Salafi Groups and Their Movement
In Islam, there is one group whose da’wah (preaching) movement is oriented towards purifying the faith from all elements of shirk or associating with God and bid’ah or the implementation of worship activities that have no basis in Islam.
This da’wah movement is known as the salafi movement. The salafi movement has a long history and originated in the Middle East, then spread to various parts of the world, from Islamic countries to Europe and America. The teachings of this group also spread and grew rapidly in Indonesia.
According to the origins and historical roots of the salafi movement, it can be said that the origins of the salafi da’wah movement emerged in the mid-1960s in Saudi Arabia under the name al-Jama’ah al-Salafiyah al-Muhtasibah. This movement developed among the political and elitist pragmatic mainstream Islamic movements, or also known as Al-Sahwah al-Islamiyah.
This movement appeared for the first time at the time of the scholars who followed the course of Islamic jurisprudence (mazhab) of Hambali. Pioneered by Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal, this group began to call on Muslims to return to the main foundation of Muslims, namely the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (Hadith) according to the understanding of the companions and groups of followers of the tabi’in which became known as the “salaf” al-shalih” (the pious predecessors).
The main concern of their movement was around the purification of monotheism and several other issues centered on the call for and renewal of strict religious practice. Salafis believe that the divisions, conflicts, political instability and economic turmoil that befell Muslim countries today stem from their failure to follow the example of their predecessors, and that it was a serious mistake that resulted in the failure of Muslims.
Prof. Noorhaidi Hasan, an expert in Islamic politics and a postgraduate lecturer at UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta said that seemingly trivial issues such as wearing the jalabiya (robes and robes) for men and the niqab for women were the main themes in their daily conversations. The salafi group believes that Muslims must be converted to Islam through a gradual evolutionary process that includes education (tarbiyah) and purification (tasfiyah) before the perfect application of shari’ah can be realized.
“To fulfill this goal, they are committed to da’wah activities by participating in the implementation of halaqah (scientific studies) and cycles (training to sharpen knowledge),” he said.
Wahhabism and Salafism
Furthermore, Noorhaidi argues that there is no doubt that this phenomenon develops as a result of the expansion of the da’wah of the contemporary salafi movement throughout the world, which represents the most puritanical sect of Islam, namely Wahhabism. Although this mention, according to him, can cause confusion, because in old academic discourse the term Wahhabism is usually distinguished from Salafism.
If Wahhabism is a term meaning reformist thoughts developed by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and taking inspiration from the teachings of Taqiy al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taimiyah, their main agenda is to seek to inspire movements that destroy superstitions and cult practices. Sufis who exist among Arab society are considered heretics.
They also strictly distinguished between the worlds of believers and those of non-believers, and affirm the Qur’an and Sunnah as the two basic sources of belief in binding Islamic law.
Meanwhile, Salafism emerged almost a century after Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, a prominent Islamic scholar who opposed Sufism. Salafism itself is synonymous with modernist reformist thoughts developed by Islamic reformers such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad ‘Abduh, and Muhammad Rasyid.
Of course they are not like their predecessors who only called on Muslims to purify the faith from all forms of heresy and taqlid (religion without knowing the evidence), but to open the door to ijtihad (religion by knowing the evidence and cultivating it). They also support the devotion to modern progress which is believed to be a prerequisite for achieving the glory of Islam again.
Since the development of Salafism went hand in hand with the emergence of Islamic political awareness in the face of Western colonization, the obsession with building the Ummah and the Islamic caliphate was embedded in this movement and left its mark in the dynamics of Islamic politics throughout the 20th century.
The contemporary salafi movement can be called a repackaged form of Wahhabism which shows its characters to codify and follow more systematically the thoughts developed by three prominent classical thinkers among Wahhabis, namely Ibn Taimiyah, Muhammad Ibn Qayyim Al-Jauziyah and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab”, said Noorhaidi in his book, Laskar Jihad.
Salafis and Terrorism
In Indonesia, the development of reformist thought or Salafism was marked by the breakup of the Padri movement in West Sumatra. Movements such as al-Irsyad and Persatuan Islam actively echoed the call for a Return to the Qur’an and Sunnah and called for abandoning various traditional customs that were contaminated with heresy and superstition (khurafat). In the mid-1980s, Indonesia began to witness the expansion of the salafi da’wah movement from the appearance of young men with long beards (lihya), flowing Arab-style robes (jalabiya), turbans (imamah), and long pants to the ankles (isbal) and women wearing the niqab in public space.
Noorhaidi Hasan stated that under the changing political situation in the 1990s this movement was able to develop rapidly until it succeeded in forming a stream of Islamic activism exclusivism through various open da’wah activities on campuses and mosques. Following the collapse of the New Order regime in May 1998, the Salafi movement which was initially consistent in developing an apolitical attitude and only focused on refining aqidah began to get involved in real politics. Through various mass religious gatherings (tabligh akbar). Under the leadership of Ja’far Umar Talib they established the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah Communication Forum (FKAWJ) in February 1999. They then issued a resolution calling on Indonesian Muslims to carry out jihad.
Zaki Mubarak, a lecturer at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, classifies the salafi movement in Indonesia into three categories, namely pure Salafis or Puritanical Salafis, Political Salafis or Haraki Salafis, and Jihadist Salafis. All three have a common view of the three basic teachings of Salafism, namely monotheism, following the sunnah and rejecting bid’ah, and al-wala wa al-bara.
According to him, regarding monotheism, all Salafi groups agree on three dimensions of monotheism, namely rububiyyah, uluhiyyah, and al-asma wa al-nature. Of the three groups, the Salafi Jihadists are the most violent and rigid and the most dangerous. They consider that something that did not exist at the time of the Prophet Muhammad is heresy.
“This third group is the most dangerous because it attacks anyone who disagrees with them. Especially for the Salafi Jihadist group, it has five doctrines and practices, namely monotheism, creed, takfir, al-wala wa al-bara and jihad. They will fight anyone who disagrees with them. Even modern jihadists are fighting governments that don’t implement Islamic Sharia,” explained Zaki.
Based on this, a researcher from PAKAR (Center for the Study of Radicalism and Deradicalization) Taufiqqurahman said that actually the three salafi groups, namely the Puritanist Salafis, Haraki Salafis and Jihadist Salafis are equally dangerous. Because they not only have the potential to make someone a radical but also the potential to make someone a terrorist.
“In Indonesia, we can see for example that Aman Abdurrahman, the founder of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) comes from a salafi group, then also in Algeria there is a salafi terrorist group called The Salafist Group for Call (or Preaching) and Combat (GSPC). All salafi groups basically each have an intolerant nature, and this intolerant attitude is the coveyorbelt towards extremism and terrorism,” said Taufiqqurahman to The Apex Chronicles.
Zaki added that although they were both salafi, the three groups also disbelieved one another because their schools of thought were not the same. There are schools whose centers are in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and others,” he concluded.
