New website and new videos about Schuon

A new website, https://accuratenews.net, deals with "News Accounts of the Frithjof Schuon 1991 Legal Ordeal." The events of 1991 are discussed in outline in my Against the Modern World, so I will not go over them again here. The website contains press cuttings and a short video of an old interview with Schuon himself (7 minutes), also available on YouTube, in which Schuon makes some counter-changes against Mark Koslow, his principal accuser in 1991.

The website, as is presumably its purpose, makes the case on the Schuon side. It contains no new information, but the video of Schuon is worth watching, for the overall effect, and also for the quotation from Dante and Schuon's claim (towards the end) that all he does is write books and answer questions.

There is no explanation of why this website has been launched now, but it may have something to do with the blog on the other side, Frithjof Schuon: A last minute lesson in discernment, run by Maude Murray, a former wife of Schuon and now (at 81) a vocal critic. The blog's current entry comments negatively on accuratenews.net. 

The blog also contains a rather longer video (31 minutes), also available on YouTube, in which Murray talks not only of what led to the 1991 charges, but also of Schuon's own view of himself as an Aryan quasi-prophet, referring in this connection to Gregory A. Lipton's Rethinking Ibn ‘Arabi (see earlier blog post). The website and video announce Murray's forthcoming book, Third Wife of the Muslim Shaykh Frithjof Schuon: My Lifelong Search for Truth, which can be pre-ordered here.

Most of what Murray says is confirmed by other sources, and nothing that she says is contradicted by any source known to me. It is interesting that while she charges Martin Lings and Seyyed Hossein Nasr with doctrinal errors taken from Schuon, she broadly excuses them--and especially Lings--from any guilt relating to the events leading up to 1991.

Thanks tho those who have recently drawn accuratenews.net and the Schuon video to my attention.

MUST SEE (if you know French)

Now available on the internet: an excellent and beautifully made documentary about René Guénon. 28 minutes, by Abd al-Haqq Guiderdoni (see photo).

The documentary, Spiritualité islamique : le précieux apport de René Guénon was broadcast on July 4, 2004, on the French channel France 2 in the series Vivre l'Islam (part of Les chemins de la foi).

Guiderdoni introduces and discusses the life and work of Guénon with the help of Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, and Lyess Chacal, a French writer on (and translator of) al-Ghazali. Both are clearly admirers. Their portrayal is nicely balanced, resisting the temptation to make Guénon more Islamic than he really was. The documentary deals only with Guénon himself, not with later Traditionalists.

One criticism: the documentary somewhat exaggerates Guénon's importance in the Muslim world. To say that he is "taught at the Azhar," for example, is misleading: there are indeed a few people at the Azhar who know of his work and even recommend it from time to time, but he is far from being a standard part of the syllabus.

Guiderdoni is French, and has plenty of experience as a broadcaster, even though he's actually an astrophysicist. His Traditionalism is in the line of Abd al-Wahid Pallavicni.

For a bit of color, there are also shots of

• Muhammad al-Helbawi, a Sufi singer in Cairo
• Kudsi Erguner, a Turkish ney player
• Some Mevlevi "whirling dervishes"
• A more standard Sufi dhikr, in Paris

Original blurb:

Evocation de la vie et de l'oeuvre de René GUENON, restaurateur des études traditionnelles en Occident, chrétien convertit à l'Islam en 1912 et qui a embrassé le soufisme en s'installant en Egypte et en épousant la fille d'un chef spirituel. Riche de ses grands connaissances des autres religions, ses messages sont aujourd'hui enseignés dans l'Islam. Ses travaux et pensées sont évoquées par des entretiens successifs avec Abd Al Haqq GUIDERDONI, l'écrivain et traducteur Lyess CHACAL et le recteur de la grand mosquée de Paris, Dalil BOUBAKEUR. Leurs propos sont illustrés par des photos et alternent avec une psalmodie du maître soufi egyptien Cheick Mohamed EL HALBAWI et une courte prestation musicale du musicien turc et soufi Kudsi ERGUNER.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr on video

Nasr is on video as well: click here for Nasr being interviewed about his book The Heart of Islam on Dennis Wholey's This is America.

Dugin on YouTube

If you've ever wondered what Alexander Dugin looks and sounds like, you can see him on YouTube. There's a nice 26-minute interview with Sergei Kapitsa-in Russian, but if you don't know Russian you can just enjoy the first minute of shots, see Dugin, and then abandon. Dugin is the second person to appear-the first is Kapitsa, the interviewer. Click here.

Evola video

Found on Google: video of Julius Evola talking about his early experiences with Dada. 4 1/2 minutes, in French with Italian subtitles. First ten seconds is dreadful quality, but then it's fine.