Chapter 3 | Between Salafism, sectarism and violence : the new faces of radicality

The research work carried out by Mohamed-Ali Adraoui, Samir Amghar, Fabio Merone, Marc Sageman and Dominique Thomas proposes to study the new face of radicalism represented by Salafism, and djihadism.

Through numerous examples, especially from Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen and Syria, the group of researchers tries to understand what can lead to political violence. Through a rigorous analysis of different countries and different phenomena of transition to violence, the study underlines the need not to mechanically consider Salafism as an incubator of violence.

The in-depth study of the salafist logic, but also the analysis of political violence in the conflicts in the Middle East, helps to underline how social disintegration and antagonism between societies and states are in fact the causes of this political violence. Empirical analysis of Marc Sageman’s theory of the transition to political violence allows researchers to explain how Salafism can lead to action.

The jihadist logic of the Islamic Salvation Army in Algeria, for example, is described there as the product of the political exclusion of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) by the Algerian regime, while successive political crises Yemen have allowed the emergence of the local jihadist movement Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Thus, the study minimises the role played by Salafist socialisation in violent engagement and presents social and political de-escalation as a prerequisite for exiting violence.