Yasir Qadhi - Rethinking Salafism: Shifting Trends & Changing Typologies Post Arab Spring

About this lecture

In this academic lecture delivered at Georgetown University, Dr. Yasir Qadhi critically examines the landscape of Salafism before and after the Arab Spring, arguing that existing Western academic frameworks — particularly Wiktorowicz's purist/politico/jihadist typology — are fundamentally inadequate because they categorize Salafis by observable political behavior rather than by their underlying theological reasoning. Using Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia as case studies, Dr. Qadhi traces how the Arab Spring acted as a dramatic catalyst, transforming quietist Salafis into political activists almost overnight, reshaping alliances between Salafi and Sufi scholars along political rather than theological lines, and exposing the deep internal diversity of the Salafi movement. He concludes by proposing a new multivariable, open-ended typology that evaluates Salafi groups across several axes — political stance, juridical tendency, definitions of innovation and disbelief, and the applicability of jihad — weighted according to each group's own priorities.