ABSTRACT
All Muslims look to early Islam for guidance; Salafis do so with a passion, some would say vengeance, that surpasses fellow believers and earns them the reputation as the puritans of Islam. Modern Salafis often seem to be waging the same fight against sectarian deviance that was waged by Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Taymiyya centuries ago, as if the theological battle lines and heterodox enemies were preserved in amber. For this reason, the sectarian past is very much alive and relevant to modern Salafi identity and to the current religious and political tensions inflaming Muslim societies. Often equated with Salafism, Wahhabism is better viewed as a precursor to and building block of the new religious movement under examination here. But the historical arc of Wahhabism provides grounds for the confusion and speaks to the bridging discourse shared by many activist Muslims bent on reforming society.
