Are these people related to the Sufi Muslims in any way?? I was always told the Sufis are supposedly the more "tolerant" Muslims and that they are hated by their rival Salafis, who are the majority of the Sunnis. Then again, it's hard to know who is who in Islam.. I know I was reading somewhere that Rambam made friends with the dervishes and they were accepting of people of other religions and were the ones to officially adopt that "Jihad means Self-Improvment" rather than the real Quoranic meaning of Jihad, which literally means "Holy War". The Sufis seemed more like apostates to Orthodox Islam, but then any apostate to Islam is better than a real, Orthodox/devout Muslim, in my book, as the Quoran states blatantly to enslave (book people) and then wipe out all Jews and Christians and to just plainly wipe out all polytheists, such as Hindus, etc.