The Jordanian Sufi Cult: “Trapped Between Worlds”
Was I In A Cult?
PodcastOne
4.4 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
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Summary
When Raidah left medical school in Sydney to spend the summer at what was promise to be an Islamic utopia in Jordan, she thought she was taking a break to heal.
Instead, she found herself inside a high-control religious community led by Nuh Ha Mim Keller — an American-born Catholic convert who reinvented himself as a Sufi sheikh and built a devoted following of Muslims living in Western countries.
Through his English-language books, lectures, and retreats, Keller promised these diaspora Muslims a spiritual home — a refuge from Western chaos and Islamophobia.
But what Raidah found instead… was a cult.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The views, information, or opinions expressed by the guest appearing in this episode solely |
| 0:04.4 | belong to the guest and do not represent or reflect the views or positions of the hosts, |
| 0:09.4 | the show, podcast one, this network, or any of their respective affiliates. |
| 0:14.5 | I was tinkering of the idea of writing about my experience, being groomed for a cult and finally leaving in the aftermath. |
| 0:23.6 | Because it takes often in my case decades to piece everything together, right? |
| 0:27.6 | So while I was doing this research, I came across your podcast and I'm like, was I in a cult? |
| 0:33.6 | And it just made me laugh so much, that laugh, cry, feelings like, this is so validating. |
| 0:39.7 | The senior podcast made me feel a lot less alone and more connected to this sadly global community of survivors. |
| 0:47.3 | We can laugh and cry at the same time. Welcome, welcome, welcome to welcome to Wuziqlts, question mark. |
| 1:03.9 | I'm, I'm Tyler Meissom. |
| 1:05.5 | And I'm Liz Ayacuzi. |
| 1:07.9 | For all you listeners, if you haven't picked it up yet, there is a theme to our show. |
| 1:13.3 | You see, each week we dive into the story of a person who found themselves pulled into a place, |
| 1:18.4 | they thought would, well, for lack of a better word, save them or free them, or make them closer to heaven, |
| 1:25.7 | or bring them closer to self-realization. |
| 1:28.6 | And then, well, comes the bummer part of the story. |
| 1:33.3 | It turns out to be a cult. |
| 1:35.4 | Oh, gosh. |
| 1:36.9 | We were so close. |
| 1:38.3 | Just don't go. |
| 1:39.2 | I'm going to be the one. |
| 1:41.0 | Not that. |
... |
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