A National Salafi Network

Da‘wah activity in Birmingham was in full swing by 1996 and as an emerging consciousness, Salafism was evidently proving to be more than just a matter of private practice and practical insignificance. Hence, before long, Salafism began the task of making space for itself in a modern urban setting that many 20th-century thinkers might have expected would be safely secularised.[1] By this time, Abu Talhah Dawūd Burbank had already joined forces with those who wanted to establish SalafiPubs. Both Shaykh Abu Khadeejah and Shaykh Abu Talhah (Allah have mercy on him) took on the task to teach the growing community of Salafis classics such as Imām Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Wahhāb’s Kitāb At-Tawheed, Silsilatul-Ahādeeth As-Saheehah of Shaykh Al-Albānī, Sharhus-Sunnah of Imām Al-Barbahāri, Buloogh Al-Marām of Al-Hāfidh Ibn Hajr as well as general topics of admonition. The religious knowledge imparted in these lessons was something nearly everyone listening found to be unique. Moreover, similar activities were beginning to take place in other parts of the country, with other students of knowledge also touring their local regions, including Abu ‘Iyād Amjad Rafiq in the north from his base in Stockton-on-Tees and Abu ‘Ubaidah ‘Amar Bashir in London, and gradually religious place-making and a national network of Salafi communities and organisations began to emerge in the UK.

An unrelenting pursuit to spread the truth and revive authentic Islam far and wide soon resulted in SalafiPubs’s du‘āt becoming lecturers of renowned national and international stature—even Abu Talhah Dawūd Burbank, who preferred not to travel beyond his locality of Birmingham. Whilst the repertoire of countries visited by the likes of Abu Khadeejah, Abu Hakeem, and Abu ‘Iyād Amjad Rafiq to date is extensive, it is worth noting that one of Abu Khadeejah’s early visits was to the United States in 1997 and then again in 2001. The bond that was forged between the UK du’āt and their American counterparts at the time such as Abu Uwais ‘Abdullāh Ahmad ‘Ali and Abul-Hasan Mālik al-Akhdar only served to strengthen the Salafi Da‘wah in the West and globally. SalafiPubs’s du’āt also made several visits to Canada; the Caribbean: Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana in South America; Sri-Lanka; Sweden several times, as well as US Military bases in Germany upon the invitation from some of its personnel who had converted to Islam. In later years they would also make several visits to the Maldives, informal visits to Dubai, as well as parts of Africa.

[1] Beaumont 2011: xii-xiv; Rambo 1993:28-29.