The end of the cold war witnessed the retreat of socialism from the
bourgeois system followed by the failure of modernization process among
the Islamic countries. This laid the groundwork for developing an
ideological and political thought known as Resistance Islam.
This process, regardless of geographical borders, became a worldwide
phenomenon, although it has been more effective in some regions because of
their political and religious conditions. The region encompassing Kurd
people in Iraq and Iran (after the coalition forces attacked Iraq in 2003)
consists of areas that accepted this social and rational process under the
rubric of Salafism. This article seeks, both, to introduce the above process
and its internal divisions and to answer the question why Salafism was
converted into an identity origin for some Sunni Kurds of Iran. The article
collected the required information in semantics, ideological system and the
social thoughts of Iran's Salafist Kurds by conducting a case-study method,
combined with an observation technique accompanied by the interview,
theoretical and content codification among the target population .
The results of this article would represent that the Salafist idea is formed
around some concepts such as monotheism, excommunication, Jihad,
Idolater, idealism, religion inclusion and the like. The structure and the
organization of Iran's Salafist Kurds can be categorized in four groups of
Radical Jihadist, Middle Jihadist, Traditional Non-jihadist and Conservative
Non-jihadist. Finally, the obtained information is indicative of the fact that
it appears that Salafism by placing an emphasis on protest concept, objecting
the present situation, compliance with an ideal past of Islam and by
fundamentalism and by the label of extremism constitute a kind of resistance
identity which is based on the conception of religious inclusion against the
dominant and secular discourse of the Kurd, and thereby exhibits these
characteristics for others to notice.