‘Niemand is in staat om te winnen van mijn religie’

Salafisme, de regulering van moslims en verzet

Samenvatting

In this article I explore Foucault’s notion of counter-conduct to make sense of the types of activism and resistance among Dutch Salafi Muslims. Salafism, a utopian trend within Islam, has become the main target of the Dutch counter-radicalization policies and the debates about Salafism are dominated by ideas about integration, security and secularism. By focusing on three modes of activism (spiritualisation, reversal and exit) I explore how Salafi Muslims try to escape the regulation of Muslims while at the same time trying to become steadfast and pious Muslims; it is this attempt to de-regulate the regulation of Muslims that makes them radical. I will argue that although the state cannot fully control the Salafi Muslims, Salafism in turn is not immune to the dominant discourses on Islam and Salafism either. On the contrary, their resistance is enabled, informed and limited by oppositions such as religious vs secular and by Islamophobic tendencies in the public debate and while they indeed destabilize the regulation of Muslims, at the same time they enforce it.