Belgian Officials Alarmed by Surge in Salafist TikTok Influencers Targeting Youth

Social networks have become the channel conducive to the propaganda of extreme discourses in Belgium. In recent years, Muslim influencers have invested in TikTok, YouTube and Instagram and are followed by thousands of subscribers, reports La Libre. This is the case, for example, of Imam Mustafa Kastit and Abdelkader Dahmichi, who have a large audience in the country. Most of these influencers hold very conservative discourses, reducing faith to a set of rules, practices and prohibitions. Others insist on the respect of sharia.

But all these influencers have one thing in common: they are propagating Wahhabi-Salafist theology, a theological current from Saudi Arabia. According to this current, the Muslim believer cannot draw closer to God, but rather do His will by respecting His commandments. He is required to practice his faith with rigor. This Salafist discourse has gained momentum in the country and has "penetrated all layers of Muslim societies, in the West as elsewhere. It is now filling the entire Muslim cultural space, despite the resistance of pockets advocating a more traditional and more learned Islam [as it is historically lived in Morocco for example NdlR]," observes Gregory Vandamme, Islamologist at UC Louvain.

On social networks, this Salafist discourse is popular because it touches a target in search of benchmarks. In rather short videos, the influencers "will therefore focus on everyday issues, define what is permitted and what is forbidden. They thus testify to a very reductive vision of Islamic religion and spirituality," explains Grégory Vandamme, while noting that these influencers do not incite in their videos to violence or "armed jihad", but they "establish a divisive vision of the world, structured between the good and the infidels which seems harmful to me".

Mohamed Fahmi, associate researcher at the ULB and specialist in the audiovisual propaganda of the Islamic State, shares this view. "The Salafist currents have very successfully adapted to new technologies, and benefit from a lot of money coming from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, certain circles in the Emirates, Qatar, and sometimes Egypt. These countries have a deliberate strategy of spraying social networks with their discourses, in addition to what can be read in the books they sell in Europe, and what can be heard on certain satellite televisions. Let’s not forget that they also train European imams every year."

Should we be concerned about the extent of these discourses? Mohamed Fahmi answers: "We must scrupulously keep an eye on this phenomenon. We note that there are many more people who publicly claim to be Salafist than a few decades ago." The attraction of young people to Salafist videos "responds to their thirst for identity, spirituality and community in an individualistic world. These videos convey a frustration Islam, a bit anxiety-provoking, binary and will have a deleterious influence on isolated young people, lacking meaning and who could become radicalized," analyzes for her part Fati, 26, a specialized educator in Liège.