Laleh Bakhtiar is an Islamic scholar, translator, editor, and author based in Chicago. Her latest work is a teacher’s manual called Critical Thinking Quranic Perspective, part of her Mobile Minaret campaign.
Posts By This Author
The 'Us vs. Them' Ideology of Radical Salafis
05-24-2016
Palestinian Salafists protesting Charlie Hebdo in Gaza City. Image via REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/RNS
American journalists routinely report on Islamist extremists such as the group that calls itself the Islamic State, or ISIS, without mentioning one of the key doctrines that inspires them.
Whether translated loosely as “us vs. them” or more precisely as “allegiance-disassociation,” “wala wal-bara” is a foundational doctrine of Salafism, the Sunni purist movement that has become a major force in Middle Eastern politics.