Understanding Salafism
Adraoui, Mohamed-Ali.
Reviewed by Safaruk Chowdhury
In Understanding Salafism, Mohamed-Ali Adraoui offers a timely, lucid, and analytically rich account of one of the most influential yet still misunderstood religious movements in contemporary Islam. Positioned within the Palgrave Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy, the book – spanning fifteen years of research – stands out not only for its empirical depth but also for its theoretical sophistication. Far from reducing Salafism to a monolithic or inherently violent ideology, Adraoui actually treats it as a historically situated, socially embedded, and internally contested religious phenomenon.
The book opens with a strong methodological introduction. Adraoui proposes to study Salafism not as a fixed ideology but as a “container” for various forms of Islamic discourse and practice that claim authenticity by referencing the pious predecessors (salaf al-ṣāliḥ). This framing allows him to move beyond essentialist definitions and instead understand Salafism as a field of dynamic contestation and negotiation. Such an approach proves productive across the book’s ten chapters, each of which builds on this conceptual foundation to analyse different dimensions of Salafism. Let me go through each chapter. Chapter 1 introduces Salafism through its self-image as a movement of moral and doctrinal rectitude, committed to a path of restoration that bypasses historical accretions in favour of scriptural purity. Adraoui sets out his multidisciplinary approach to studying Salafism, emphasising the need for dispassionate analysis “far from the urgency of the media” (p. 3) provocative (and misinformed) political discourse. Adraoui frames Salafism as a transnational, revivalist phenomenon marked by an aspiration to restore the “authentic” Islam of the salaf. Hence, Salafism “the form of Islam that is supposed to contain the highest level of purity, and which must see itself as a revivalist and restorationist thought” (p. 7). In chapter 2, Adraoui explores the semantic and symbolic core of Salafism, focusing on terms like salaf, tawḥīd (God’s unicity) and sunna (Prophetic example). He argues that Salafism is a fundamentalist and puritanical project, seeking to return to the “pure” origins of Islam. He introduces the concept of “mental topography” (pp. 8-10) to frame Salafism not as a fixed ideology but as a dynamic structure of perception and ethical commitment. Chapter 3 traces historical precursors to Salafism, such as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855) and later Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), as counter-movements against rationalist Islamic theology of the Muʿtazila and even rationalist theology in general.
He shows that Salafism emerges as a response to perceived doctrinal deviation, gradually formalising through Ḥanbalī jurisprudence and later institutionalised by Wahhabism in the 18th century. Adraoui here rightly avoids simplistic genealogies, instead showing how Salafi ideas re-emerged in various forms in response to shifting political and intellectual climates. Chapter 4 focuses on Salafism’s religious sociology: its textual literalism, distrust of speculative reasoning (kalām), and centrality of the cleric as moral arbiter. Salafist ethics revolve around a strict scripturalism and moral rectitude, rejecting blameworthy religious innovation (bidʿa) in all forms. The chapter also discusses the influence of Ibn Taymiyya and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb in configuring the overall cognitive cartography of the salafi adherent and retrieving the “episteme of the earlier times of Islam” (p. 19). Chapter 5 outlines how Salafism became globalised via Saudi state support, particularly through petrodollar-funded daʿwa activities, networks, university programs, and clerical appointments post-1970s. He examines the “statization” (pp. 24-27) and “Saudization” (pp. 27-30) of Salafism, showing how Saudi Arabia emerged as both religious and geopolitical center.
The globalisation of Salafism, however, also sowed the seeds of fragmentation, especially how tensions between state-centric and doctrinally purist Salafist voices began to publicly emerge. Chapter 6 addresses this fragmentation, particularly the divergence between quietist, political, and jihadist Salafi currents in the wake of events like the Gulf War and 9/11. Adraoui examines how shifts in Saudi Arabia’s own posture created crises of legitimacy for Salafi clerics who were once dependent on the kingdom’s patronage. These tensions are explored further in Chapter 7, where Adraoui examines Salafism’s engagement with modernity despite its puritanism. Themes include Salafi economic ethics, migration (hijra), and the concept of internal hijra, i.e. symbolic withdrawal from corrupt societies. He suggests Salafism’s paradox is it is anti-modern yet deeply modern in its rationalisation, organisation, and transnational reach. Furthermore, it paradoxically thrives in modern settings by offering a disciplined, morally coherent worldview to individuals facing cultural dislocation. The next two chapters – 8 and 9 – focus on Salafi jihadism, distinguishing between classical jihad doctrines and contemporary jihadist movements. Adraoui offers a careful typology of jihadist thought, showing how it departs from the mainstream Salafi framework even as it borrows from its textual and ethical resources.
He traces the evolution from al-Qaeda’s globally dispersed militancy to ISIS’s apocalyptic territorialism, paying attention to how different groups interpret violence, martyrdom, and the enemy. Chapter 10 – the final chapter – serves as a reflective conclusion. Adraoui argues that Salafism functions more as a container than as a rigid ideology. It provides a symbolic and doctrinal space within which Muslims negotiate questions of piety, authenticity, and authority. In this way it “actually echoes a more dynamic approach than what one might first think.” (p. 98). This framing allows him to resist reductive labels while still offering a coherent analytical portrait of the movement. Overall, Understanding Salafism is a very good book. It balances close analysis with sociopolitical contextualisation and resists the temptations of polemic or apologetics. Its non-essentialist methodology is particularly commendable, offering a valuable framework for analysing Islamic revivalist movements more broadly. For scholars of Islamic studies, political sociology, and religious movements, this book is not only informative but indispensable.
While Understanding Salafism is analytically robust and conceptually ambitious, I think there are a few points to consider. First, Adraoui treats Salafism primarily as a sociopolitical and discursive phenomenon. While this is methodologically sound for his purpose, readers interested in theological argumentation or internal doctrinal debates may find the analysis underdeveloped in terms of creedal nuance or salafi-oriented juristic reasoning. Second, Adraoui provides a sweeping overview but lacks in-depth ethnographic case studies or interviews with Salafi actors. This limits the granularity of regional or demographic distinctions e.g., between Arab Salafis, Western Salafis, Maghrebi and Egyptian contexts, or even gendered Salafi experiences.
Third, while Adraoui opted for theoretical emphasis, it meant overlooking directly engaging with internal Salafi self-representations, especially key texts or scholars attempting to distinguish themselves from jihadists or state-aligned preachers. This would enrich the understanding of how Salafism is negotiated internally, not just observed externally. Fourth, Adraoui positions Salafism within modernity and geopolitics, but gives limited attention to how classical Sunnī traditions like Ashʿarism and Maturidism (within their various regional representations) have responded to Salafi critiques. Providing this comparative theological lens would add depth to his analysis of legitimacy and orthodoxy. Finally, while the metaphor of Salafism as a “container” is useful to avoid essentialism, it may risk diluting the term to the point of conceptual vagueness. The boundaries of what counts as “Salafi” could be more clearly problematised, especially as non-Salafi actors sometimes appropriate similar rhetoric. In other words, Adraoui’s approach commendably avoids stereotyping or essentialising Salafism, but the trade-off may be a lack of definitional sharpness, especially in cases where actors use Salafi language without fully subscribing to Salafi theology or methodology.
