Salafism – category or label? An epistemological reflection on the academic study of Salafism

Abstract

While much literature discusses how to classify Salafis, a less-examined question is how to determine whether an actor is a Salafi in the first place. To address this, I propose distinguishing between Salafism as an academic category and as a label self-applied by actors. Should researchers’ categories replicate actors’ labels? I argue that aligning categories with actors’ labels is neither operationalisable nor effective for identifying and categorising Salafis. Although some Salafis do describe themselves as such, many are reluctant to do so publicly, while others reject the label altogether or choose to abandon it. These (re)labelling dynamics are shaped by strategic considerations linked to the changing political context and therefore do not necessarily indicate behavioural-ideological change. (Sub-)labels are not transparent reflections of actors’ intimate identities but rather conventions shaped by interactions with other actors, including the state, media, and other Islamic activists. In particular, the securitisation of Salafism by the state and intra-Salafi competition incentivise actors to self-identify strategically, rendering labels unreliable proxies for categorising behaviours. In contrast to the nominalist approach, I propose a genealogical method: studying actors’ long-term trajectories to contextualise labels, ground categories empirically, and identify critical moments when labels and/or behaviours and ideologies change.