Salfisim should be Banned Worldwide

"We would not allow Nazism to flourish again unchecked in this world - we should therefore not allow Salafism and Wahhabism continue with its violence ideologies."

It is illogical to believe that 1.57 billion Muslim adherents, making up over 23% of the world population is supporting and promoting terrorism in the world. But there has to be a source of this violence.

“So the question that arises is where do groups like ISIS get their source of legislation from? recently in an article on Huffington Post, Sayed Mahdi al-Modarresi mention the problem as Salafism. An exclusivist school of thought, espousing a misguided creed that oozes with hate. In addition the broader ideologies name is Wahhabism, and represent a serious challenge to the theology and practice of the mainstream Sunni Islam.”

Wahhabism (Arabic: ???????, Wahhābiyyah) or Wahhabi mission (/w??hɑ?bi, wɑ?-/; Arabic: ?????? ?????????, al-Da'wa al-Wahhābiyyah ) is a religious movement or sect or form of Sunni Islam variously described as "orthodox", "ultraconservative", "austere", "fundamentalist", "puritanical" (or "puritan"). It describes an Islamic "reform movement" to restore "pure monotheistic worship", or an "extremist pseudo-Sunni movement". Adherents often object to the term Wahhabi or Wahhabism as derogatory, and prefer to be called Salafi or muwahhid.

The Salafist movement, also known as the Salafi movement, is a movement within Islam that references the Salafist doctrine known as Salafism. The Salafi movement is often described as synonymous with Wahhabism.

Wahhabism is named after an eighteenth century preacher and scholar, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792). He started a revivalist movement in the remote, sparsely populated region of Najd, advocating a purging of practices such as the popular cult of saints, and shrine and tomb visitation, widespread among Muslims, but which he considered idolatry, impurities and innovations in Islam. Eventually he formed a pact with a local leader Muhammad bin Saud offering political obedience and promising that protection and propagation of the Wahhabi movement, would mean "power and glory" and rule of "lands and men." The movement is centered on the principle of Tawhid, or the "uniqueness" and "unity" of God.

The alliance between followers of ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad bin Saud's successors (the House of Saud) proved to be a rather durable alliance. The house of ibn Saud continued to maintain its politico-religious alliance with the Wahhabi sect through the waxing and waning of its own political fortunes over the next 150 years, through to its eventual proclamation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, and then afterwards, on into modern times. Today Mohammed bin Abd Al-Wahhab's teachings are state-sponsored and are the dominant form of Islam in 21st century Saudi Arabia.

The movement also draws from the teachings of Medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyyah and early jurist Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Wahhabism has been accused of being "a source of global terrorism", and for causing disunity in the Muslim community by labeling non-Wahhabi Muslims as apostates (takfir) thus paving the way for their bloodshed. It has also been criticized for the destruction of historic mazaars, mausoleums, and other Muslim and non-Muslim buildings and artifacts. The "boundaries" of what make up Wahhabism have been called "difficult to pinpoint", but in contemporary usage, the terms Wahhabi and Salafi are often used interchangeably, and considered to be movements with different roots that have merged since the 1960s. But Wahhabism has also been called "a particular orientation within Salafism", or an ultra-conservative, Saudi brand of Salafism.

Because Wahhabis believe that opinions expressed by Muslims (other than those of the first three generations of Muslims) on what is Islamic are not worthy of consideration they do not follow the "consensus" (or ijma`) of non-Salafi Islamic scholars that came after those generations as a basis of shariah.

Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law Khaled Abou El Fadl attributed the appeal of Wahhabism to some Muslims as stemming from;

- Arab nationalism, which followed the Wahhabi attack on the Ottoman Empire

- Reformism, which followed a return to Salaf (as-Salaf a?-?āli?;)

- Destruction of the Hejaz Khilafa in 1925;

- Control of Mecca and Medina, which gave Wahhabis great influence on Muslim culture and thinking;

- Oil, which after 1975 allowed Wahhabis to promote their interpretations of Islam using billions from oil export revenue.

According to counter-terrorism scholar Thomas F. Lynch III, Wahabbi extremists perpetrated about 700 terror attacks killing roughly 7,000 people from 1981-2006.

Inherent extremism and terrorism in their ideology

In recent years, Salafi methodology has come to be associated with the jihad of extremist groups that advocate the killing of innocent civilians. The Saudi scholar, Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen considered suicide bombing to be unlawful and the scholar Abdul Muhsin al-Abbad wrote a treatise entitled: According to which intellect and Religion is Suicide bombings and destruction considered Jihad?. Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani stated that "History repeats itself. Everybody claims that the Prophet is their role model. Our Prophet spent the first half of his message making dawah, and he did not start it with jihad".

The self-declared "Islamic State" (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been described as both more violent than al-Qaeda and more closely aligned with Wahhabism.

Some Salafi scholars appear to support extremism and acts of violence. The Egyptian Salafi cleric Mahmoud Shaaban "appeared on a religious television channel calling for the deaths of main opposition figures Mohammed ElBaradei – a Nobel peace prize laureate – and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi." The popular salafi preacher Zakir Naik speaking of Osama bin Laden, said that he would not criticise bin Laden because he had not met him and did not know him personally. He added that, "If bin Laden is fighting enemies of Islam, I am for him," and that "If he is terrorizing America – the terrorist, biggest terrorist – I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist. The thing is that if he is terrorizing the terrorist, he is following Islam. Whether he is or not, I don’t know, but you as Muslims know that, without checking up, laying allegations is also wrong."

Some other Islamic groups, particularly some Sufis, have also complained about extremism among some Salafi. It has been noted that the Western association of Salafi ideology with violence stems from writings "through the prism of security studies" that were published in the late 20th century and that continue to persist.

Salafism and Wahhabism as Militant and political Islam

Salafism has been recently criticized by Khaled Abou El Fadl of the UCLA School of Law. El Fadl argues that the Salafi methodology "drifted into stifling apologetics" by the mid-20th century, a reaction against "anxiety" to "render Islam compatible with modernity," by its leaders earlier in the century. He attacks those who state "any meritorious or worthwhile modern institutions were first invented and realized by Muslims". He argues the result was that "an artificial sense of confidence and an intellectual lethargy" developed, according to Abou El Fadl, "that took neither the Islamic tradition nor" the challenges of the modern world "very seriously."

According to the As-Sunnah Foundation of America, the Salafi and Wahhabi movements are strongly opposed by a long list of Sunni scholars. The Saudi government has been criticised for damaging Islamic heritage of thousands of years in Saudi Arabia. Though Salafis when told about this were as opposed to it as other Muslims. The Salafi movement has been linked by Marc Sageman to some terrorists group around the world.

For their guiding principles, the leaders of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, are open and clear about their almost exclusive commitment to the Wahhabi movement of Sunni Islam. The group circulates images of Wahhabi religious textbooks from Saudi Arabia in the schools it controls. Videos from the group's territory have shown Wahhabi texts plastered on the sides of an official missionary van.

According to scholar Bernard Haykel, "for Al Qaeda, violence is a means to an ends; for ISIS, it is an end in itself." Wahhabism is the Islamic States "closest religious cognate."

Among the criticism, or comments made by critics of Wahhabi movement are;

- that it is not so much strict and uncompromising as aberrant, going beyond the bounds of Islam in its restricted definition of tawhid (monotheism), and much too willing to takfir (declare non-Muslim and subject to execution) Muslims it found in violation of Islam (in the second Wahhabi-Saudi jihad/conquest of the Arabian peninsula, an estimated 400,000 were killed or wounded according to some estimates);

- that ibn Saud's agreement to wage jihad to spread Ibn Abdul Wahhab's teachings had more to do with traditional Najd practice of raiding -- "instinctive fight for survival and appetite for lucre"—than with religion;

- that it has no connection to other Islamic revival movements;

- that unlike other revivalists, its founder Abd ul-Wahhab showed little scholarship—writing little and making even less commentary;

- that its contention that ziyara (visiting tombs of Muhammad, his family members, descendants, companions, or Sufi saints) and tawassul (intercession), violate tauhid al-'ibada (directing all worship to God alone) has no basis in tradition, in consensus or in hadith, and that even if it did, it would not be grounds for excluding practitioners of ziyara and tawassul from Islam;

- that historically Wahhabis have had a suspicious willingness to ally itself with non-Muslim powers (specifically America and Britain), and in particular to ignore the encroachments into Muslim territory of a non-Muslim imperial power (the British) while waging jihad and weakening the Muslim Caliphate of the Ottomans; and

-that Wahhabi strictness in matters of hijab and separation of the sexes, has led not to a more pious and virtuous Saudi Arabia, but to a society showing a very un-Islamic lack of respect towards women.

According to at least one critic, the 1744-1745 alliance between Ibn Abdul Wahhab and the tribal chief Muhammad bin Saud to wage jihad on neighboring allegedly false-Muslims, was a "consecration" by Ibn Abdul Wahhab of bin Saud tribe's long standing raids on neighboring oases by "renaming those raids jihad." Part of the Najd's "Hobbesian state of perpetual war pitted Bedouin tribes against one another for control of the scarce resources that could stave off starvation." And a case of substituting faith, "the 'opening' or conquest of a vast territory through religious zeal", for the "instinctive fight for survival and appetite for lucre."

The Wahhabi teachings disapprove of veneration of the historical sites associated with early Islam, on the grounds that only God should be worshipped and that veneration of sites associated with mortals leads to idolatry. Many buildings associated with early Islam, including mazaar, mausoleums and other artifacts have been destroyed in Saudi Arabia by Wahhabis from early 19th century through the present day. This practice has proved controversial and has received considerable criticism from Sunni and Shia Muslims and in the non-Muslim World.

The Wahhabi teachings disapprove of veneration of the historical sites associated with early Islam, on the grounds that only God should be worshipped and that veneration of sites associated with mortals leads to idolatry. Many buildings associated with early Islam, including mazaar, mausoleums and other artifacts have been destroyed in Saudi Arabia by Wahhabis from early 19th century through the present day. This practice has proved controversial and has received considerable criticism from Sunni and Shia Muslims and in the non-Muslim World.

Recognizing Salafi’s and Wahabbi’s as hate groups and implementing a global ban

We reject the actions of groups with Salafi and Wahhabi ideology that have adopted murder, kidnapping and violence against innocent people, the destruction of schools, sacred spaces and forced conversions, in the name of Islam. These include Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Al Qa’eda, and more recently, the “Islamic State”.

We stand in solidarity with Christians, Yazidis, Jews and Muslims who have been forced to leave their homes, and have experienced terror and trauma at the hands of those who claim to speak for Islam, but are behaving in a manner contrary to the tenets of our faith.  

We are global citizens who stand for justice. We stand with communities that have been divided, with women who have been raped, with churches that have been razed. We stand with children that have known nothing but war, and death. We condemn the action of groups that use the religion of Islam to justify their brutality against innocent men, women and children of all faiths.  

We acknowledge the legitimate concerns of groups that have been economically and politically marginalised, but call for political reform based on inclusivity. The human rights abuses perpetrated by these terrorists and killers have nothing to do with the concept of Jihad which is to "struggle" or "strive" for goodness according to Islamic teachings. Their behaviour is contrary to Islam’s teachings, and are repugnant to Muslims worldwide.  

The Islam that we know centred on values of justice, mercy and compassion - more than a billion Muslims co-existing with the rest of the human population in that world does not engage in the violent actions of Salafi’s and Wahhabi’s. It stands in solidarity with all people facing persecution.  These organisations – and the states that sponsor them – do not act in best interest of humanity at large. We reject this hijacking and misrepresentation of Islam’s teachings. We further reject all forms of sectarianism - in Africa, Middle East and in majority Muslim countries.  

“Remember that people are of two kinds; they are either your brothers in religion or your brothers in mankind.” -  Ali ibn Abu Talib, Muslim caliph and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad.

Akin to Nazism

Salafism and Wahhabism is comparable to a cult or to Nazism - NOT to a theological belief  or religious. Nazism is rightly condemned today, yet such poisonous ideologies such as Salafism and Wahhabism has an even worse track record historically.

If followers of the cult of Scientology were to begin beheading people and violently taking over large parts of the world there would be immediate calls to ban it.

Humanity itself and the global freedoms achieved to date though intellectual pursuits of modern civilisation is at threat from this ever growing threat stemming from Salafi and Wahhabi belief system which incites hatred, violence and oppression, intolerance and fear wherever it spreads.

Thank you for your time and please help us in this struggle to retain our basic freedoms, in the face of this violent cult.

We would not allow Nazism to flourish again unchecked in this world - we should therefore not allow Salafism and Wahhabism continue with its violence ideologies.