Rejoinder to Alain Gabon’s Critique of my “The Salafi Worldview and the Hermeneutical Limits of Mainstream Sunni Critique of Salafi-Jihadism”

Abstract

Given that this exchange takes place in an academic setting I will have to start this rejoinder by pointing out that Alain Gabon is neither an Islamic Studies nor Religious Studies scholar. This is important to keep in mind because, if Gabon was such a scholar, he would realize that much, if not all, of his purported critique, given the nature and aims of my article and all of my relevant scholarship in general, is simply misplaced, to put it mildly, or is aimed at intentionally trying to mischaracterize both my scholarship and intentions/motivations behind it (for reasons unknown to me) as will be discussed below. Given that my article focuses on the hermeneutical limits of mainstream Sunnism in countering the theological, epistemological, conceptual, and interpretive (i.e., manhaj-based) aspects of Salafi-jihadism, its main argument can/should only be critically evaluated/appreciated by those scholars who are either: 1. very well versed in the Islamic intellectual tradition, especially Islamic theology, Islamic legal theory (usul ul fiqh/manhaj), Islamic epistemology, and Islamic her-meneutics or 2. more broadly those who work on religious fundamentalism and studies in reli-gion and violence.