When Raidah left medical school in Sydney to spend the summer at what was promise to be an Islamic utopia in Jordan, she thought she was taking a break to heal.

Instead, she found herself inside a high-control religious community led by Nuh Ha Mim Keller — an American-born Catholic convert who reinvented himself as a Sufi sheikh and built a devoted following of Muslims living in Western countries.

Through his English-language books, lectures, and retreats, Keller promised these diaspora Muslims a spiritual home — a refuge from Western chaos and Islamophobia.

But what Raidah found instead… was a cult.

_____

FOLLOW US

For more culty content, follow us on Instagram & TikTok:

→ @wasiinacult

FOLLOW RAIDAH SHAH IDIL

Follow Raidah on Instagram → @raidahwrites

Check out her debut novel How to Free a Jinn — available now from Penguin Random House SEA and in the U.S.

READ Storm Without a Port (PDF) — the 77-page survivor testimony compiled by former members of the Jordanian Sufi cult.

Visit In Shaykh’s Clothing — a resource for Muslim survivors of spiritual abuse.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

If you believe in what we’re doing — please rate, review, and share the podcast. It helps more than you know.

And if you’d like to go a step further, join us on Patreon. You’ll get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and our eternal gratitude for helping us keep these conversations going.

→ Join us on Patreon.

HAVE A CULTY STORY?

We’d love to hear from you.

→ [email protected]

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.