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<span style="font-size: 14pt">Can Sufi Islam counter the Taleban?</span>
Some believe that Pakistan's mystic, non-violent Islam can be used as a defence against extremism
<span style="font-weight: bold">It's one o'clock in the morning and the night is pounding with hypnotic rhythms, the air thick with the smoke of incense, laced with dope.
I'm squeezed into a corner of the upper courtyard at the shrine of Baba Shah Jamal in Lahore, famous for its Thursday night drumming sessions.
It's packed with young men, smoking, swaying to the music, and working themselves into a state of ecstasy.</span>
This isn't how most Westerners imagine Pakistan, which has a reputation as a hotspot for Islamist extremism.
But this popular form of Sufi Islam is far more widespread than the Taleban's version. It's a potent brew of mysticism, folklore and a dose of hedonism.
Now some in the West have begun asking whether Pakistan's Sufism could be mobilised to counter militant Islamist ideology and influence.
Lahore would be the place to start: it's a city rich in Sufi tradition.
At the shrine of Data Ganj Bakhsh Hajveri, musicians and singers from across the country also gather weekly, to perform qawwali, or Islamic devotional singing.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Qawwali is seen as a key part of the journey to the divine, what Sufis call the continual remembrance of God.
"When you listen to other music, you will listen for a short time, but the qawwali goes straight inside," says Ali Raza, a fourth generation Sufi singer.
"Even if you can't understand the wording, you can feel the magic of the qawwali, this is spiritual music which directly touches your soul and mind as well."
"It was Sufis who came and spread the religious message of love and harmony and beauty, there were no swords, it was very different from the sharp edged Islam of the Middle East.</span>
"And you can't separate it from our culture, it's in our music, it's in our folklore, it's in our architecture. We are a Sufi country, and yet there's a struggle in Pakistan right now for the soul of Islam."
So could Pakistan's mystic, non-violent Islam be used as a defence against extremism?
An American think tank, the Rand Corporation, has advocated this, suggesting support for Sufism as an "open, intellectual interpretation of Islam".
<span style="font-weight: bold">"We once ruled the world and now we're enslaved. This is a power struggle, it is the oppressed who want to become the oppressors</span>, this has nothing to do with Islam, and least of all to do with Sufism."
Some believe that Pakistan's mystic, non-violent Islam can be used as a defence against extremism
<span style="font-weight: bold">It's one o'clock in the morning and the night is pounding with hypnotic rhythms, the air thick with the smoke of incense, laced with dope.
I'm squeezed into a corner of the upper courtyard at the shrine of Baba Shah Jamal in Lahore, famous for its Thursday night drumming sessions.
It's packed with young men, smoking, swaying to the music, and working themselves into a state of ecstasy.</span>
This isn't how most Westerners imagine Pakistan, which has a reputation as a hotspot for Islamist extremism.
But this popular form of Sufi Islam is far more widespread than the Taleban's version. It's a potent brew of mysticism, folklore and a dose of hedonism.
Now some in the West have begun asking whether Pakistan's Sufism could be mobilised to counter militant Islamist ideology and influence.
Lahore would be the place to start: it's a city rich in Sufi tradition.
At the shrine of Data Ganj Bakhsh Hajveri, musicians and singers from across the country also gather weekly, to perform qawwali, or Islamic devotional singing.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Qawwali is seen as a key part of the journey to the divine, what Sufis call the continual remembrance of God.
"When you listen to other music, you will listen for a short time, but the qawwali goes straight inside," says Ali Raza, a fourth generation Sufi singer.
"Even if you can't understand the wording, you can feel the magic of the qawwali, this is spiritual music which directly touches your soul and mind as well."
"It was Sufis who came and spread the religious message of love and harmony and beauty, there were no swords, it was very different from the sharp edged Islam of the Middle East.</span>
"And you can't separate it from our culture, it's in our music, it's in our folklore, it's in our architecture. We are a Sufi country, and yet there's a struggle in Pakistan right now for the soul of Islam."
So could Pakistan's mystic, non-violent Islam be used as a defence against extremism?
An American think tank, the Rand Corporation, has advocated this, suggesting support for Sufism as an "open, intellectual interpretation of Islam".
<span style="font-weight: bold">"We once ruled the world and now we're enslaved. This is a power struggle, it is the oppressed who want to become the oppressors</span>, this has nothing to do with Islam, and least of all to do with Sufism."
It's the love, peace, chanting, music and smoking that I was alluding to.
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