En ayant étudié plus d'une centaine sermons enregistrés et des conférences et des dizaines de livres, et réalisé des entretiens avec des dignitaires religieux et de nombreux intellectuels et militants, Laurent Bonnefoy se concentre sur la doctrine salafie prétendument apolitique promue par la célèbre figure yéménite, Muqbil al-Wâdi'î, décédé en 2001. Mobilisant la théorie des relations et de la sociologie politique, il analyse la pratique quotidienne des adeptes d'al-Wâdi'î, leurs rivalités ainsi que les évolutions de leurs trajectoires individuelles. Il démontre que, plutôt que résultant des politiques d'influence planifiées « par le haut », le salafisme yéménite a, depuis le début des années 1980, évolué de façon largement spontanée en s'appuyant sur des mécanismes locaux, souvent marqués par les flux transnationaux, qui intègrent pleinement se mouvement dans la complexité du contexte yéménite.

The CEFAS, co-editor of the volume, is proud to announce the publication of Laurent Bonnefoy's research under the title Salafism in Yemen. Transnationalism and Religious Identity by Hurst & Company Publishers and Columbia University. This book is the result of extensive research and field work carried out by the author in the framework of CEFAS activities in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It offers an original approach to Salafism taking into account the internal dynamics of the Yemeni branch of the movement as well as its relationship to its complex and evolving context. Laurent Bonnefoy focuses on the allegedly apolitical Salafi doctrine but most importantly references the everyday practices of its followers. Over the last decade or so Salafism has become one of the West's new political bogey-men. Many regard the movement as the antechamber of violent groups such as al-Qaeda, and as the by-product of a centralized foreign-policy platform shaped by so-called Saudi interests.

Based on extensive research conducted throughout Yemen between 2001 and 2009, and particularly in the southern province of Yâfi', this book offers an original approach to Salafism and draws a necessary counter-narrative that takes into account the dynamics of the Salafi movement as well as its relationship to its evolving environment, either local, regional and international. Having studied over a hundred recorded sermons and conferences and dozens of books, and carried out interviews with numerous clerics, intellectuals and activists, Laurent Bonnefoy focuses on the allegedly apolitical Salafi doctrine promoted by the renowned Yemeni Salafi figure, Muqbil al-Wadi'i, who died in 2001. Building on IR theory and political sociology, he references the everyday practices of al-Wadi'i's dedicated followers, their rivalries as well as their own evolving trajectories. He demonstrates that, rather than resulting from specifically planned policies, Yemeni Salafism has, since the early 1980s, evolved through a series of spontaneous, grassroots mechanisms, many of which are shaped by transnational flows, that embed this movement in the complex Yemeni context.