ABSTRACT
Religious seminaries and colleges for Shariah education have become widespread across the Arab and Islamic world, in which the symbolic Islamic city could no longer be envisioned without its official educational institution. However, despite the historical importance of this institution, the crisis over its Shariah education has been ongoing for a long time. In order to fully comprehend the spread of Salafism to all parts of the world, the movement must be analyzed sociologically to understand it from within certain contexts, as Saud al-Mawla did in explaining the history and socio-economic situation of Tripoli, the cradle of the Lebanese Salafi movement. The study looked into the relationship between arbitrary arrests and systematic torture in overcrowded prison cellars, as detailed in the United Nations Committee Against Torture report, and how that coupled with the work of Lebanese intelligence branches affected the rise of violent Salafism.
