27 Facts About Salafism

Salafi movement or Salafism is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century.

Since its inception, Salafism has been evolving through the efforts of numerous Islamic reformers, whose interpretations have spread within various regions.

The emergence of Salafism coincided with the rise of Western colonialism across many parts of the Islamic world.

Salafism combined the theological ideas of Sufis and Mutakallimun like Razi in his reformist works.

Salafism regularly corresponded with him and received an Ijazat from Siddiq Hasan Khan, and became the leader of the Salafi trend in Iraq.

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Salafism questioned the murid-murshid relationship in mysticism, as well as the Silsilas upon which Tariqah structures were built.

Contemporary Purist Salafism, widely known as "the Salafi Manhaj" emerged from the 1960s as an intellectual hybrid of three similar, yet distinct, religious reform traditions: the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, Ahl-i Hadith movement in India and Salafiyya movement in the Arab world of the late-19th and early 20th centuries.

At times, Salafism has been deemed a hybrid of Wahhabism and other post-1960s movements.

Salafism started a reform movement in the remote, sparsely populated region of Najd.

Salafism invited people to Tawhid and advocated purging of practices such as shrine and tomb visitation, which were widespread among Muslims.

Ahmad Moussalli tends to agree with the view that Wahhabism is a subset of Salafism, saying "As a rule, all Wahhabis are salafists, but not all salafists are Wahhabis".

Stephane Lacroix, a fellow and lecturer at Sciences Po in Paris, affirmed a distinction between the two: "As opposed to Wahhabism, Salafism refers […] to all the hybridations that have taken place since the 1960s between the teachings of Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Wahhab and other Islamic schools of thought".

Hamid Algar and Khaled Abou El Fadl believe, during the 1960s and 70s, Wahhabism rebranded itself as Salafism knowing it could not "spread in the modern Muslim world" as Wahhabism.

Salafism's father was a direct disciple of Shah 'Abd al Aziz.

Salafism became profoundly influenced by the works Al-Shawkani; claiming frequent contacts with him via visions and in this way, an ijaza to transmit his works.

Salafism profoundly influenced other Salafi movements across the world such as the Ahl-i Hadith in the Indian subcontinent.

Salafism has been dismissively labeled as "ultra-conservative", in the context of Tunisia after the 2011 revolution.

Salafism is a minority strand of Turkish Islam that evolved in the context of the state's effort in the 1980s to recalibrate religion as a complement to Turkish nationalism.

Salafism becomes an observable element of religious discourse in Turkey in the context of the military regime's attempt to outmanoeuvre movements emerging as a challenge to the Kemalist secular order, namely the left, Necmettin Erbakan's Islamism, Kurdish nationalism, and Iran.

Salafism is opposed by a number of Hui Muslims Sects in China such as by the Gedimu, Sufi Khafiya and Jahriyya, to the extent that even the fundamentalist Yihewani Chinese sect, founded by Ma Wanfu after Salafi inspiration, condemned Ma Debao and Ma Zhengqing as heretics when they attempted to introduce Salafism as the main form of Islam.

Similar to Saudi Arabian sponsorship of Salafism, Qatar has funded the construction of mosques that promote the Wahhabi Salafism.

Sunni critics of Salafism accuse Salafis of altering the actual teachings Ahmad ibn Hanbal and the eponyms of the four legal schools.

The Syrian scholar Mohamed Said Ramadan Al-Bouti wrote a number of works refuting Salafism including Al-La Madhhabiyya is the most dangerous Bid'ah Threatening the Islamic Shari'a and Al-Salafiyya was a blessed epoch, not a school of thought .

Salafism suggests that the extreme intolerance and even endorsement of terrorism manifest in the fringe elements of Wahhabism and Salafism represents a deviation from Muslim historical traditions.

Salafism has become associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam in sections of Western academia.

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German government officials have accused Salafism of having a strong link to terrorism but later clarified that not all Salafis are terrorists.

The statements by German government officials criticizing Salafism were televised by Deutsche Welle during April 2012.