# Why is Salafi content so dominant online?

*The limits of the Najdi dawah: a small movement that dominates online*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/24/
- Date: 2021-04-13 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #210 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:28:55–1:32:53)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XuHMCz2N3U&t=5335s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/

**Topics:** Salafism and Wahhabism; Technology and media

**Question as asked:** What are the limitations of the Najdi dawah?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says the Najdi dawah is a small puritan movement kept alive by oil money, which dominates Islamic content online only because it invested early in Q&A websites.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the Najdi or Salafi dawah is a cultish puritanism sustained by oil money, followed by perhaps three percent of Muslims, but dominating Islamic content online because others did not invest in it.

**Evidence, his words at 1:28:55:** “the najdi dawa is just a cultish you know it's just a it's a cultish puritanism that's all it is but it has recently um you know being reinvigorated by petrol dollars” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XuHMCz2N3U&t=5335s)

## Longer summary

Asked about the limitations of the Najdi dawah, Mufti Abu Layth calls it a cultish puritanism reinvigorated by petrodollars, which he says would probably have died out had Saudi Arabia not discovered oil. He estimates that Salafis are perhaps three percent of Muslims, and says even that is generous. Their influence, he says, comes from the internet: perhaps 85 to 90 percent of Islamic material in Arabic online and around half in English comes from Salafi sources, because they invested in question-and-answer websites from the 2000s while others did not, so that people who are not Salafi cut and paste their answers. He describes the result as a gradual, surreptitious influence out of proportion to their small presence in real mosques.

## Sources and names cited

- Salafi

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:28:55–1:32:53)

[1:28:40] um right i'm just trying to see what questions i've missed share limitations on limitations of in light of quran um right happy ramazan mufti saab likewise likewise happy ramadan right so um limitations of nerdy darwah the najdi dawa is just a cultish you know it's just a it's a cultish puritanism that's all it is

[1:29:19] but it has recently um you know being reinvigorated by petrol dollars that's all so if let's say saudi arabia did not discover oil the way it did the salafi that one would probably have just died to death um but with the petrol dollars it became like obviously it flourished i mean it doesn't flourish in numbers so the majority of the muslim i mean the outright of salafia are probably what

[1:29:56] like if i'm to be honest three percent of the entire muslims maybe is that a stretch you know i wouldn't even think that they constitute three percent i think that's like a big i actually believe i'm being generous when i say that three percent even but the issue is the selfie thought in some fields has a huge influence just because of the internet so people who are not really selfie don't like selfies even when they google questions the salafi dawah dominates the islamic internet

[1:30:35] so in arabic i think salafi dawa dominates probably i don't know maybe like uh believe it or not maybe like 85 to 90 percent of everything in arabic about islam is probably going to be from selfie sources and that's not because there are so many it's just because everybody else has not been doing anything uh and they're so under like so maybe a lot of ulama have written books but you know how does that make it on google and how they need and you and you might say well they've got a little blog somewhere

[1:31:14] but that blog won't be picked up by google they need these q a channels they need these q a websites they need you know they need to put a bit of money into it to make sure it kind of ranks just the way the saudi scholars have done it but they've been doing it from the 2000s so they're ahead of the game and what happens is a lot of people just cut and paste what they say and and they're not selfies so they may just be regular arabs who you know say oh let me look this up so they and you know they just see it and it says q a and they just get the answer and paste it on the chat and now that comes up even though

[1:31:53] so this chat forum is a secular almost chat forum but it will still carry selfie answers in english uh or other languages online they probably dominate about 50 percent of the discourse so it's massively disproportionate so yeah but in the real world they're very few people very few tiny masjids and tiny but yeah but the influence spreads surreptitiously so it's like they may influence people because people may go online don't you know

[1:32:32] they're not selfie themselves they don't may not even like selfies but that's the only answer they find so they start to believe and like this there's a gradual but it's not necessarily so dangerous but it's just a gradual influence who's this gita you see look listen as i've said before

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 8XuHMCz2N3U/s/24. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/24/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.