Does Salafism Preach Violence?

To the contrary, argues Dr. Hassan Chahal, one of Tripoli’s first Salafist scholars and Abu Samra native.

According to Mr. Chahal, Salafism (which I like to call Islam’s Mormonism) came originally from Saudi Arabia from Hanbalism, unlike the violent strain which originated in Egypt (He mentions Alqaeda’s #2 Ayman Al Zawahiri) and then migrated to Afghanistan and came back to the Gulf countries.

Mr. Chahal argues that Salafism is by its nature very lax on authority and never calls for opposition to the ruling elites, no matter how permissive they are with Sharia (except in very rare cases he concedes) 

Lebanon:

According to him, the Tripoli Salafist schools are even more peaceful than those abroad because the “nature of Lebanon” with its variety of confessions imposes an emphasis on persuasion and the shunning of violence…

Mr. Chahal knows whom to blame in the Lebanese mess: America is trying to make the Sunnis and the Shias fight each other, like it’s doing in Iraq. 

But does that mean he likes Hezbollah? “When the opposition and the so-called Hezbollah occupied the center of Beirut, the Sunnis felt endangered and some youths went and bought weapons to defend themselves, but the Islamic schools here do not condone that”

If you read Arabic, you can read the whole thing here..