When Salafi Muslims Meet Evangelical Christians: A Hopeful Dispatch from the United States
Salafism, a modern reformist movement in Sunni Islam, is often labeled “radical Islam” or “Islamic fundamentalism” and tied to images of terrorism or hardline interpretations of Islamic law. But Matthew D. Taylor’s recent book Scripture People: Salafi Muslims in Evangelical Christians’ America offers a different lens for considering Salafism. Drawing on his own American evangelical background and his ethnographic studies and interviews with American Salafi leaders, Dr Taylor shows how, despite the many negative connotations attached to the movement, Salafism is a very flexible and adaptive form of contemporary Islam. He argues that the similarities between the Salafi approach to Islamic scripture and the evangelical approach to Christian scripture have actually allowed Salafis to find a niche within American religious pluralism in the post-9/11 environment. Today, Salafism in America is well integrated into the American Muslim community, and there are even Salafi leaders and shaykhs who’ve forged interfaith friendships and alliances.
Date: 8 April 2024, 18:00 (Monday, -1st week, Trinity 2024)
Venue: Venue to be announced
Speaker: Dr Matthew Taylor (Oxford Interfaith Forum)
Organisers: Dr Thea Gomelauri (Oxford Interfaith Forum), Oxford Interfaith Forum (Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: oxfordfaiths@gmail.com
Part of: Philosophy in Interfaith Contexts
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://oxfordinterfaithforum.org/thematic-international-interfaith-reading-groups/philosophy-in-interfaith-contexts/when-salafi-muslims-meet-evangelical-christians-a-hopeful-dispatch-from-the-united-
Booking email: oxfordfaiths@gmail.com
Cost: 0
Audience: Public
Editor: Thea Gomelauri