"Salafi Islam" Tim Marshall's Blunder

Salafi Islam

ISIS

My sole motivation for wanting to write a section about ISIS is to address the information that Tim Marshall incorrectly stated in the middle east chapter of his book, The Prisoners of Geography, and for the misinformation on the internet. To begin, I would like to say that I do not intend to justify or promote the terrorist organisation or any of its activities; rather, I must be a voice for the inconvenient truth. Firstly, Tim Marshall writes "The jihadist fantasy is global domination by Salafi Islam. In their more lucid, yet still wild, moments, they plan, and fight, for a more limited aim—a caliphate throughout the Middle East." (Marshall, 2015:81) This suggests that "Salafi Islam'' is a harmful catalyst promoting global terrorism. Some may be surprised to learn that I identify as a "Salafi Muslim", a student of Islamic studies. Am I now a terror and a violent soldier? Tim Marshall has utterly hijacked this word and turned it into a negative trigger, and as a result, the typical reader with no knowledge of Islamic sciences will have bad impressions of this sect. Another difficulty with the use of this word is that if we check into Arabic, we will find that the word "Salafi'' or "Salafiyah" is derived from another word in Arabic "Sahaba." Sahaba refers to individuals who were with Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) so thus the word "Salafi" refers to someone who follows their teachings. And, while this may appear to be unrelated, upon reviewing, it appears that readers now question, has Marshall just contributed to his own type of colonialism? By labelling the Salafi Muslims as "jihadists," hasn't he merely lowered the social and political standing of Salafi Muslims? Marshall made an error in reporting facts and should be cautious not to offend a religion, since this would only fuel the fire of Islamophobia. To stay on the subject of Islamophobia, when the name Camp Abu Ghraib is uttered, the Americans become hushed. Abu Guraib after formerly being known for being Saddam Hussein's torture chamber, now belonged to the hands of the US. "Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape;" (April 30, 2004) After occupying parts of Iraq, the US went on to torture suspicious individuals. This is the harsh reality of modern-day colonialism. It was in the very camp where Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee quotes "you had members of Saddam Hussein's former government, meet with members of al-Qaeda who came to fight against the occupation and in those cages, they developed a group called ISIS." (The Muslim who survived Guantanamo | Moazzam Begg (Full Podcast), 4 Dec 2021) With this previously unseen to the general publicly available information, we see how America effectively founded ISIS, yet they are also the main predators to destroy the organisation and associate the group with the Islamic faith, rather than admitting responsibility.