Hybridizing Islam in the Balkans: The Rise of Salafi-Hanafism in Bulgaria

Abstract

The present study involves the context of Bulgaria, revealing cases of “non-occurrence” of violence through an analysis of local actors belonging to transnational Salafism and perceived by law enforcement, the media, and society at large as radicalized Islamists. The analysis tackles the concepts of Islamism and Salafism by focusing on court cases of 13 and 14 Muslims accused of “propagating war”. Their personal pathways are seen as indicative of a new trend—the convergent indigenization of Salafism through a hybridization with various Islamic trends in a local context dominated by Hanafism. The chapter thus introduces the concept of Salafi-Hanafism designating a hybrid combination between a Salafi creed and Hanafi practices which shifts the stress from activism to a more inclusivist approach to religion and society.