Seeking Salvation in Salafism

The articles to follow are derived from the first empirical chapter of my doctoral research which examined the social-cultural characteristics of the women who took part in this study. It focuses on the common themes that emerged from their conversion narratives in relation to their personal experiences and own reflections and interpretations of their unique journey towards the ‘search’ for Salafism. Ultimately, the stories show that their paths to conversion were fraught with social, psychological, cultural and practical difficulties often encountered in the important process of identity and meaning-making—difficulties that usually began in childhood and the emerging adult years.

Religious Beginnings

The radical conversion of females to an orthodox religious sect of a non-Western origin, known as Salafism in the West, remains an enigma for many who try to understand this seemingly puzzling behaviour from the ‘outside’. Moreover, prevailing issues of racism, Islamophobia, national security and, more recently, “xeno-racism” (Fekete 2009) mean that conversion to Salafism carries a potential stigma for the convert, who is seen as either being “brainwashed” or succumbing to a “sudden crisis event” that has brought about a radical change in orientation, identity and self-image (Roberts and Yamane 2016:133).

The following analysis challenges perceptions of conversion as a mysterious “terminal act” carried out by somewhat “passive victims” induced “into some sort of hypnotic trance” (Roberts and Yamane 2016:134). Rather, it shows the act of conversion for the respondents in this study is aligned with New Religious Movement (NRM) theories, which view converts as “active seekers” of the conversion experience who “go to considerable effort to cause it to happen” (Balch 1980; Staples and Mauss 1987; Straus 1979, cited in Roberts and Yamane 2016:134). My analysis draws on “process” models of conversion, which see becoming and being religious not only as a social act of gradual personal change, but also one based upon the “cumulative effect of many different factors” that predispose certain individuals to “turn” their life around using a “religious problem solving perspective” (Roberts and Yamane 2016:133-135).

The research finding that follow will reflect an important distinction that arose from analysing the findings: some respondents came from non-Muslim-heritage (NMH) backgrounds, and some respondents were born into Muslim-heritage (MH) families. Identifying the “social locations, identifications, and values” or “social dynamics” where both distinct categories of women intersect may be key to discovering why some women choose a new and radically different way of life within which the “alternative contemporary political project of belonging [has been] constructed around notions of religion” (Yuval-Davis 2011:6,2). Moreover, the findings should add to our knowledge of how new or ‘hybrid’ identities and new discourses are produced and reproduced (Nieuwkerk 2006:10) within the emerging discourse of Salafism as a ‘new’ revivalist religion in a European and [post]secular context.