New publication by Mohammad Abu Rumman to be launched Wednesday

AMMAN — The German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Amman will launch the newest publication in its Political Islam Series titled “I Am a Salafi. A Study of the Actual and Imagined Identities of Salafis” written by Mohammad Abu Rumman on Wednesday. 

The event will be held from 6pm to 8pm at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, according to an FES statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times on Tuesday. 

“Few studies so far have analysed the social and economic background from which the members of Salafi groups have come, or the motives behind their involvement, the FES statement said, adding that this book “presents a pioneering study of Salafism”. 

The author “resorts to a narrative-based approach, building his analysis on numerous interviews with Salafis in Jordan to understand their motivation, their social, economic and cultural context as well as their values, convictions and aspirations”. “Instead of studying the movement from the outside, Abu Rumman offers first-hand accounts of its members and presents his conclusions based on these personal encounters,” FES said, describing the book as an “important contribution to understanding the complexities of Salafism and its different trends”. 

An Al Ghad columnist, political analyst and researcher, Abu Rumman is an expert on Islamic groups.

The Amman office of FES has created a line of work dedicated to political Islam in order to shed light on the various streams and trends and to promote an educated discourse on Islamist movements. 

FES Amman launched the publication series on political Islam in 2007 with the aim of “providing information, which both satisfies academic standards while at the same time being accessible and understandable to a non-expert readership”. Since then, it has published eight “widely received” books in this series. 

In addition, FES Amman regularly brings together experts from throughout the region to discuss developments that the Arab world is currently witnessing with regard to Islamist parties and movements, the statement said. 

FES, which has more than 90 offices around the globe, is active in promoting democracy and social justice worldwide, organising activities on a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from the promotion of trade unions and labour rights, to capacity development for civil society, and the furthering of human rights and many other issues.