You're a fucking fraud.The goal of Salafism is to adhere to the example of the Salafs or the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his companions (RA), their successors, and the successors of the successors, while rejecting all other sources of influence. It's an Islamic revivalist movement intended to emulate the early Muslim generations. Modern jihadism is an extremist form of Salafism that intends to overthrow supposedly apostate regimes in the Muslim world through violent holy wars. Anyone can be a Salafi, as Salafism means very different things to different people. The term “Salafism” is often associated with terrorism and violence in media discourse, both in the West and in the Muslim world, particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This is very unfortunate as many Salafis reject such acts of violence and often insist on not being associated with the perpetrators of these attacks by rejecting the latter as worthy of the label of “Salafis.” So not all Salafis even agree that jihadists can be called Salafis. “Salafi," referring as it does to what is believed to be the best generations of Islam, has come to acquire an aura of religious authority. It is, in other words, a term that gives the impression of purity and authenticity to its bearers, thereby making it a desired label to apply to oneself.
The Salafi origins can said to have been traced to the 8th-9th century as a movement of hadith scholars who considered the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only authority in matters of law and creed and said that, in the absence of the Prophet (SAW), the large number of traditions ascribed to Muhammad were a better, purer, and more authentic source of what Muslims should or should not do than the opinions of the scholars. While contempary Muslim of the time strived to live pious lives according to the rules of their respective madhab, which truly value and greatly appreciate the Qurʾān and the Sunna but combine them with other sources of law, the hadith scholars focused entirely on these two texts at the expense of almost everything else in the legal sphere.
The Wahhabi movement, the prominent source of inspiration for modern-day Salafism, started through a pact between Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the tribal leader Muḥammad ibn Saud. Wahhabi scholars advocated for a return to the pious predecessors, the Salaf, as other scholars had done in the Islamic sphere. Most of their ideology focused on cleansing Islam from deviant influences that it had acquired throughout the centuries. Wahhabi scholars sought to restore the purity of Islam under the guidance of the Saudi rulers. Attempts to return Islam to the purity of the Salaf—legally, theologically, or sometimes both—have been part of Islam for centuries. The only thing truly special about Wahhabism is that it gave actual Salafi scholars and adherents a territorial base in Saudi Arabia that has lasted until today.
Salafism is not homogeneous as the only thing that unites self-proclaimed Salafis is the desire to emulate the pious predecessors, which means very different things to different people. Often times however, they reject the excessive spiritualism associated with Sufism, the deviant doctrines of the medieval rationalist Muʿtazila movement, and the supposedly compromised and sullied message of the Sunni Ashʿari/Al-Maturidi theology.
http://oxfordre.com/religion/view/1...9340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-255
You selectively plagiarised an entire encyclopaedia entry and added Salafi spin on it.