Quotes About Salafi

Iblis was the first False Salafi, a literalist whose obsessive misunderstanding of monotheism and of the avoidance of idolatry took him far from spiritual wisdom.

As ISIS grew more savage, many Salafi clerics condemned its acts of violence. Nour seemed perplexed by not having any theological evidence for what she felt—politically, emotionally, morally—to be right.

This is the story everywhere in the wider Muslim world. Students go to the Middle East on generous scholarships and study Salafi or Wahhabi doctrine, and they learn there that jabbering on at top volume about martyrs and violent jihad is a highly effective way of whipping up religious fervor. In the home country, hardline religious schools spring up, like the one I visited in Thailand, and spread their obsession with ritual, code, dress, and other apparent trivia.