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Inga Kristina Trauthig, Salafism in the Maghreb: politics, piety, and militancy, International Affairs, Volume 96, Issue 3, May 2020, Pages 834–835, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaa072
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Anouar Boukhars and Frederic Wehrey's Salafism in the Maghreb: politics, piety, and militancy delivers a timely and well-formed overview of the evolution of Salafism in the Maghreb region of North Africa (comprising the Arab states of Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya), with particular emphasis on the fault-line of 2011's Arab Spring, which affected Salafi groups in all examined countries.
Methodologically, the book's analysis is informed by fieldwork, including interviews with Maghrebi Salafis, officials, academics and civil society activists. Additionally, the authors have consulted an extensive range of literature which has allowed them to develop a well-informed understanding of the academic backdrop. The centrepiece of the analysis is the evolution of Salafism in national, regional and local contexts; the authors describe political systems, socio-economic conditions and international linkages, as well as the geography of the countries they study. While there is already an elaborate body of literature discussing the development of Salafism in recent history, particularly in Saudi Arabia, and its intellectual orbit, these works usually either focus on individual countries or assess theoretical developments freed from country contexts. Boukhars and Wehrey's indispensable study of the recent evolutions of Salafism in the Maghreb fills this gap by placing theoretical developments in the context of lived realities, in what is often seen as the periphery of the Arab world. The authors remind us that ‘the Maghreb has emerged as an arena for some of the most important debates within contemporary Salafism––about the relationship between religion and state, the organization of political life and the morality and efficacy of violence, to name but a few’ (p. 3).
