The Salafi Worldview and the Hermeneutical Limits of Mainstream Sunni Critique of Salafi-Jihadism

The Salafi Worldview and the Hermeneutical Limits of Mainstream Sunni Critique of Salafi-Jihadism. Adis Duderija. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2018.1529359

Abstract: The aim of this article is to point to the hermeneutical limits of the critique of mainstream Sunnism vis-a-vis the Salafi-jihadist interpretations with particular reference to the literature produced by the proponents of the IS. The main argument the article makes is that by subscribing to what will be termed a “Salafi worldview,” mainstream Sunnism shares many interpretationally crucial epistemological and methodological mechanisms with those adopted by the proponents of the ideology behind the IS. As such mainstream Sunnism has strong hermeneutical limits that do not allow it to be in a position to mount an interpretationally effective rebuttal of many beliefs and practices Salafi-jihadists resort to including those pertaining to apostasy, enslavement, and gender-related issues.

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What matters most from the perspective of the aims of this article is not necessarily the question of whether or not the proponents of the IS interpretations of Islam are citing the Qur’an and hadith de-contextually or selectively,64 or whether or not their appropriation of Hanbali/ahl al-hadith scholars is doing justice to their views or whether or not their appropriation of the Companions or the Salaf are indeed representative but the actual mode of reasoning employed and the epistemological and hermeneutical process that informs their construction of authority and normativity.  Based on the above evidence and analysis it is clearly evident that the mode of reasoning and the construction of authority employed by the IS proponents shares the same Salafi worldview as does mainstream Sunnism. One of the implications of this finding is that theological rebuttals penned by mainstream Sunni scholars have significant hermeneutical limits and make it very difficult to render the interpretations of Salafi-jihadist groups like the IS as hermeneutically unreasonable if mainstream Sunni hermeneutical commitments embodied in the Salafi worldview are taken as normative .  Hence, the persuasive power of mainstream Sunni critique of Salafi-jihadism based on scriptural hermeneutics on issues such as those discussed above, but also others,65 is greatly impaired. Hence, it is not surprising that, for example, in mainstream Sunnism, apostasy is considered to be punishable by death although differences in opinion exist as to what constitutes the acts of apostasy or what its basis is (i.e., religious or political).  66 Or, to provide another example, it is not surprising that there are many shared beliefs, laws, and practices pertaining to the role and status of women in society, including dress codes, between the proponents of mainstream Sunnism and those associated with the IS ideology.67 I argue that these are the result of their shared subscription to the Salafi worldview as described here.

If mainstream Sunnism was to render the views of Salafi-jihadist grounds such as the IS hermeneutically unreasonable it would need to adopt a significantly different approach to conceptualizing the concept of turath by moving away from its emphasis on isnad and a heavily textualist epistemology, and also rethink other aspects of what we described as the Salafi worldview. It would, at the minimum, have to adopt a much more contextualist approach to the conceptualization and interpretation of the Qur’an and the hadith; it would need to rethink the concept of Sunna and its relationship with the methodologies associated with authenticating the hadith and it would need to subscribe to a rationalist Islamic theology and theory of ethics.68