Salafis in Cape Town in Search of Purity, Certainty and Social Impact

Salafism has become part of a public discourse in Cape Town since the last decade of the 20th century. Drawing on extensive interviews with a number of such Salafis and anti-Salafis, this article examines how this search was manifested and then negotiated within the local religious sphere of the city. This article confirms the view presented in the general literature that Salafism represented the aspiration of individuals who desired to chart an independent approach to Islamic practices. Nevertheless, by focussing attention on a number of individuals and measuring their successes, strategies and life-trajectories, the social dimension of Salafi practices is brought into sharp focus. Salafis were not only effective as lone figures who were prepared to break away from everybody; they were also involved in founding communities for their ideas. And in this regard, they could not escape the social contexts in which they found themselves.

Download pdf view inline

Summary of how Salafees took hold in Cape Town from what I have read:

Believing that he had the most dependableproofs for Islamic practices, Adam challenged his students to find betterones:

I always ask them to go and search for their proof, and I will present to youmy proof, and then you judge what the correct way is. […] Sometimes, they  will bring me the proof from their teachers. Like some of the students attendanother class which is being organised by one Maulana Abdul-Nabi, they  will bring me writings proof by him on the permissibility of Mawlūd [Birthday celebration of the Prophet Muḥammad]. […] So I will destroy all his argumentsto the students. […] Eventually, they find out that not all their teachings arerooted on the Qurʾān and Sunna.

This statement reveals that Adam did not directly address his opponents.He engaged them through students, some of whom apparently movedfrom one teacher to another. He had to persuade his students that his“proofs” were better than others. In one case, he claimed, that a student was persuaded “to leave the Maulana’s classes which are not based on Qurʾān and Sunna”. Adam identified one group after another for criticism. Like other Salafis, his most vehement criticism was directedagainst Sufis, but equally against the Tablighi Jamaat , the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), and other graduates of the Islamic University of Medina.

Perhaps it is this difference that explains another feature of Salafismin Cape Town. Most Salafis in Cape Town did not present a robustSalafi identity for the people of Cape Town. Apart from Adam, theSalafis in Cape Town adjusted their teaching to a greater or lesser extentto the demands made by local patterns of Islamic life. The demands of the local population were mostly accommodated, allowing Salafi ideasto slowly infiltrate into communities. It seems that Salafism was most successful in this indirect and subtle form.