The macabre scene is taking place in the Islamic school of the Sufi Kasnazani order in Az-Zubayr, a small town near the southern Iraqi port of Basra, which has continued to welcome worshippers and students despite the war.

"You westerners don't understand our language, but you are now witnessing something extraordinary," says Talib, one of the professors from this school which belongs to the Sufi faith, one of the mystical branches of Islam.

"Through this we are proving that our religion is the right one, that body and soul can be one if they are pure and that our God does not abandon us in times of adversity", says Talib serenely.

Other disciples are subjected to similar physical ordeals.

The sheikh thrusts huge needles right through the cheeks of one of them and pierces his own tongue with a metal hook while others swallow large chunks of broken glass.

Although most of the Sufi disciples are bleeding abundantly from the wounds sustained in their grisly rituals, their faces remain calm.

In the heart of this town divided between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, the directors of this religious centre inaugurated in 1988 say they are respected by both communities.

"This order belongs only to God and does not follow any party, government or army," one stressed.

This order of Sufism has several million followers across the world -- in Turkey, Lebanon, Argentina, Germany and many other countries -- and has been led by the same dynasty of spiritual leaders since the Prophet Mohamed.

The current guide, whose portrait adorns the entrance of the temple, is called Mohammad Kasnazani and lives in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyahm in the autonomous Kurdistan region.

A few metres (yards) from the school, demolished houses, bullet impacts in the ground, mortar holes in the roads and a British tank unit are the reminders of the coalition offensive which ripped through the town only a week ago.

The town still isn't completely quiet, and the Sufi masters still prefer to use symbols and metaphors to refer to Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad and the suffering of the Iraqi people.

Visibly gripped by a fear which starkly contrasts with the physical courage displayed five minutes earlier, they refuse to disclose their full names or have their pictures taken.

"You need news but I need to stay alive," Abdullah gently explains.

Despite being devoted in body and soul to Islam and although the instructors say that "no war is never desirable", they reluctantly admit that Iraq's problems could not have been solved in a pacific manner.

"Allah wants us to live in peace but violence is our only way to freedom. Blood and suffering are the price of freedom," the Sufis say.

As they squat on the temple floor for the ritual cup of tea between each prayer, Talib and Mohammad explain that their freedom of speech is crippled by the recent arrival in Az-Zubayr of Iraqis "coming from the north", meaning from Basra.

Talib is referring to the now notorious Fedayeen, a nationwide paramilitary organisation of young and ultra-loyal members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, which the trapped Iraqi president has dispatched to the south in order to hamper coalition operations there.

"I can't say much because my family is in Basra and lives next to a unit from the Baghdad police. Do you know what that means? The regime used to leave us alone but now they have sent us their men who only ever speak with their guns," he complains.

At this moment, a man steps out of the school and walks away. "Now we can talk, this man is a spy," says one of the Sufi masters.

"Our hope is that the war finishes as soon as possible and that the British and US armies go back home. The Iraqi people will never accept a foreign government. They would even fight against it because this is our land," he adds, glancing nervously at the door to detect any unwelcome eavesdropper.

The two sages explain that only faith in God and constant prayer can redeem their soul, save it from the "big prison" their bodies are living in and purify it.

"You had Hitler, Franco ... we have one who is just as bad, or maybe worse. How could a regime have done something like that to its people?"

SPACE.WIRE