Negotiating the Religious in Contemporary Everyday Life in the ‘Islamic World’

Abstract

different geographical locations. Chapter 9 (222–46) considers the Syrian Salafi armed group Aḥrār al-Shām. Here, Jérôme Drevon describes the group’s emergence, internal structure and role in the Syrian conflict. He shows how the armed group transformed itself and became politicized by putting forward realistic political objectives and engaging with other opposition groups and foreign states to reach the objectives. In Chapter 10 (247–71), Belal Shobaki examines the emergence of Salafi jihadism in Palestine. He argues that it is the result of the widening gap between Hamas’s original discourse and its new political discourse after taking part in the political process. Becoming aware of the inconsistencies, some members joined the Salafi-jihadi camp, which they find consistent with their religious and intellectual upbringing. The decline of the Muslim Brotherhood and some other factors also contributed to the emergence of Salafi daʿwa in Palestine. For the international community, there is no difference between the two, but adopting jurisprudence in their interpretation of religious texts makes Hamas different from the Salafi-jihadists, who read these texts literally. Again, for Hamas the only enemy is Israel, but for the Salafi-jihadists the enemy is everyone who disagrees with them. In the concluding chapter (272–86), ItzchakWeismann tries to pull together the issues discussed in the previous chapters and place them within the larger context. He deduces that the opening up of Saudi Arabia is the most influential factor in the evolution of Salafism. In general, the book brings the theoretical and practical diversification within the Salafi camp to the reader’s attention. It seems that the history of Salafism, particularly jihadi Salafism, is being re-written, and the reader must be carefully aware about the apologetic and propagandist outputs.