The Regress of Knowledge: Understanding the Concept of Salafism in Traditional Islam
The term Salafism like jihad has been absorbed into mainstream Western media discourse, especially with the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Much of the use of this term, however, is conceptually shrouded in confusion even in academic circles.
Contemporary discussions on Salafism in the academia can be broadly categorized under those that grapple with the subject from the perspective of political science, and those who do so from a religious studies perspective.
The former tend to discuss the concept in a fleeting manner usually by not much more than identifying Salafism’s theoreticians, such as Abdul Wahhab and Ibn Taymiyya and focus instead on the political, economic and the social dimensions behind the rise of Salafi movements. There is, accordingly, little interest...