Norwegian Haraki Salafism

“The Saved Sect” Hugs the Infidels

Authors

  • Ulrika Mårtensson NTNU—The Norwegian University of Science and Technology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v8i1-2.113

Keywords:

Salafism, Norway, Islam Net, discourse–democracy

Abstract

The article defines the Norwegian organization Islam Net with reference to current research on Salafism, and analyses Islam Net’s capacity for civil engagement through de Certeau’s and Habermas’ concepts of discourse. The main findings are that Islam Net can be defined both as “European Haraki Salafism” and “neo-fundamentalism”. It is a publicly oriented and negotiated form of Salafism which engages in civic political activities for the sake of “clarifying misunderstanding of Islam”, while maintaining Salafi creed and legal method. Yet their capacity for civic engagement is limited by public refusal to both accept and discuss gender segregation at public meetings, a practice that Islam Net’s members in their turn refuse to negotiate. With reference to Habermas’ concept of public discourse, it is argued that public refusal to dialogue with Islam Net over this issue potentially weakens the legitimacy of liberal democracy.

Author Biography

  • Ulrika Mårtensson, NTNU—The Norwegian University of Science and Technology
    Ulrika Mårtensson researches early Islamic history and historiography, focusing on how religious symbols express social contract theories and legal-economic issues. She is also doing research on the Qur'an, employing both historical and exegetical-legal perspectives and comparing early Islamic approaches to the Qur'an with contemporary research. Other research interests concern Islam as it is developing in the institutional contexts and public spheres of the Nordic welfare states; and 'political Islam'.

References

Abou Zahab, Mariam. “Salafism in Pakistan: The Ahl-e Hadith Movement.” In Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement, edited by Roel Meijer, 126–142. London: Hurst & Company, 2009.

Adraoui, Mohamed-Ali. “Salafism in France: Ideology, Practices and Contradictions.” In Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement, edited by Roel Meijer, 364–383. London: Hurst & Company, 2009.

Bangstad, Sindre and Linge, Marius. “Islam Net i Norge.” Kirke og kultur (2013): 254–272.

de Certeau, Michel. The Writing of History. Translated by Tom Conley. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. French original L’Écriture de’l histoire. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1975.

———. The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. French original L’Invention du quotidian. Paris: Union générale d’éditions, 1980.

DeLong-Bas, Natana J. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004.

Eickelman, Dale and Piscatori, James. Muslim Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Habermas, Jürgen. Communication and the Evolution of Society. Translated and with an Introduction by Thomas McCarthy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1979.

———. Truth and Justification. Edited and with translations by Barbara Fultner. Oxford: Polity Press, 2003.

———. Religion and Rationality: Essays on Reason, God and Modernity. Edited and with an introduction by Eduardo Mendieta. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.

———. Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Essays. Translated by Ciaran Cronin. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005.

———. “Religion in the Public Sphere.” The Holberg Prize Seminar 2005. Bergen: University of Bergen, 2007.

———. “‘Notes on Post-Secular Society.’ Secularism’s Crisis of Faith.” New Perspectives Quarterly 25(4), (2008): 17–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5842.2008.01017.x

Haykel, Bernard. “On the Nature of Salafi Thought and Action.” In Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement, edited by Roel Meijer, 33–57. London: Hurst & Company, 2009.

Hegghammer, Thomas. “Jihadi-Salafis or Revolutionaries? On Religion and Politics in the Study of Militant Islamism.” In Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement, edited by Roel Meijer, 244–266. London: Hurst & Company, 2009.

de Koning, Martijn. “Changing Worldviews and Friendship: An Exploration of the Life Stories of Two Female Salafis in the Netherlands.” In Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement, edited by Roel Meijer, 404–423. London: Hurst & Company, 2009.

———. “The ‘Other’ Political Islam: Understanding Salafi Politics.” In Whatever happened to the Islamists? Salafis, Heavy Metal Muslims and the Lure of Consumerist Islam, edited by Amel Boubakeur and Olivier Roy, 153–175. London: Hurst & Company, 2012.

Leirvik, Oddbjørn. “Muslims in Norway: Value Discourses and Interreligious Dialogue.” Tidsskrift for islamforskning 8(1), (2014), 137–161.

Linge, Marius. “The Islamic Network: A Case Study of how Salafi da‘wa emerges, mobilizes and transforms in a Norwegian context.” MA-thesis, Université de Saint-Joseph, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines. Beirut: 2013.

Mårtensson, Ulrika and Vongraven Eriksen, Eli-Anne. “Muslim Society Trondheim: A Local History.” Tidsskrift for islamforskning 8(1), (2014): 162–189.

Picken, Gavin. “The Quest for Orthodoxy and Tradition in Islam: Hanbali Responses to Sufism.” In Fundamentalism in the Modern World. Volume 2: Fundamentalism and Communication: Culture, Media and the Public Sphere, edited by Ulrika Mårtensson, Jennifer Bailey, Priscilla Ringrose and Asbjørn Dyrendal, 237–263. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.

Roy, Olivier. Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

Sirriyeh, Elizabeth. Sufis and Anti-Sufis—the Defense, Rethinking and Rejection of Sufism in the Modern World. Richmond: Curzon, 1999.

Solberg, Anne Ross. “The Mahdi wears Armani: An Analysis of the Harun Yahya Enterprise.” Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 80. Huddinge: Södertörns Högskola, 2013.

Utvik, Bjørn Olav. “For Gud og friheten—politiske salafier i Kuwait og Saudi- Arabia.” Babylon—Nordisk tidskrift for Midtøstenstudier 2 (2010): 32–43.

Wagemakers, Joas. “The Enduring Legacy of the Second Saudi State: Quietist and Radical Wahhabi Contestations of al-walâ’ wa’l-barâ’.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 44 (2012): 93–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0020743811001267

Wiktorowicz, Quintan. “Anatomy of the Salafi Movement.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. 29 (2006): 207–239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10576100500497004

Published

2014-07-08

Issue

Section

Special Issue: Articles

How to Cite

Mårtensson, U. (2014). Norwegian Haraki Salafism: “The Saved Sect” Hugs the Infidels. Comparative Islamic Studies, 8(1-2), 113-138. https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v8i1-2.113