I'm Aiton Weinstein.

And I'm Naor Menninger, and you're listening to Two Nice Jewish Boys.

Like it or not, the 21st century is the century of Islam.

This 1,400-year-old religion has around 1.5 billion believers, and its philosophy and

morals are profoundly shaping the world in which we live. Like any religion, Islam has its beauty,

as well as its dark sides. To some parts of Western society, Islam is associated with warmongering, cruelty and terror.

To others, it's just another religion to be respected alongside Judaism and Christianity.

Many know the story of the two most dominant streams in Islam, the Sunni and Shia, forever torn in a nasty conflict

fueled by ancient grudges and bad blood. But amidst the wars within Islam and the wars it's

fighting with Western society, certain streams in the religion remain quiet in the dark,

waiting to be discovered. One such group is the Sufis.

Sufis are a mystical sect of Islam, established around 200 years after Muhammad.

They believe in peace and love, and they live in poverty,

dedicating their lives to helping others.

Dr. Saras Viri is a professor emerita at the

Arabic language and literature department at the Hebrew University. She is an extremely prominent

scholar of Sufism and her book, The Taste of Hidden Things, depicts her lifelong studies. She joins

us to talk about a lesser known side of Islam.

This podcast is made in collaboration with the Jewish Journal. And as you can hear, Aitan is yet again

not here. He'll be back next episode but i'm here with professor severely hello yes hello

no thank you very much for approaching me and for coming to talk to me we actually owe this

meeting to one of our listeners hagar who said she heard you in a lecture and that you were

...