Salafism

This article has chosen the theoretical framework of ontological security to explain the impact of Salafism on Saudi Arabia's Middle East policy. The question is why Saudi Arabia has moved towards more support for the Taqlidi Salafist movement over the past decade, and what the identity and security implications of this support have been? The argument of the article is that the role and position of Salafism in Saudi Arabia's Middle East policy should be considered as a continuation of the historical alliance between Al-Saud and Al-Sheikh, which has played an important role in maintaining the identity and security of this actor. But the internal dynamism of the Salafi discourse, the emergence of regional rivalries, and the emergence of the so-called global counter-terrorism literature have shifted the discourse into Saudi Arabia's Middle East policy, leading to differences in identity and security with other Salafi, Sunni, and Islamism currents. The findings of the article show that between 2011 and 2020, Saudi Arabia placed Taqlidi Salafism as a pragmatic current with a conservative reading and close to the official institution of Wahhabism at the center of its Middle East policy, especially in Yemen and Libya. The present article is based on explanatory-analytical approach and the required information has been collected by library method and internet sources.

: Salafism and Sufism are two old Islamic movements that have had major conflicts throughout the history of Islam, which were mainly related to aspects of adherence to and respect for Islamic law and jurisprudence and different interpretations of religious texts. Simultaneously, these two movements have also had some interactions with each other, and there have emerged some individuals or groups who have combined a number of the manifestations of Sufi practices and actiond with those of Salafi and thus creating Salafi Sufism or Sufi Salafism. The Central Asian region is the cradle of a great number of Sufi orders. It has delivered great mystics to the Islamic society. Moreover, several signs of Sufism can be observed in its people’s general culture. However, the people’s inclination towards Islam at the time of liberation from the yoke of communism and the formation of Islamic groups and parties – who wanted Islam to play a greater role in governing the society – besides some countries’ cultural and propaganda exercise, it has led to the creation of various Salafi groups in the region. Naturally, Salafi’s entry into Central Asia’s mystical culture paves the way for the creation and growth of a discourse that has nurtured a combination of Salafism and Sufism in itself. The present study examines the Salafi Sufis in Central Asia and the Sufi-Salafi interactions in this region. Although there are many references on Sufism and Salafism in Central Asia, no independent reference on Salafi Sufism was found in the land.

The weakness of Ottoman empire, in particular in the last years, adding to the materialistic tendencies of politicians, was attributed to not only a sort of disappointment of the religious state, but also exacerbating orientations to revitalize Islam. Nevertheless, with the exemption of current Turkey, other regions, dominated by Ottoman, were grappling with severely extremist trends which, in spite of their reduction, has been irritating the Islamic world after ages. Thus, what is the relation between Ottoman’s collapse and Salafists’ tendencies? The article by applying a historical analysis and investigating the pivots of Ottoman’s state, studies the reasons for Ottoman’s decline and by analyzing the effects of political vacuum as well as the disappearing of a supportively religious state in the area, scrutinizes the relationship between the collapse and the evolution of Salafists’ attitudes. Overall, Ottoman’s collapse contributed to the creation of a political vacuum, fed the appropriate context to raise Salafism in the Islamic world and Wahhabism is alleged a normal yet utilitarian approach to handle ever-increasing internal patches as well as internationally infuriating interventions at the time.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, different views have been introduced regarding the role of Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus, depending on the historical context of the communist system and its collapse. The main question of this article is whether in the Central Asia and Caucasus region, radical Islam has intellectual and philosophical foundations or not. The hypothesis of this article is: "Radicalism has grown since the collapse of the Soviet Union, due to socio-economic crises, and also due to the influence of foreigners that is coincided with the identity crisis." On the other hand, in the post-Soviet era, we see that in Central Asia and the Caucasus, the religious tradition is redefined along with national and historical heritage and become as an element of legitimizing a system.

Today, one of the most serious threats have engulfed a large portion of the Middle East is the emergence of the Sunni Muslim extremist group, known as ISIS (Daesh). After capturing a sizeable territory in Iraq and Syria, the group changed its name to Islamic State (IS). This text is geared towards discussing or describing the identification of ISIS in the age of globalization. ISIS at a limited national and regional level (compared to global level of Al-Qaeda) tries to build its identity via radical Islamic ideology, in a globalized world and identity crisis era. The weakening and in some cases breakdown of the political infrastructures such as Iraq and Syria often leads to a narrowing of identity and social solidarity away from national and towards sectarian, ethnic, and kin-based(however fictive) relations. In such a situation the dynamics of identity construction shift away from "project" towards "resistance" identities . If we take to account fundamentalist as a response to the identity crisis and also a solution to save its believers against the unsatisfied conditions of modern age, ISIS extended its ideology well through the region via protest against the unsatisfied conditions of the region. Findings of the research show that beside the similarities between ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups such as emphasizing on salafi ideology, work for founding Islamic Emirate or Caliphate based on Sharia law, extremist interpretations of Islamic religion, Jihadist and Takfiri vision, and believing in suicide tactics and dying for victory, ISIS's main goal is Jihad against Shiites (Near Enemy) and this may be the main difference between them that causes different kinds of behaviors. Other differences are different ideological roots, emphasizing on Jihad or Takfir by Al-Qaeda and ISIS respectively, giving priority to far enemy by Al-Qaeda and to near enemy by ISIS.