The Rise and Fall of the Salafi Dawah
Brother Umar Lee has made a very insightful and interesting sereies of posts regarding the formation of the Salafi dawah in America and its decline due to in-fighting and 9/11.
I would have two critiques regarding the article:
Firstly, the Salafi dawah hasn’t dramatically declined as he has made it out to be; in fact, it has merely changed forms. For example, the explosion of Al Maghrib all over cities of America has ensured the survival of the Salafi dawah for at least another generation (or until a traditonalist can imitate the same system).
Secondly, the author’s worldview blinds him from seeing the obvious: the Salafi dawah was neither “defeated” by TROID or 9/11 prosecutions, but something else entirely, i.e. Traditional Islam. If one goes on any generic Islamic forum, such as Islamica, one notices immediately that they were originally dominated by Salafis. The Salafis would normally engage in a cycle of “refutations” with modernists, Ikhwanis, and Sufis. A handful of Traditionalists would visit these forums and would usually take on a several Salafis at once. By the sheer force of argument, they would hold their ground. The tide of conflict shifted immensely once traditional scholars began opening fatwa sites. Love it or hate, websites like Sunnipath, GF Haddad’s sites and books by Shaykh Nuh fuelled countless flame wars. I know, I participated in a helluva lot of them. Within the past two years though, I noticed something interesting: a slow trickle of people who I used to debate would end up abandoning the Salafi perspective and adopt the traditionalist paradigm. By far, the most contentious issue was over Tasawwuf. The success of the Salafi dawah was largely due to the lack of alternative paradigms of understanding. In one’s Masjid, if the Imam was Salafi or Traditionalist, chances are, you would end up being Salafi or Traditionalist. With the rise of the internet, the control of information becomes impossible, especially with Google and Wikipedia, which have probably been the two greatest sources of this shift. One thing that Muslims are finally beginning to understand is that Islam is open to public view, everything. If one calls Asharis innovators, an Ashari will find out and respond. The days of copy-pasting are over, true dialogue is upon us. A lot of the myths that propagated antagonism between Salafis and Traditionalists are dissipating. Traditionalists are realizing that not all Salafis are anthropomorphicists and takfeeris. Salafis are realizing that Tasawwuf can very well be within the bounds of the Shari’ah and in complete conformity with the Qur’an and Sunnah. Modernists have gotten a tremendous backlash after 9/11 since the true intentions of hegemonic America have become as bright as day.
Anyhow, it was only a matter of time before these futile sectarian flame wars would die down. I don’t think they’ll disappear completely, but a new phase of Muslim American history is unfolding: the era of empowerment.
Muslims are developing enough maturity to realize that Islam may very well be the only solution to all of the problems plaguing Muslim society.
The present debate that needs to be addressed is Shari’ah against secularism. Once this issue has been resolved, then the two most important and controverisal issues need to be resolved: (1) Breaking the cycle of dependency between Muslim countries and Western nations and (2) the restoration of a newly designed Khalifate.
May Allah 
(subhana wa ta’ala) guide this Ummah and grant it victory in this life and the next. Ameen.
May He (subhana wa ta’ala) grant us strength in our hour of need. Ameen.
EDIT:
Check out the following blogs that have commented on Br. Umar Lee’s post:
Sphere: Related ContentPublished January 30, 2007 . Filed under: Polemics
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as-salaam alaykum,
Umar is speaking from the perspective of an American convert and you can probably count on your hand the number of American converts - particularly black ones - are involved with Almaghrib. He intends to address just that point.
Almaghrib is not the all encompassing movement that was in the grassroots in the 1990s.
One cannot simply dismiss the carnage that happened amongst converts that were involved with the salafi movement.
On the other points, I tend to agree with you
January 30, 2007 @ 11:17 am
Aren’t you over-estimating the influence and reach of the Internet?
Aren’t the Salafis still dominant in the store-front masajid nested within
many of the major urban centers in this country? Maybe more affluent muslims (and thus those with internet access and more money to buy expensive books on traditional aqeedah and fiqh) are becoming traditionalists, but is there any indication that working class and inner city Muslims are making this transition in appreciable numbers?
January 30, 2007 @ 11:24 am
There is also the issue of how to properly categorize some of the Urban
Masajid. Perhaps they are more political than Salafi; they are more flexible on certain fiqh issues due to the influence of the Salafi Dawah, but they are not tied with Saudi Arabia, are not rabidly anti-shi’ite,
and are more concerned with community development and political solidarity than with extremely fine points of aqeedah.
January 30, 2007 @ 11:36 am
Luqman, as far as I am aware of, most of the Salafis have been completely marginalized into their own masajid or centers and probably will continue to do so until traditional scholarship challenges them. Remember Laurel used to be a Salafi masjid. Now its a bastion of Deobandism.
I wasn’t arguing that the internet was responsible for the demise of the Salafi dawah. I was arguing that traditional Islam was able to effectively counter the Salafi dawah on this important medium. What resulted in the decline of Salafism wasn’t the internet, but the fact that traditional groups appeared on the internet.
With regards to various masajid, what reduced the Salafi influence in an area has been directly related to the number and quality of traditional scholars in Maryland.
10 years ago, Maryland was a pretty strong Salafi outlet. Now the Salafis are largely confined to a handful of areas.
We’ll have to see how things turn out.
January 30, 2007 @ 3:32 pm
I’m not really arguing that the Salafi dawah has ‘demised’ but its influence has definitely declined. As a movement, its really lost its bite and is in the process of transformation.
Also, one thing that no one’s discussed is how the divisions within the Salafi movement are very closely related to divisions that developed in Saudi Arabia as a result of the Gulf War. Its not out of coincidence that the power struggle within the Salafi dawah mimicked with a power struggle within the Saudi monarchy.
Lets not forget that the Salafi dawah has had its origins and sustenance with the Saudi regime; no matter how much Salafis try to play down this important relationship.
For example, their were hardly any Salafis in Iraq. Suddenly there are new groups appearing everyday as the amount of Saudi assistance increases.
January 30, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
As-salaamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatu,
Good post, masha’Allah
… although I have a couple things to say:
“One thing that Muslims are finally beginning to understand is that Islam is open to public view, everything.”
Not a whole lot of Muslims, though. Those who are active on the Internet, yes - but there are many more who still don’t get it.
“Muslims are developing enough maturity to realize that Islam may very well be the only solution to all of the problems plaguing Muslim society.”
Again, I think that they’re a relative minority… belief that secularism is the answer to the problems plaguing Muslim countries and societies is still quite popular, I think.
Also, may I ask what you mean by ‘Tradionalists’ vs. ‘Salafis’? How do you define Tradionalists?
Your little sister in Islam,
Mouse
January 30, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
How representative is Maryland, though? The Masajid seem to be concentrated in the suburban areas of B-More and (especially) DC, which is going to mean that there are more affluent. In DC itself and in Baltimore itself, how is the situation? Would you call Masjid al-Haqq traditionalist? What about the Charles St. Dawa Center (which is definately Salafi)? I don’t think changes in the upper economic strata of Muslims in America reflect a deep-seated change in the American Islamic community as a whole. It may simply be an example of a politically quietistic turn among the affluent Muslims (especially given that the change is more towards the Deobandi-Tablighi tradition) which reflects both their alienation from politics and their desire to keep a low profile.
January 30, 2007 @ 7:16 pm
I was thinking more of the sheer size of the masajid. I don’t think you can compare ISB with Charles St. dawah center. Thats not even really a Masjid is it, its a musallah? My point was that their were dynamic shifts in major centers which marginalized the Salafi dawah to particular zones. Obviously, ISB still has Salafis, but they’re not as influential or controversial as they once used to be. UMBC is another example.
January 31, 2007 @ 12:04 am
Anonymouse,
What I meant was that the debates of the scholars are no longer closed behind Masajid doors. They’re open to public discussion and dissemination. The ‘Ulema have been under intense scrutiny by both Muslims and non-Muslims, look at the type of media attention that Imams and scholar have been drawing in the past year alone: the Australian Imam, the Dispatches program, the Imams that were kicked off the plane.
There is far more transparency today than their was a few years ago. This might not just be because of the internet but because of the changing status of the way people view the ‘Ulema.
As I stated before, the tools of communication merely accelerated a process that was already happening within the Muslim community: the rise of traditional Islamic scholarship.
Without modern technology (such as the internet) would institutions like Zaytuna and Al Maghrib have spread so quickly? What about Sunnipath?
One of the reasons why the Salafi dawah spread was because of the amount of cheap available literature it was able to produce and its use of of PDF documents to transfer quantities of information.
You can’t underestimate the importance of technology in the development of Islam in America. Without ‘Ulema, of course, none of this change would’ve been possible.
masalama
January 31, 2007 @ 12:13 am
With regards to the term Traditionalist, it refers to the formulation of Islam as a three pronged paradigm: In Aqeedah, it is comprised of the Ashari/Maturidi schools of Kalam, the Atharis; in Fiqh it is the four madhaib, and in spiritual purification it recognizes the legitimacy of Tasawwuf so long as it is within the bounds of the Shari’ah.
With regards to the definition of Salafis, it is a neo-Hanbali movement that is greatly inspired by the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and focuses on purifying Islam from what they perceive to be “foreign” elements such as kalam and tasawwuf.
January 31, 2007 @ 12:17 am
Ah, okay… jazakAllahu khair for the explanation! :)
January 31, 2007 @ 7:08 pm
I think you’ve generalized a bit too much towards the end of your post. But the Salafi movement or Dawah is not dying down by any means, rather as you mentioned taking on a new form. This can be seen at most Masajids across the US, especially with the advent of AlMaghrib Institute and the role it plays in many universities.
It’s a common thing to see, but those who refer to websites such as Sunnipath are usually looked down upon, and that’s the truth especially as more youth become inclined to AlMaghrib and the scholars from the Salafi campaign.
Another important thing to note is how all this works on a sociological and personal level. I’ve noticed most people who’re of middle eastern background will turn more to the Salafi Dawah than say a Indo-Paki student. But the latter is of course influenced by it since the normative version of Islam in the US has been this “petro-dollar†pumped version. And most of the time people will stick to the group mentality, and someone who may feel differently will not have many places to turn to because of either 1. Lack of traditional scholars. 2. Peer pressure to work with the only Islamic groups that exist in the community. So people go on not saying anything, this goes for the Scholars too if the area is predominantly Salafi.
There are a lot of different ways to look at these issues, but it doesn’t seem like Ashari/Maturidi versions of Islam will be a norm in the US.
February 1, 2007 @ 3:18 am
very interesting perspective. i think one of the major reasons which lead to downfall of more extreme salafis was a ack of coherent framework and principles. rigidity and faulty understanding of issues related to fiqh (and aqeedah to an extent) led to ‘burn out’ of many many salafi youths, callers and scholars…among the youth you have someone like me lol. Among the callers an excellent example is Abu aaliyah surkheel sharif who has dramatically moved closer to ‘traditionalism’ (seehis website: http://web.mac.com/jawziyyah/iWeb/The%20Jawziyyah%20Institute/Home.html ). Among the scholars we have figures lie salman al-’awdah; a leading reformist scholar today, and a close associate of shaykh bin bayyah..
to tariq nelson: ilmquest which also does work for eman rush- half of its staff is african-american converts, you really do give your ‘victim-cutlture’ a really generalized stretch.
-nuqtah aka abu hind.
February 4, 2007 @ 10:07 pm
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
I posted my comments on this issue here:
Reflections on Salafism’s rise and fall
February 5, 2007 @ 6:18 am
Assalamualaikum,
God bless U sister, I particularly liked your final comments on what needs to be done to re-invigorate the Ummah and bring it back on the straight path through Allah
’s unstoppable Guidance, Islam.
God Bless You and continue to increase your Imaan and wisdom.
March 8, 2007 @ 4:01 pm
uhh, i’m not a sister, but thanks anyway. :)
May 14, 2007 @ 10:21 pm
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