Advising and Warning the People: Swedish Salafis on Violence, Renunciation and Life in the Suburbs
Advising and Warning the People: Swedish Salafis on Violence, Renunciation and Life in the Suburbs
The chapter analyses the public discourse of a Swedish Salafi group, concerned with concrete social ills in the local community. The group is against violence, carrying out missionary activities focused on piety, correct practice and behaviour. Three topics are analysed using material from their YouTube-channel: 1) Reaching Paradise through Renunciation, 2) Establishing a Non-Violent Strategy, and 3) Social development. Through missionary activities (daʿwa), they respond to the current situation with foreign fighters, terrorism and gang criminality. The message is straightforward and self-assured as it attempts to disrupt the positive images some young people may have of violent lifestyles and create new role models to emulate. They are thereby striving to present a positive message: if people join their project of moral reform and renunciation, they will contribute to strengthening suburbs and create a peaceful environment. At the same time, in-group identity construction is strong and exclusionist.
Keywords: da‘wa, non-violence, renunciation, role models, salafism, social development, Sweden
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