Bismillah 1.Similar background - educated/ middleclass, learned and Experienced If one is ‘educated and middleclass’ (experienced in what exactly?) but this does not mean the person is drawn to a specific group… Most of the scholars of Murabit are in their late 50s or if not 60s. They witness various political upheavel in the west and East and their life experience as European gives them an edge over most of us in certain aspects. 2. A lot of emphasis on building a community with meaning ( not like our desi lot with inarticulate, village mentaility). If one is not desi (let’s say white like myself and many murabits) should one not still respect all cultures even if they have ‘village mentality’… The social cohesion amoung the Desi is slowly being eroded away. The tribal tendency in a matter of time will be done away with. A strage allegence to The Surti, Baruchi, Sylheti, Mirpuri and even to the extent of village they are form have had a negative influence on the desi muslims. This even to an extent influenced some of the releigous establishment. 3. Common rational objecitive driven by Malaki fiqh (heavily based on Mumalaat- finanical matters) No problem with that (it’s commendable.) 4. Reverts are looking for more then rituals so they find the tassawuf more to their liking. Dislike of literalism with all the pit falls. But we also find ‘literalist’ reverts who do not agree with the concept of tassawuf in any form. (I do not necessarily agree with them.) Vast majority of the revert with salafist orientation fell into it because there were no other credible people in their local area. There were no organisation like As-Suffa and if there was, there has been a tendency to desify making a revert more aloof from a community experience 5. Driven by conviction to better themselves individually and collectively Does one need to belong to a group (movement or turuq) to achieve this? Yes one does! To do things in Jammah rather then individually can be difficult specially if it is for a revert. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personally. If it was not for the scholarship of earlier luminaires of Deobandi scholar, I would have joined the Murabit. The arab experience dealing with contemporary world in the west has been very limited. Note: I am not deobandi! We all know the azhar experience in Middleast since late 70s. Deobandis of earlier generation and murabit have many things in common. They are living as a minority and their response to the socio-economic and political response was measured. A far cry from many of todays loud mouth organisation driven by slogan. Allahualam