Conditionalist Islamists: The Case of the Salafis

Abstract

The Salafis represent a diverse community with core constituents in Saudi Arabia and additional millions of adherents across the Muslim world and the West. Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which is a distinct organization with easily identifiable branches, “salafi” refers to a trend or, as the Salafis prefer to describe themselves, a methodology (manhaj). Consequently, their universe has come to encompass a highly varied set of actors who share a common religious doctrine but exhibit quite divergent political views.¹ Thus they are comprised of multiple and often competing neighborhood preachers, societal groups, televangelists, and, largely after the Arab Spring, political parties. The vast majority, however, continue to shun politics. In fact, some of its most senior scholars insist that those who engage in politics are outside the Salafi tradition. We will only touch on Salafi religious views to explain their location in the wider Islamist milieu, for our focus in this chapter is the movement’s recent political manifestations and, in particular, on those groups that have moved toward political participation. But before we analyze Salafism as a political subgroup within Islamism, a definition of the phenomenon and a brief discussion of its origins are in order.