NEWS
2023.10.30
【Report】The 60th AJI Frontier Seminar was held! Mr. Yusaku YONEDA: “Salafism in Contemporary Islamic Thought: Focusing on Ideological Interactions between Egypt and the Arab Gulf States”
The 60th AJI Frontier Seminar was held online on Tuesday, October 10. This time, Mr. Yusaku YONEDA (Ph.D. candidate, College of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University) made an informative presentation titled “Salafism in Contemporary Islamic Thought: Focusing on Ideological Interactions between Egypt and the Arab Gulf States.” He specializes in the study of the role of Islamic thought and political movements in Egypt, especially after the Arab Spring in 2011, under which he has been studying the growth of Salafism, which is characterized by religiously austere devotion to the basics of Islamic doctrine, in the country. The definition of Salafism was one of the central issues in his presentation.
Mr. Yoneda provided interesting research on the process by which the Salafi movement formed itself as a political organization in Egypt after the Arab Spring and exerted influence over the political scene. At the outset, he distinguished Salafism from other Islamic extremist groups and challenged the common perception that it breeds extremism. At the same time, it was noted that no clear academic definition of Salafism existed and that it was often difficult to distinguish Salafism from other forms of faith. Behind these issues, his research aims to reveal a more concrete image of Salafism by scrutinizing its political process in Egypt.
During his presentation, he provided a well-defined outline of his research on Salafism. His focus was on understanding what Salafism is, not just by analyzing texts, but by conducting fieldwork to capture the historical background and local practices of Salafism in Egypt. The Dawah Salafiyah, Egypt's leading Salafist organization, emerged during the 1970s Islamic revival amid political and economic liberalization. Before the Arab Spring, the organization stayed away from politics. However, after the event, it founded the Al-Nour Party, an Islamist political party, and started to actively participate in politics. Mr. Yoneda argues convincingly that we can recognize the multidimensional reality of Salafism by taking a closer look at Salafism in Egypt.
He also discussed the “methodology of Salaf” which is the foundation for creating a diverse version of Salafism. This “methodology” refers to a lifestyle that honors the religious practices of the early period of Islam. However, this “methodology” can vary from person to person. He stresses that further clarification of how people face the “methodology of Salaf” is critical to understanding Salafism. As described above, we can expect to see a multidimensional picture of this thought and political movement that tends to be classified as extremist by focusing on the local development of Salafism in Egypt through Mr. Yoneda’s research.
During the Q&A session that followed the presentation, the audience actively participated in discussions on various topics. Some of the topics that were discussed included queries about the Arabic language, the ideological backgrounds of the people that Mr. Yoneda met as part of his fieldwork, the connection between fieldwork findings and analytical concepts, the correlation between Salafism and other religious and political movements in Egypt, and questions about the focus of his future research.
Mr. Yoneda delivering his presentation
Please visit the following link for previous AJI Frontier Seminars:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/young_researcher/seminar/archive/