Les Salafistes and a French Reproduction of Certainties in a World of Uncertainties

Abstract

The new French documentary Les Salafistes (The Salafis) that premiered
January 26, 2016, in a small number of French theaters offers
iconographic imagery seldom seen in the public space: a string
of interviews with some of the leading jihadist militants in Mali,
Tunisia, Algeria, and Iraq coupled with ghastly images of violence
perpetrated by militant groups. The intention appears to be to show
the irrationality of and paradox in the jihadis’ discourse and actions.
Unfortunately, the directors have succeeded only in reproducing already
existing stereotypes of Salafis. The lack of any appropriate
contextualization that problematizes the recent rise of violence in
the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is perhaps the
film’s major flaw. Despite the directors’ ambition to let violent extremists
discredit their own project, the documentary presents an
essentialist argument that reproduces Orientalist imageries of a savage
religion. Without the appropriate commentary and background
overview to the conflicts featured in the film, the audiences are left
alone with an extremist narrative that confirms the evocations of
the West’s moral, cultural, and political superiority over the East.