Word: salafi
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...small group of local Muslim militants, who they say could have more sinister plans. That's led to a series of arrests. Rijad Rustempasic, 34, was raised in a small town in Bosnia and now lives in Sarajevo's old town. During the war he converted to Salafi Islam, a rigidly conservative branch of the religion, and joined a unit composed mostly of Arab foreign fighters, between 500 and 1,500 of whom had gone to Bosnia to support their fellow Muslims. Rustempasic says he has been arrested six times since Sept. 11, 2001. "It's always the same scenario...
...Siniora. But others argue that blaming Syria for all Lebanon's problems is the default position of the March 14 coalition and the government, and that Fatah al-Islam is a genuine Islamist organization dedicated to the Palestinian cause. Tripoli resident Mohsen Mohammed, 35, an adherent of the strict Salafi school of Sunni Islam and a sympathizer of Fatah al-Islam, says that the group's popularity has been steadily increasing in the Nahr al-Bared camp. "They help people by giving them food and aid. They are very disciplined and polite and never carry arms in the camp except...
...others argue that blaming Syria for all Lebanon's problems is the default position of the March 14 coalition and the government, and that Fatah al-Islam is a genuine Islamist organization dedicated to the Palestinian cause. Tripoli resident Mohsen Mohammed, 35, an adherent of the strict Salafi school of Sunni Islam and a sympathizer of Fatah al-Islam, says that the group's popularity has been steadily increasing in the Nahr al-Bared camp. "They help people by giving them food and aid. They are very disciplined and polite and never carry arms in the camp except at times...
...credentials are burnished by study at Cairo's famed Islamic Al-Azhar University, says his organization coordinates with 5,000 moderate pesantren, many of which are located in traditionally conservative regions like southern Sulawesi or West Java. The moderates admit they face a rhetorical disadvantage in their spiritual battle. "Salafi Islam is attractive because it says that if you are not rewarded in this lifetime, you will be rewarded in the next," says Jakarta scholar Anwar, who as a student leader around the time of the Iranian revolution considered himself radical, then later gravitated toward a more moderate faith...
...tainted by its association with a former dictator. In the absence of more vigorous mobilization by moderates, the rising conservative tide in Indonesian Islam looks unlikely to wane soon. Indonesians who return from study overseas-and those who don't leave home-are just a mouse click away from Salafi scholars anywhere else. "The Internet has helped encourage a uniformity of opinion in the Islamic world," says Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group. "Some of the loudest voices online are Salafi scholars in the Middle East...