Sufi Muslims have been the frequent targets of Jihadist attacks. In Afghanistan, Libya, and elsewhere, Sufi shrine have been destroyed at the hands of Islamists as the hardliners have ascended to power. In Egypt they face the same threat. But, Egypt’s Sufis have come together with Coptic Christians to form The Egyptian League.

The preliminary list of churches and Sufi lodges that will be a part of the league has been documented by Sheikh Fawzi al-Zefzaf, former undersecretary of al-Azhar University.

Alaa Aboul Azayem, Sheikh of the Azmeya Sufi method and head of the Coptic-Sophist league, says that the alliance will enable them to help combat Islamism and sectarian strife.

“The idea of establishing the current followed the attack launched by a number of Muslim Brotherhood members and Salafis on some shrines and churches and we found that the hardline … Islamist current targets us Sufis and Christians,” Sheikh Aboul Azayem has told Egyptian newspaper Aswat Masriya.

Sheikh Azayem says that “Sufis do not represent a power that can stand up to counter that hardline current and neither do Christians, but if we joined together to form an alliance we will create a power that can face this current. This is how the idea was born.”