The Diffusion of Salafism in Southeast Asia: Local Receptions of a Globalizing Thinking

Book launch

Presentation of the chapter about Salafism in Southeast Asia in L’Asie du Sud-Est 2020 - Bilan, enjeux et perspectives by its author, Gabriel FACAL.

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Southeast Asia, which accounts for almost a fifth of the global Muslim population, is at the heart of the Salafist thinkings’ exportation circuits. The spread of this movement is a multi-secular process that gathered momentum at the end of the 1960s. Its presence lays on the deep and ancient rooting of multiple transnational Islamic components in Southeast Asia, like the Sufi brotherhoods’networks and the big Muslim organizations which emerged in the course of the nation-states’ buildings. Salafism development is also favored by the secular political parties’ increasing confessionalization and by the Muslim parties’ greater visibility. Other important leverages are the mutual political-economic strategies between the states of ASEAN and the Gulf countries. The Salafist factor sometimes has a strong weight on the religious radicalization processes. However, the quietist, activist or extremist movements, which coexist in the region, all require to take into account both the local ideological synthesis operated by the groups and their universalistic claims.