Etymology of Salafi clarified

Wikipedia says ‘Salafism takes its name from the term salaf (“predecessors”, “ancestors”) used to identify the earliest Muslims, who, its adherents believe, provide the epitome of Islamic practice.’

Brief research in my diseased brain establishes however that it refers to its adherents’ practice of iPhoning themselves with the severed heads of those with whom they disagree, and is coined from the narcissistic barbarism selfie.

This was noted elsewhere last year.

The jilbab – claimed as traditional dress by Bangladeshi and Pakistani fanatics – is also apparently a modern invention: from the 1970s, sez Fadwa El Guindi.

Daisychaining along, I recently read Tahmima Anam’s The good Muslim, a powerful didactic novel about the replacement of Bangladeshi nationalism by murderous pan-Islamism following the independence war:

Zaid was born, brought into the world by a midwife whose face was covered by a piece of black netting. He opened his eyes to that, an empty space where the welcoming laugh should have been.

Similar posts

• islamic televangelism
  Le Monde Diplomatique contains a very interesting article (larded with the customary anti-democratic spin) on socio-religious change in Egypt. In it
• A DEAD MAN’S JOKE
  ECCENTRIC INSTRUCTIONS IN A
• Silvio Gesell disciple in Barcelona
  In my mail this morning: someone calling himself Miguel Yasuki Hirota is giving a talk on complementary currencies for sustainable development
• Visigoths and Romans to share Cordoba Cathedral too?
  The Visigoth church knocked down by the Moors was built on a Roman temple, and I’m told that both faith communities
• How the Swiss saved Spain
  Far from welcoming Napoleon as a liberator from the evil Bourbons, Catalan irregulars inflicted some of the most significant and discouraging