[Dawn] Yielding to the hypnotic beat of drums and the intoxicating scent of incense, the woman danced herself into a state of trance, laughing and shaking uncontrollably alongside hundreds of others at Pakistain's most revered Sufi shrine.Swathed in red, the Sufi colour of passion, she shouted invocations to the shrine's patron saint in an ecstatic ritual repeated daily in the dusty town of Sehwan Sharif on the banks of the river Indus.
With its hypnotic rituals, ancient mysticism and a touch of intoxicated madness, Sufism is a form of Islam which has been practised in Pakistain for centuries -- a powerful antidote to extremism in places such as the province of Sindh.