Intra-Salafi Power Struggles: Politicization of Purity and Fragmentation of Authority in Ghana

Abstract

This article examines how intra-Salafi power politics has led to the politicization of religious purity and the fragmentation of the Salafi movement in Ghana. Analyzing the religious culture of Ghana, I demonstrate how the Supreme Council for Islamic Call and Research (SCICR) emerged in the 1980s, as disagreements among SCICR members led to varying interpretations of the Salafi corpus. I demonstrate how this development was rooted in a power struggle among multiple actors that could loosely be categorized as Saudi- and non-Saudi-trained Ghanaian Salafis. Using archival resources and interviews, I argue that Salafi figures’ quest for religious authority generated differences in interpreting the religious corpus, leading to politicization of the Salafi notion of religious purity and fragmentation of the movement.