Post-Salafism in Cambodia: From counterreligion to accommodation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, Salafism among Cambodia’s Muslim minority has undergone substantial transformation. Initially, it functioned as a counterreligion, with participants claiming to hold the absolute truth and aiming to purify ‘corrupted’ Muslim practices like celebrating the Prophet’s birthday, following the shafiʿilegal school, and engaging in rituals influenced by Cham, Malay, and Khmer traditions. Recently, young Salafis have revised their attitudes, seeking cooperation and understanding with their main competitors, the shafiʿis and the Jamaʿat al-Tabligh movement. The article explores the factors that triggered these developments and examines how they are unfolding in the sociopolitical context of Cambodia’s Muslim minority. The article delves into the establishment of Salafism in Cambodia and analyses the contributing factors to its remarkable success among the country’s Muslim minority. Then, it explores the emergence of post-Salafism through a process of indigenization by presenting two ethnographic case studies. The first investigates aspirations of the young Muslim middle class and the influence of post-Salafi trends from South Thailand and Malaysia. The second examines how post-Salafism reinterprets young Muslims’ sense of belonging to Cambodia and their relationship with national symbols. The article chiefly relies on semi-structured interviews with dozens of young Cambodian Muslims conducted between 2019 and 2023.