Salafi

A Salafi mosque.

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Salafism is a conservative movement within Sunni Islam originating in Arabia. A Salafist or Salafi is a Sunni Muslim who thinks Islam should be practiced the way the first few generations of Muslims did during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

The majority of Salafists follow the Athari creed of Sunni Islam. The term is also used to talk about certain teachings of Sunni Islam that are based on "conservative" ideals.

The origin of the movement is in the 19th century. Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905) was an Islamic scholar who thought that the values of Islam were incompatible with a modern lifestyle. He is often called a Salafi. Another scholar, Ibn Taimiya (1263–1328) said that the teachings of Islam were not compatible with certain modern interpretations, such as Sufism. The ideology behind many of the jihadist wars in the Middle East and in the northern part of Africa is Salafism.

"Salafi Jihadism" was used to describe those Salafist Islamic militant groups who began to use armed jihad during the mid-1990s.

Salafi scholars such as Ibn Baz and Ibn al Uthaymeen who were alive at the time said Salafism has nothing to do with these "islamic" groups. Majority of Salafi scholars distanced the movement from these groups.

Salafi Media

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  Syro-Egyptian Sunni theologian Sayyid Rashid Rida (d. 1935), leader of the Arab Salafiyya movement

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  Teachings of the influential Yemeni traditionalist theologian Muhammad ibn Ali al-Shawkani (d. 1834) has profoundly influenced generations of Salafi scholarship.

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  Tahir al-Jazai'ri (1920), one of the early leaders of the Salafi movement

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  Jamal al-Din Qasimi (d. 1914), a major scholar of the Syrian Salafiyya movement

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  Rashid Rida's monthly Al-Manar was an influential religious journal that popularised Salafi ideas across the Arab World, South Asia and South East Asia.

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  Islamic University of Madinah, an influential religious institution of contemporary Salafi thought

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  Photograph of Dr Zakir Naik - Dr Zakir Naik in Maldives.

Related pages

• Wahhabi