Salafism – Global Ideology and Local Practices

Can we look to theology to explain its advances in recent years, or are local conditions more formative of how Salafism is practiced by believers in different locations? If Salafism is an expression of reform, how does it act upon existing practices?

In this double seminar, Martijn de Koning (University of Amsterdam/Radboud University) and Terje Østebø (University of Florida) presents Salafism as understood and practiced by Muslims in the Netherlands and Ethiopia. How do they understand their role in the society in which they live? And how do they explain and justify the religious doctrines to which they adhere, often in contradiction to established practice? How is piety expressed and how does religious practice form a sense of belonging?

Dr. Martijn de Koning (University of Amsterdam/Radboud University, the Netherlands) is a social anthropologist who was worked extensively with the rise of Salafi groups in Dutch cities. He has published several books on the topic and also participated extensively in the public debate in the Netherlands.

Dr. Terje Østebø (University of Florida, USA) comes from religious studies, and has published widely on Salafism in the African context, particularly in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. His book (Localising Salafism. Religious change among Oromo Muslims in Bale, Ethiopia, Brill, 2012) focuses on the emergence and trajectory of the Salafi movement in Ethiopia from the late 1960s to the present.