Salafism: Get it right

KOCHI: The disappearance of 21 persons  from the state for allegedly  joining the IS has brought the focus on Salafism.  Like Wahabism, the new term has become the target of media gaze with pundits spinning explanations. According to Asharf Kunnummal, a scholar in the religion studies department in the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, the media should be careful in using the term Salafism.

In an article in an online journal,  he stated that the “problematic media reporting on the Salafism-related security threat does not do justice to the centuries-long history of Salafism in India and its various manifestations in different regions of India”. Quoting Jacob Olidort, an authority on the subject,  Ashraf stated that “major sections of the Salafi movements in the world are apolitical in the sense that they stay away from direct political actions and movements in both democratic and autocratic Muslim countries”.

According to Ashraf “most of the time apolitical Salafism views political Salafism as a deviance since it is motivated by the achievement of worldly aims and desires.”  Hardly any political and militant Salafi movement is visible in the Indian context  compared to countries like Egypt, Norway, Jordan, Kuwait or Pakistan, he said.