain became fascinated by Eastern religions and flocked to Morocco on spiritual pilgrimages. A number of these counterculture youth were searching for alternatives to the strictures of the religions in which they'd been raised. The route that they followed—from Marrakech north to Tangier or southwest to the coast—became known as Morocco's Hippie Trail.

According to author Ananda Brady, who visited Morocco as a young person in the early 1970s: "In our deep questioning of everything, we were examining so much about our own culture. We had a longing to get back to a more rustic and more real life, a deeper reality. The ancient cultures somehow came into the forefront of our minds, and we wanted to get out there and experience them."

Certain shared values may have made Sufism a natural fit for members of the hippie movement. Both groups, researcher Henry Francis B. Espiritu notes, focused on "the human person's freedom and authenticity to choose for himself how to live one's life in the midst of the nauseating hegemony of the society that forces us into unthinking conformity to conventional conditioning and tyranny of the majority opinion on how to live one's life."

Although the era of hippies and associated countercultural movements are well behind us, Sufism continues to thrive in some sections of Western culture. A New York Times article on American converts to Islam points out Sufism's caricature as an attraction for "kumbaya hippies," but reminds readers that while Sufis do seek divine love and connection, their practices "encompass strict worldly rules and commitments" including regular prayers, rigorous meditation, and frequent fasting, in addition to the "common Islamic practices of five daily prayers, the hajj pilgrimage and abstention from alcohol."

In addition to converts, Sufism still enjoys popularity among young Moroccan people. According to Yale professor Mokhtar Ghambou, Moroccan youth continue to hold interest in Sufism because of "its tolerance, its fluid interpretation of the Qur'an, its rejection of fanaticism and its embrace of modernity. Young men and women find in the Sufi principles of 'beauty' and 'humanity' a balanced lifestyle that allows them to enjoy arts, music and love without having to abandon their spiritual and religious obligations."

Zaouia Naciria in Tamegroute, Morocco, courtesy of Jose Mario Pires (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Filed under Places, Cultures & Identities

This article relates to Hideous Kinky. It first ran in the January 29, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.