The Ambiguity of Citizenship in Contemporary Salafism

Research output

Complete citation

Poljarević, Emin. “The Ambiguity of Citizenship in Contemporary Salafism.” In The Crisis of Citizenship in the Arab World, edited by Roel Meijer and Nils Butenschøn, 338–374. Leiden: Brill, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004340985_015.

Status

Published (2017)

Publication type

Peer-reviewed book chapter

Overview

This chapter examines the conceptual and practical ambiguity of citizenship within contemporary Salafism. Citizenship can appear to activist Salafis as a secular legal category tied to territorial sovereignty and political systems that compete with the authority of the religious community. Yet Salafi actors also operate through national institutions, invoke rights, organise collectively, and negotiate public order in ways that presuppose forms of civic membership. The chapter analyses this tension between theological reservations and situated political practice, showing how positions vary across movements and contexts. It avoids treating Salafism as a unified ideology and instead traces how belonging, loyalty, authority, participation, and the community of believers are differently configured. Its contribution is to demonstrate that citizenship within Salafism is neither simply rejected nor accepted; it is strategically and normatively reworked under changing political conditions.

Research question or central concern

How do contemporary Salafi actors negotiate the tensions between religious belonging, territorial citizenship, political participation, and state authority?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The chapter combines conceptual analysis with attention to movement practice. It argues that Salafi approaches to citizenship are internally diverse and marked by a productive ambiguity: theological suspicion of secular political membership coexists with practical claims-making within state institutions. This clarifies how doctrine and political context reshape one another.

Keywords

Salafism; citizenship; belonging; political participation; state authority; loyalty; Muslim community