The Navigation In and Around Salafism

A Case Study of Yasir Qadhi

Yahya BarryPhD Candidate, The Edinburgh Alwaleed Centre

Salafism & Authority

Zealous Preservation of Orthodoxy

The Foundations of Authority

Appeal to Young Muslims

Trend in Western-born and Raised Callers

Social Media – a new sense of authority?

Neo-Institutes: e.g. AlMaghrib

Qadhi’s involvement with AlMaghrib

Yasir Qadhi: Brief Biography

Yasir Qadhi: Biographyan American Muslim scholar and writer of Pakistani descent and he is Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al-Maghrib Institute, an Islamic educational institution. He has written books and has lectured on Islam and contemporary Muslim issues. A 2011 New York Times Magazine essay described Qadhi as "one of the most influential conservative clerics in American Islam“Born: 1975 (age 38–39) in Houston, TexasQadhi in 1996 enrolled at the Islamic University of Medina in Medina, Saudi Arabia. There he earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic from the university's College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences and a master's degree in Islamic Theology from its College of Dawah. Qadhi returned to the United States in 2005 after nine years in Saudi Arabia.• Qadhi teaches in the Religious Studies Department of Rhodes College, in Memphis, Tennessee. Additionally, he has

completed a doctoral in theology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.• Qadhi is also the Dean of Academic Affairs and an instructor for the AlMaghrib Institute, a seminar-based Islamic

education institution. The instructors travel to designated locations in the US, UK and Canada (and more recently, Malaysia) to teach Islamic studies in English.

• Qadhi gives regular sermons and lectures, and also appears on a number of Islamic satellite channels: (Islam Channel in England; Huda TV in Egypt; Al-Fajr Channel in Egypt; and Peace TV in India, the UK, and the U.S), where he teaches ʿAqīdah, Seerah, Tajweed and other topics. A former Salafist, he described himself as a "revivalist" in the Islamic sense, and likens some of the practices he endorses as similar to those practiced by conservative Christian groups and Orthodox Jews in America, particularly with regard to dietary laws, family values, and modest dress for women.

• Qadhi is also one of the founding members and Islamic specialists at MuslimMatters.org, a webzine for American Muslims.

Al-walaa wal Baraa

Dishonesty/Lack of Integrity

Eloquence?

Distinguishing between the sciences

Was Yasir Qadhi ever Salafi?

The context behind the question

Early Warning Signals

Character Traits Disparaged

Allegiances & Positions

ConclusionsThe Power of social media: further research – new authority

New configurations of authority as a result of the interactions between living Islam in the west and the opportunities provided by new media

In the case of Qadhi, he has been able to exert considerable influence on the Muslim community in the west by adopting a more ’intellectual’ trajectory. I theorize that he has made it ok to be ’guided’ even when renouncing ’Salafism’

Implications of renouncing Salafism on the religious economy: more competition?

Implications of promoting a self-sufficient western scholarly establishment – isolation of the traditional centres of Islam and the Muslim world

Core Topic: Qadhi’s Involvement with AlMaghrib over the Years

A gradual shift from a previous ’Salafist’ stance to a more ’pluralistic’

Criticism from those ascribing to the Salafi Methodology

Core Topic: What this Paper PresentsA Case Study of Qadhi’s Shifting Position

His current stance: how and on what grounds has he negotiated it?

How has he trasferred elements of Salafism to his current position in order to keep that element of authority and appeal whilst blending it with other elements?

Core Topic: What this Paper PresentsA Case Study of Qadhi’s Shifting Position

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Qadhi’s criticism of the ’Salafi Movement’ and its scholars as well as the refutation of the Salafis against him and how he has responded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRCPsNdIKcg