Salafi in Virtual and Physical Reality

Abstract

Many of the people who have been arrested around the world during the past two years suspected of being members of al-Qa'ida or affiliated organizations, have taken pride in belonging to the so-called Salafi movement. The designation may cause some confusion in view of the fact that the term 'Salafi' is also known, in older academic parlance, to denote aschool of thought associated with 'modernist' reformers such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897) and Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905). These reformers, if ever mentioned at all, are likely to be shunned by the contemporary Salafist. Today, 'Salafism' is more often used in reference to a quite different brand of Islamic thought and practice, a brand that is practically identical to what has otherwise been known as 'Wahhabism', i.e. the form of Sunni Islam that constitutes the 'state religion' of Saudi Arabia.