Book Review: ‘The Making of a Salafi Muslim Woman: Paths to Conversion’

By Gulfer Ulas

Anabel Inge’s book has been a starting point for me to study Salafism from a woman’s perspective. She is not only specifically looking at women in the UK Salafi community, but also giving fascinating insights into the Salafi lifestyle and their community resulting from ethnographic fieldwork and two years of interviews in London.

The book begins with “Development of Salafism in Britain”, where she offers an insight into the Salafi population in the United Kingdom, which is composed of Somalis, Afro-Caribbean converts, and others who immigrated during the 1980s and empowered their ideas through socialisation at mosques. They are all young people who are converts with no previous religious background and have learned religious matters during social gatherings at local mosques.

One of the most essential highlights of the book is Inge’s reflection on the use of Salafism and Wahhabism as interchangeable terms.  While many usually refer to them as one, this led the Salafi community to reinterpret their belief through al-salaf al-salih (the pious predecessors), - a term used to describe early Muslims based on Prophet Muhammed’s saying: “The best century of my people are those of my century, then the following, then the following.”(Al-Bukhari 1400H: no. 2652) In the case of Britain, Salafi ideas have mostly gained a vital place mainly in London and Birmingham. In addition, one Salafi group called JIMAS (Jam’iat Ihyaa Minhaaj Al-Sunnah) or Society to Revive the Way of the Messenger, which was established in 1984, has contributed remarkably to Salafism’s spread in the United Kingdom. Regarding this, she reveals in the book that, contrary to popular belief, leaders of JIMAS, Brixton Mosque, have stated that they have never received funding from Saudi Arabia or any related NGOs. So, how do Salafis shape their development in Britain?

The one international and well-known source of financial support came from Muslim World League, which financed many mosques, centers, and schools in Britain.  The role of Saudi Arabia rather appears in financing the translation of Islamic publications into many languages (Wiktorowicz, 2001), and from 1984 to 2000, copies of the Quran were published in more than twenty languages.  When the group leader of JIMAS, Davud Burbank, left the organisation, he eventually published Salafi Publications. Similarly, Usama Hasan also started to work in the Quilliam Foundation - a UK-based counter-extremism think tank.

Reflecting on the post-9/11 era, Salafist communities have struggled to express themselves because of the alleged connection with violent extremism – which has now become a fairly popular Islamophomic discourse. Salafi women are often considered part of the radicalisation tools, although those who were featured in the book are explicitly against violence. In fact, many see (Salafism?) as a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that condones women's subjugation and fuels extreme Jihadist extremism. This view portrays Salafi women as the unfortunate victims of a fanatical version of Islam.

The young Salafis understood their religious identity through their parent’s Sunni label. In contrast, girls tend to be more attached to their mothers and are more religiously observant compared to boys. Salafi mosques, such as Brixton, welcome Somali women where they can worship, study, and socialise with like-minded people.

Becoming Salafi

In her book, Inge looks at the conversion process from two perspectives. Firstly, she investigates how social, political, economic contexts can be decisive factors in the case of Britain; secondly,  she explores the connection between their conversion and the biographical need for a new identity. [GU1] Thus, she elaborates on five Somalian cases and compares their stories to understand the social conditions that led them to meet in similar circumstances. The UK has been an ideal destination to migrate for several reasons: firstly, for its outstanding education opportunities; secondly, because it treats refugees better than other Western countries; thirdly, because Somalian communities are already established in the UK. At the same time, Inge draws the same conclusion for Eritreans who escaped from the civil war in Ethiopia and ended up living with their relatives in Britain. In nearly all cases, it has been observed that parents have sent them to madrasas to learn and practice their religion – where it is defined as a social club.

In light of the given data on Somali communities living in the UK, there are some significant details that appear in the book. Almost all Salafi women have received the same form of education from a young age, yet it remains inadequate to explain how some of them finally end up on a pathway to extremist actions. At a local level, ethnic and social backgrounds are crucial to shaping the identities of Salafi women. They have all been educated in England and their main language is English, however, they still feel uncomfortable being part of the ‘Western culture’. Meanwhile, while teachers have been pretty important in promoting a discourse of ‘sisterhood’ as the encouragement of a shared etiquette, families were rarely sympathetic to Salafism as to be a form of extremism.

The book reveals that there is a variety of reasons in construction of a Salafi identity and it is important to test two main theories with the data provided: first, the “rational choice theory” portrays individuals as rational actors that weigh pros and cons when joining a violent organisation; second, the “social movement theory” can illuminate the making of a Salafi woman in the UK. Since the elements of  deprivation would be too reductive to define the possible reasons; these two theories can offer a helpful contribution for Salafism’s appeal among young women. In some respects, these two theories can offer a helpful ground for women who are convinced by discourses of Salafi’s rhetoric a sense of belonging – (ummah) and participation – (sisterhood). Eventually, a mixed picture of commitment hence appeared as a result of her study.

In general, perhaps the greatest challenge for the Salafi community is the general acceptance of their link to ISIS in the Western media. One of the prominent Salafi  preacher, Abu Khadeejah, have quoted: “There is a war between the Salafis and ISIS.” In addition to this, since the early 1990s, Salafi leaders have condemned the jihadi ideology and helped through various counter-extremism government policies.

Inge’s book provides important research into Salafi communities that demonstrate the extent to which local context matters. The book eventually draws as a conclusion: “There is no single profile of Salafi but every Salafi woman lives their religion in diverse ways”.