Thread: The Orientalizing of Moulana Rumi

Many of you may be familiar with the 'Rumi quotes' that circulate the internet. What if I told you the vast majority of them are fake and they are part of a project to secularize Rumi? This isn't a whatsapp conspiracy.

Take this quote, commonly attributed to Moulana Rumi:

Brad Pitt even got it tattooed, right by his pit:

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the most Islamophobic president in US history, tweeted it out after her dad failed to make peace in Afghanistan. If Rumi were alive today, her dad wouldn't even allow him in the country. The irony.

Where is this quote from? It's from 'The Essential Rumi' probably the best selling poetry book in America, written by Coleman Barks who has made his career peddling Rumi 'translations.'