Research output
Complete citation
Olsson, Susanne, and Emin Poljarević. “Contemporary Salafism: Expressions, Practices and Everyday Living.” Comparative Islamic Studies 8, nos. 1–2 (2014): 53–56. https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v8i1-2.53.
Status
Published (2014)
Publication type
Editors’ preface to a special issue
Overview
This editors’ preface introduces a comparative collection on contemporary Salafism as a multifaceted religious and social phenomenon. It moves beyond approaches focused principally on doctrine, political ideology, or security by foregrounding everyday practice, moral subjectivity, social mobilisation, and local context. The issue brings together case studies from Scandinavia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and other settings, using sociological, anthropological, historical, and psychological approaches. The preface emphasises that Salafi movements cannot be understood through a single typology: similar claims to scriptural authority may generate different forms of withdrawal, civic engagement, political avoidance, identity formation, and embodied discipline. Its contribution is to broaden the study of Salafism through multidisciplinary and comparative analysis, especially in Muslim-minority societies, while identifying both variation and recurring patterns across distinct social environments.
Research question or central concern
How can multidisciplinary and comparative case studies broaden the study of Salafism beyond doctrinal classifications and accounts centred on the Middle East and North Africa?
Main argument, approach, and contribution
The preface presents Salafism as internally diverse and socially embedded. It argues that everyday practices, moral geographies, political contexts, and forms of mobilisation must be studied alongside doctrine. The collection’s comparative design shows how similar religious claims produce varied social and political consequences.
Keywords
Salafism; everyday religion; Muslim minorities; comparative method; moral subjectivity; mobilisation; Scandinavia
Emin Poljarević 