 Orientalists proposed a variety of origin theories regarding Sufism, such as that it originated as an Aryan response to Semitic influence, Buddhism, Neo-Platonism, and Christian ascetism or Gnosticism.Modern academics and scholars, however, have rejected early Orientalist theories asserting a non-Islamic origin of Sufism, Carl Ernst states that the tendency to try and disassociate Islam from Sufism was an attempt by Orientalists to create a divide between what they found attractive within Islamic civilization (i.e.Islamic spirituality) and the negative stereotypes of Islam that were present in Britain.