The difficult conversations ...

While it is very important at this stage to call brethren to identify with what has been flagged as the authentic Salafiyyah, it is more important to clarify that name affiliation is nothing but partisanship which has been vehemently condemned. The focus at this stage, in my opinion, should be the features and characteristics not the name.

There should be a deliberate and well structured re-orientation of affiliates to follow the so called authentic Salafiyyah methodology. Some discussions have been de-emphasized or ignored totally which has led to some of the challenges being encountered.

For instance, most Salafee affiliates will "delete" your name from the saved sect once your trouser is beyond the ankle or you mention that you're a member of an Islamic organization like TMC, Companion etc. You will even be demonized if you support or even show sympathy to the Ikhwanul Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt). Some even boldly call you an innovator or people of desire once you engage in joint Adhkar, use Subhah (Rosary) or call to the boycott of Israeli products due to injustice being perpetrated in Palestine. These are reactions from renowned "moderate" affiliates of the so called authentic Salafiyyah and NOT from the extreme Salafee. The criteria for consideration are very far away from these jurisprudential and contemporary issues. These issues must be discussed extensively by the flag bearers of the so called authentic Salafiyyah and members need to have clarify on them.

There should also be a re-orientation on who a "student of knowledge" is. Everybody with the knowledge of Arabic now claim to be one and issue "fatwah" without recourse to more experienced "students of knowledge". They mock effort without a clear understanding of the issue and use terminologies that they don't even understand! Knowledge must be gradual and should come with a lot of patience and more importantly humility! I read a statement of Shaykh Al-albani and he called himself student of knowledge! May Allah bless him.

The difficulty conversations must be brought to the fore as a defense of the authentic Salafiyyah otherwise, the gap between the extreme and authentic Salafiyyah will be a matter of time.

There is a greater need to purify the understanding of affiliates and train adequately to tolerate what the scholars deemed permissible within the fold of Islam.