Suchergebnisse

The past two decades have seen an increasing association between Lebanese Salafism and violence, with less attention being paid to Salafis who focus on peaceful proselytization. In reality, it is these Salafis whose influence has dramatically grown since the eruption of the Syrian conflict that profoundly affected Lebanon as well. Based on extensive fieldwork, Zoltan Pall offers insights into the dynamics of non-violent Lebanese Salafi groups and examines the importance of transnational links in shaping the trajectory of the movement. In particular, he shows how the internal transformation of Salafism in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia led to the fragmentation of the Lebanese Salafi community. By analysing Salafism as a network, we see how the movement creates and mobilizes material and symbolic resources, and how it contributes to reshaping the structures of authority within the country's Sunni Muslim community.

This article is an inquiry into how the transnational networks of Salafism in Europe and the Middle East are structured by looking at two case studies: one about a Lebanese-Palestinian preacher in Sweden and one about a Dutch preacher in the Netherlands and theuk. By presenting these case studies we explain the predominance of informality in these networks, and highlight the different ways in which they link European Salafi preachers to the Middle East, yielding different types of social capital. Our findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork in Lebanon, the Netherlands, Sweden and theukbetween 2007 and 2012.