Páll, Zoltán

Zoltan Pall is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for the Interregional Study of Constitutionalism, Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. His work lies at the intersection of social and legal anthropology, Islamic Studies, and political science, with a particular focus on Islam, religious authority, nationalism, and the nation-state in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. His research combines ethnographic fieldwork with comparative and theoretically informed analysis to examine how global religious movements interact with local social, cultural, and political contexts.

His research interests include Salafism and post-Salafism, transnational Islamic networks, youth culture and religious aesthetics, and everyday engagements with law and authority in authoritarian and post-authoritarian settings. He is particularly concerned with how moral discipline, religious authenticity, and notions of belonging are negotiated in practice, both offline and through digital media. He contributes to the ERC-funded project RECONCILE, which investigates identity constitutionalism from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective.

Previously, he was a Researcher at the Institute for Social Anthropology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore. He has also held academic appointments and visiting positions in Germany, Kuwait, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Hungary. He was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship for his project on transnational Muslim networks and religious transformation in Cambodia’s Muslim minority.

He holds a Ph.D. from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, an M.A. in Arabic Philology from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, and completed advanced Arabic training at universities in Syria and Yemen. His doctoral research examined Salafism in Lebanon and its transnational connections to the Gulf.

His publications include Salafism in Lebanon: Local and Transnational Movements (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and Lebanese Salafis between the Gulf and Europe (Amsterdam University Press, 2013), alongside articles in leading journals such as HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Democratization, Mediterranean Politics, Middle East Journal, Welt des Islams, and Contemporary Islam. His recent work explores post-Salafism, religious ambiguity in modern Muslim societies, and the cultural dimensions of Islamic reform, with particular attention to youth, aesthetics, and social media.

He has conducted extensive multi-sited fieldwork in Lebanon, Kuwait, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Egypt, and across Europe. His work advances an empirically grounded, comparative, and critically engaged approach to the study of religion, law, and identity in a global context.

 

Publications

 

Books 

2018.   Salafism in Lebanon: Local and Transnational Movements. Cambridge: Cambridge University    Press.  ISBN: 9781108426886 

2013.   Lebanese Salafis between the Gulf and Europe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. ISBN: 9789048517237 

 

Peer-reviewed articles  

2026     The Reemergence of Ambiguity: Exploring Dynamics of Salafism in Cambodia,” Numen 73, no. 2–3 (2026): 223–245, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-01234019

2025.    “Legislating Islam: Islamists’ and Salafis’ Distinct Paths of Moderation in the Kuwaiti Parliament.” Democratization, published online October 10, 2025. doi: 10.1080/13510347.2025.2569000

2025.    “ ‘Cambodianizing’ Salafism.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 15, no. 2 (Autumn 2025): 509–512. https://doi.org/10.1086/736301

2024.   “Post-Salafism in Cambodia: From counterreligion to accommodation.” Mediterranean  Politics, 1–22 https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2024.2410121 (published online)

2024.   “Can the Umma Replace the Nation? Salafism, Home-making and the Territorial Nation-            State.”  HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 14 (1): 120-135, doi: 10.1086/729820

2024.   with Geoff Martin. “Food is Freedom: The Evolution and Raison D’être of Cooperatives in          Kuwait,’ Journal of Arabian Studies.” 12 (2): 185-210, doi: 10.1080/21534764.2022.2312596

2023.   “What divides Salafis: how local realities overwrite grand typologies in Cambodia’s Salafi          movement.” Contemporary Islam, 17 (2): 263-281, doi: 10.1007/s11562-022-00507-4

2021.   with Alberto Pereiro Pérez. “Emerging Islamic Representations in the Cambodian Muslim Social            Media Scene: Complex Divides and Muted Debates.” CyberOrient, 15 (1): 259-289, DOI:    10.1002/cyo2.14 

2020.   with Alberto Pérez Pereiro “The Salafī Movement in Cambodia: Institution Building,      Transnational Networks and the Patterns of Competition in a Muslim Minority Context.” Welt des     Islams, 60 (2-3): 235-266, doi:10.1163/15700607-06023P04   

2020.   “The Development and Fragmentation of Kuwait’s al-Jama‘a al-Salafiyya: Purity over    Pragmatism.” Middle East Journal, 74 (1): 9-29, doi:10.3751/74.1.11  

2017.   with Martijn de Koning. “Being and Belonging in Transnational Salafism: Informality, Social       Capital and Authority in European and Middle Eastern Salafi Networks.” Journal of Muslims in          Europe, 6 (1): 76-103, doi:10.1163/22117954-12341338 

 

Peer-reviewed book chapters 

2018.   with Mohamed-Ali Adraoui. “Interviewing Salafis: Overcoming Fear and Mistrust in Middle       Eastern and European Contexts” in Janine A. Clark and Francesco Cavatorta (eds). Political       Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa: Methodological and Ethical Challenges.   Oxford: Oxford University Press, 135-144, ISBN: 9780190882976 

2018.   “Do Salafi parties represent a contradiction in terms? The development and fragmentation of  Kuwait Salafi Islamic Group” in Francesco Cavatorta and Lise Storm (eds). Political Parties in the        Arab World: Continuity and Change. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 100-118, ISBN:      9781474424073  

2018.    “Can Umma Replace the Nation? Salafism and Deterritorialised Citizenship in Lebanon and Kuwait” in Nils Butenschon and Roel Meijer (eds), The Middle East in Transition: The Centrality of Citizenship. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 237-255, ISBN: 9781788111126 

2017.   “Kuwaiti Salafism after the Arab Awakening” in Francesco Cavatorta and Fabio Merone (eds),   Salafism after the Arab Awakening: contending with people’s power. London: Hurst, 215-234,          ISBN: 9781849044868 

2015.   “Between Ideology and International Politics: The Dynamics and Transformation of a    Transnational Islamic Charity” in Robin Bush, Philip Michael Fountain and Michael Feener (eds),      Religion and the Politics of Development: Priests, Potentates, and ‘Progress.’ London: Palgrave  Macmillan, 177-200, ISBN: 978-1-349-49401-9 

 

Policy Papers  

2024.    “How do the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafism Differ from Each Other? An Insight from the Muslim Minority Scene of Cambodia.” Vienna: Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam,  https://www.dokumentationsstelle.at/publikationen.

2021.   “Salafism and Violence in Cambodia: Why is Jihadism Absent from the Muslim Minority?”         in Théo Blanc and Olivier Roy (eds), Salafism: Challenged by Radicalization? Violence, Politics, and the Advent of Post-Salafism, EUI Middle East Directions. San Domenico di   Fiesole (FI): European University Institute, 2021,         https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/72725/QM-05-21-270-EN-        N.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

2018.   “Modalities of Salafi Transnationalism in Southeast Asia.” Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia,” no 3,          https://kyotoreview.org/issue-23/modalities-of-salafi-transnationalism-in-southeast-asia/   

2018.   “The Emir’s Gift: Given a Greater Role, Kuwait’s Salafis Face the Costs.” Carnegie Middle East    Center, https://carnegie-mec.org/2018/04/23/emir-s-gift-given- greater-role-kuwait-s-salafis-face-          costs-pub-76136   

2016.   with Omar Sayfo. “Why an anti-Islam campaign has taken root in Hungary, a country with few  Muslims.” Visegrad Revue, http://visegradrevue.eu/why-an-anti-islam- campaign-has-taken-root-          in-hungary-a-country-with-few-muslims/  

2015.   “Kuwaiti Salafism after the Arab Uprisings: The Reconfiguration of the Power Balance.” Middle East Insights, no. 124.

2014.   “Kuwaiti Salafism and its Growing Influence in the Levant.”Carnegie Middle East Papers,           http://carnegieendowment.org/files/kuwaiti_salafists.pdf