Salafi Communities in America II

Jafar Sheikh Idris and Sheikh Ali al-Timimi. In the DC area, they began in the 1990’s very small with a small office in DC for an organization called the Society for the Adherence to the Sunnah which was where the program of Ali al-Timimi was based.

The office was run by Idris Palmer and Friday night lectures were given at the home of Jafar Sheikh Idris. The classes at the home of Sheikh Jaffar created a brotherhood amongst the students that grew and attracted an extremely diverse group of students from all racial and economic backgrounds. Eventually these classes would be given by Sheikh Ali al-Timimi and at other times by Sheikh Jaffar’s son Yusuf.

Under the tenure of Sheikh Ali, the classes would expand tremendously and the tapes and CD’s of the lectures would be mass produced, sold and spread all over the US, Canada and the UK.

Sheikh Ali became such a popular local figure that his classes became “the place to be” for the youth of the masjids throughout the DC-area. People would come who were raised in Muslim homes.

Some were even secular or sufi and generally very far from the Salafi Dawah. The attraction of Sheikh Ali was the fact that this was a man who was born and raised in America, spoke in clear English, and not only had a great knowledge of the deen but was college educated, an IT professional, a cancer researcher and a very serious intellectual. This was a man who could take the knowledge of the Salaf and make it applicable to your everyday life and could speak in a language we all understood.

Contrary to media reports, he was not a firebrand and seldom raised his voice, and sounded like an NPR host most of the time. How he differed from the other Salafi leaders in the community is that he would - from time to time - address political issues and acknowledged the world that we live in.
Eventually the brothers put together an organization called “Dar al-Arqam” where everyone would come together for the classes and get together for food and laughs afterwards. We used to have volleyball tournaments after the classes and did other activities together.

There were NUMEROUS active sisters that would attend these classes at Dar Al Arqam from all over the area. These sisters were also highly educated and brilliant women who loved Islam and not victims of misogynist pigs.

Generally, I also want to add that the people in this DC salafi circle tended to be thinkers, and highly educated individuals - including the African-Americans - but those of us who were not educated were made to feel welcome and a part of the family.

There was a number of African-American brothers in this circle who had college degrees and good jobs particularly in the IT field.Those were some very good times. The best times of my life…



Even during the time of growth, there was an overzealous element that and only grew more and more narrow. They were known amongst other Muslims for causing an uproar at local masjids where they would publicly confront the imams and lecturers on what they perceived as bid’ah.

They quickly became disliked by the leaders of many local Muslim communities. This kind of attitude and ill advised outbursts stopped the amazing growth from being even more than it was. In the beginning, it really centered around a couple of issues:-

• Whether or not it was a MUST to call oneself a salafi even if he/she adheres to the salafi dawah-
• Loyalty to the Saudi throne even if one is not Saudi (They will say “the rulers”, but they mean the Saudi throne) On the first issue, there were many of the opinion that it was almost sinful to not distinguish oneself as a salafi and became more and more belligerent and uncompromising over time.
• The zealots were also prone to banging brothers over the head on their position on the Saudi King. It was not good enough to recognize that Saudi Arabia printed copies of the Qur’ans and gave money to spread the dawah. One – in these people’s minds - must be loyal to and praise the Saudi rulers. You couldn’t even remain silent on the issue.
• IANA (Islamic Assembly of North America) on one side and QSS (Qur’an and Sunnah Society of North America) on the other. I
• Sheikh Ali give this lecture in the UK on it in an effort to arrest this cancer’s growth. That lecture got Sheikh Ali permanently thrown out of salafiyyah.

Source UMAR LEE