[juskrey]

More thoughtful commenters (e.g. Taleb) actually noticed early that ISIS and wahhabism in general is a deeply rooted and quite old political movement, not all-of-a-sudden religious cult and madness.

Partly because of this conflation the whole narrative (heavily sponsored by oil money of course) have kept blind Western elites for very long time, especially in Europe, where they only start to understand that worship places with heavy foreign aid inflow are not necessarily harmless community centers, and "religious liberties" must have strict bounds to be classified as so.

[Guthur]

In the west it's common to take an overly reductive view and start throwing labels around as if they actually mean anything.

Wahhabist is not really actually something anyone would refer to themselves as. It seems to refer to really any Muslim group that has some links to Saudi Arabia which is a key player in the geopolitical arena of the Middle East.

Salafi is really anyone that would like to emulate the companions of the Prophet Muhammad and the immediate generation thereafter, Salaf meaning ancestors. This actually would have no more outward political ramifications than what has already been in Islam from the beginning, Islam is meant to encompass governance whether one would agree with that or not, it's part of the religion. Salafi would nearly exclusively refer to the Quran and Hadiths as their source.

I have seen the term thrown around as a label for individuals that have done terrible things but by all accounts were not even remotely close adherents to salafi like doctrine. It's not a political group it's more of a doctrine.

[juskrey]

Religious claims and cited sources of any group generally worth nothing, we only care about down the earthly deeds and imposed policies when/if in power.

Not every religion is a religion, that is.

[Yoric]

ISIS is wahabist? I thought they were salafist and Al-Qaeda is wahabist (or at least its leadership is)?

[juskrey]

wahabis and salafists are sets with large intersection, but for practical purposes they are the same.

[Yoric]

Ah, interesting. I had the impression that they were sworn enemies with philosophies that looked very similar from the outside.