Analyzing the Role of Conceptual and Identity Elements on the Development of Salafi in Iraq and Syria

Salafi is considered as a radical trend tolerating some changes due to its interpretation out of the Islamic society and also the change the interpretation out of some concepts like Jihad, Takfiri, Hijrah or departure, blasphemy, Dar al- Kofr as well as the Ignorance during the various decades. Thanks to this property of radicalism in addition to the interpretation of Islam based on the wants of this trend, it has taken different forms in various areas of the world of Islam while its sample can be observed in Iraq and Syria in recent years.
The change in the interpretations of salafi refers to the different elements and the considerable part refers to the conceptual and identity elements. In this regard, the main question of the article is what the roles of conceptual and identity elements are on the development of salafi trend in Iraq and Syria. Nevertheless, many analyses refer to the historical elements of development of salafi and regional and trance regional authorities in the development of these groups in the aforementioned countries. Through the descriptive-analytical methods, this article mostly emphasizes on the role of internal elements in Iraq and Syria particularly the conceptual and identity elements in this regard.
Taking advantage of the current theoretical foundations in the constructivism approach, the present article illustrates that five elements have been effective on the development of salafi in the countries under the investigation: the five elements are the development of ignorance community assumption against Dar al- Kofr, the assumption of close enemy in Iraq and Syria, generalizing and personalizing the concept of Jihad, the concept of hijrah or emigration and emigrant salafi in Syria and Iraq, the Arabic-Islamic (traditional) assumption: Ba’th- salafi. This status finally clarifies the way of utilizing the grounds of constructivism towards its fulfillment in the analysis of aforementioned trends.