What is so-called "Salafism"?https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/do ... 22_EN.html
Salafism originating from Turkey and the threat to democratic societies
19.2.2021
President Erdogan’s Islamisation strategy plays a major role in the rise of Salafism in the Netherlands[1]. According to a leaked analysis from the Dutch National Coordinator for Terrorism and Security (NCTV), Salafism among Dutch Turks threatens the ‘social and political stability’ of the Netherlands.
The Salafiyya approach is a quotation rule in Islamic jurisprudence.
If you are an Islamic scholar and in your own ruling you want to refer to an older ruling, then the following rule applies:
- If the older ruling is from the first three generations after the Prophet, then you can simply reference it.
- If the older ruling is from after the first three generations, then you must inline it, i.e. provide a complete copy of the relevant claims in it. You cannot just reference the older ruling.
What is a ruling?
A ruling is simply an argument to determine if a particular behavior is "halal" (permissible) or "haram" (impermissible). For example: Is abortion "halal" or "haram"?
It is true that the Salafiyya quotation rule has an outsized impact on the work of Muslim scholars. It massively de-emphasizes the importance of the old databases of existing rulings. It also de-emphasizes the importance of the existing balkanization into "Madhahib", i.e. the traditional jurisprudential schools of thought:
The Salafiyya quotation rule in jurisprudence operates effectively as an anti-balkanization strategy.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhhab
A madhhab (Arabic: مَذْهَب, romanized: madhhab, lit. 'way to act', IPA: [ˈmaðhab], pl. مَذَاهِب, madhāhib, [ˈmaðaːhib]) refers to any school of thought within Islamic jurisprudence. The major Sunni madhāhib are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali.[1] They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE and by the twelfth century almost all jurists aligned themselves with a particular madhab.[2]
It is important to emphasize that the Salafiyya quotation rule does not impact the actual content of the rulings. What the Salafiyya scholars say about the content of rulings, is not different from what any other scholar has been saying about that for the last 1400 years.
Because the EU bureaucrats do not particularly understand what the Salafiyya quotation rule is about -- they are probably not even aware of the existence of any databases of jurisprudential rulings -- they started looking at people who endorse the new rule, and then fantasize their own take on what Salafism is. "These people have beards!", "These people wear traditional garb!", "These people meet each other at the mosque!", "These people do this and that!¨.
The EU bureaucrats may interview someone and ask, "Are you a Salafist?" Answer, "Not sure, because I am not a trained scholar, but why not?" Then, they ask a predetermined list of (obviously irrelevant) questions that are not about the quotation rule at all, such as, "Do you pray five times a day?", or "What do you think about polygamy?". Next, after asking a long list of irrelevant questions, the EU bureaucrats triumphantly declare that they now know what "Salafism" is all about.
Reality check. There is no so-called "Salafism". There is only the Salafiyya quotation rule governing the composition of new jurisprudential rulings by trained scholars.
The Wikipedia page actually got it somewhat right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement.
Wikipedia reports on the impact of the Salafiyya quotation rule on the inclination to adhere strictly to the old databases of jurisprudential rulings ("taqlid") versus the inclination to newly investigate the question again ("ijtihad"). What Wikipedia forgets to emphasize, however, is that this debate is held exclusively amongst trained scholars. The common Muslim does not particularly follow up on methodological questions. This is normal. The common Muslim is not involved in writing the rulings in the first place. It is the scholars who write them. The common Muslim just keeps asking and getting his jurisprudential advice from the scholars of his choice ("ulema") about things like, "Is the use of mobile phones 'halal' or 'haram'?" or "Is the use of dating app 'such and such' 'halal' or 'haram'?".
The Dutch secret services undoubtedly correctly detected that some rulings produced in Turkey end up circulating amongst Muslims of Turkish origin. They also somehow found out that the composition of some of these rulings make use of the Salafiyya quotation rule. Just look at the data! More and more rulings make use of this quotation rule which is getting more popular! According to them, it is president Erdogan of Turkey himself who insists on using the new quotation rule! (not true, of course)
Hence, they concluded that the growing "Salafi influence" in the Netherlands is dangerous. Concerning the alarming title of their report:
"Salafism originating from Turkey and the threat to democratic societies"
Well, no.
It rather proves the danger of drawing profound conclusions when you do not really understand what you are talking about.